Memorial Minas Gerais Vale

Opened in 2010, Memorial Minas Gerais Vale (MMGV) is located at Praça da Liberdade in the heart of Belo Horizonte. Its vocation is to value the State of Minas Gerais’ history and traditions alongside today’s contemporary arts and expressions, enabling the exchange between past and present as well as a reflection about the future. The outcome is a lively and dynamic cultural center open to all kinds of public and in constant renewal.

The Memorial is an “experience museum”. It makes use of technologies, sensorial environmental and educational activities to address culture, art and history. Its exhibitions bring together sets, lights, sounds, video footage, images, besides objects and works that retell the story of Minas Gerais from the 18^th through the 21^st century.

Its entirely free program makes space for different artistic and cultural expressions, new artists and peripheral voices. It features children’s plays, art exhibitions, soirées, workshops, lectures, festivals and concerts that often go beyond the museum’s walls and out into the surroundings of the building. The museum and its cultural and educational activities have already been visited by over 1.1 million people. Now, since the beginning of the social distancing period, Memorial has kept an intense and diversified online program on its digital channels.

The Memorial is also a space for sharing and, therefore, has rooms designed for that purpose such as the café, the inner garden, the Reading + Seeing Room, the media room, and the auditorium used for courses, seminars, and performances.

The museum is a part of the Liberty Circuit, a cultural corridor made up of 22 institutions gathering different aspects of the cultural and artistic universe. It is a member of ICOM – International Council of Museums, and has already received the following awards:

• Guia Brasil Quatro Rodas 2012 Revelation Award.;
• Winner of the 2015 Ibermuseus Award with the project Itinerant Memorial – Africanities;
• TripAdvisor: Nº 1 among 57 museums in Belo Horizonte. Traveler’s choice from 2014 to 2020;
• Outstanding Attraction in Belo Horizonte by the Lonely Planet Travel Guide.

 

 

Minas Gerais’ landmark building

The Memorial building, which once house the State Treasury Department, was opened in 1897. Its entirety is heritage-listed by the State Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage of Minas Gerais – IEFPHA/MG.

The building, that underwent restoration work so as to house the Memorial, is an attraction in itself with its central courtyard – which has received a new lighting design and a garden –, the iron staircase that may be seen from the street, and the French-inspired architectural lines.

 

Memorial for All

Memorial Minas Gerais Vale is a memory space that renews itself each and every day. It is in tune with the times because it is open to diversity and mutual experience, offering all publics equal opportunities of access to culture. Some examples:

Since 2017 the Peripheral Diversity Project has kept the Memorial stage open to the communities on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte. Rappers, performers, slum theater groups, MCs and poets occupy the museum space with their art. The event’s curatorship is done by social activist, cultural manager, art educator and dancer Patrícia Alencar. Engaged in the fight against racism and for social equality, Patrícia is one of the directors of CUFA (The Slums Headquarters). Over 27 versions of Peripheral Diversity have already been held.

Since 2013 Good Night Memorial has gathered groups and artists that represent Belo Horizonte’s cultural scene in an eclectic celebration that goes well into the night. Public of all ages meet up at the Memorial and its surroundings so as to watch the concerts, readings, artistic interventions, projections, balls and performances. Seven editions of the project have already been held and over 10 thousand people have attended the event.

The projects Museum, a place for children (2013) and Memorial for babies (2019) involve children from various age groups coming from different schools in playful and sensorial activities that explore the museum’s collection and stimulate learning. The publication Zigzar – Entre Criança e Memórias was launched by the museum’s Educational Program in 2019 as a fruit of the educational experiences lived with the children.

Since 2014 Memorial has carried out actions focused on LGBTQI+ groups:

• Memo Queer Project: in 2019 a cycle of workshops, debates and practices was held regarding themes such as identity and rights, so dear to the LGBTQI+ community.
• The 1st Transgressions at the Museum Cycle was held in partnership with Belo Horizonte’s City Department of Education (SMED).
• The photo exhibition Elas Madalenas (2014), by Lucas Ávila, portrayed the daily lives of transvestites, transsexuals, drag queens and people with some experience in gender transgression. The museum’s Educational Program offered transvestites and transsexuals guided visits through the exhibition.

Who we are

Memorial Minas Gerais Vale

Manager
Wagner Tameirão

Administration
Coordinator: Claúdia Salviano

Analysts
Bianca Dias Pereira
Elenice Aparecida Martins

Communications
Coordinator: Bruno Azevedo
Assistant: Fernando Araujo

Production
Bruno Lelis de Souza Faria

Assistant: Michelle Vasconcellos

 

Educational Program
Coordinator: Pompea Tavares
Pedagogical Assistants: Larissa Maria Santos Altemar, Smally Gonçalves Rodrigues

Educators
Danira Morais da Silva
Gabriela de Mello Santos Brasileiro
Gerson Aquiles Mendes de Melo
Juliana Cristina da Silva
Liliane Augusta Moreira
Luiz Gustavo Rodrigues Pereira
Lyon Luna de Castro Goulart
Maryslãne Raissa de Freitas dos Santos
Neuma Rosa Santana
Wesley John Viegas Vilarino

 

Receptionists
Kimberly Alves Santos
Michelle Duarte Ferraz Santos
Zélia Lopes de Sousa

Maintenance Technicians
Claudiney Antônio Martins
Davidson Cézar Nunes
Ricardo Cavalcanti Gomes

 

Vale Cultural Institute
Presidente do Conselho de Administração – Luiz Eduardo Osorio

Presidente do Conselho Fiscal – Rodrigo Lauria
Diretor Presidente – Hugo Guimarães Barreto Filho
Diretora Executiva – Flávia Martins Constant

Management Team
Gisela Rosa
Luciana Gondim
Marize Mattos

Vale Cultural Institute

Memorial Minas Gerais Vale is run by the Vale Cultural Institute, created in 2020 with the purpose of strengthening Vale’s cultural actions, valuing cultural heritage, democratizing access, and nurturing different art forms. For nearly two decades Vale has invested in and sought to foster the manifold Brazilian cultural expressions in all their diversity.

Vale Cultural Institute’s actions – carried out in its own museums and cultural centers, in the preservation and valuing of material and immaterial cultural heritage, and in the multiple art events it promotes and nurtures – is supported by a view that understands culture as a tool for social change, capable of generating positive impact on people’s lives, and of building a legacy for future generations.

In addition to the Memorial, Vale Cultural Institute brings together Vale Museum (State of Espírito Santo), Vale Maranhão Cultural Center (State of Maranhão), and the Canaã dos Carajás Cultural Center (State of Pará). All these spaces, which have their own identity and vocation and were built for and with the communities where they are located, are open to free visitation and seek to act together with local schools and social organizations.

Liberty Circuit

The Liberty Circuit is a set of cultural facilities located within the perimeter of Contorno Avenue. These are quality spaces that are integrated in order to promote culture and tourism by means of the access to art and cultural heritage, aiming at the human, cultural, touristic, social and economic development with a focus on the creative economy as a mechanism to generate jobs and income.

Under the management of Minas Gerais State Department of Culture and Tourism (Secult), the Liberty Circuit comprises 22 cultural spaces, among museums, the public archive, the public library, and cultural and educational centers. Located in one of Belo Horizonte’s historical areas, as delimited by the original 1895 project of the city of Belo Horizonte (MG), and bordered by Contorno Avenue, the complex is already recognized as one of the country’s most important cultural corridors dedicated to promoting and enabling the access to culture, art and the cultral heritage.

Among its goals, the Circuit aims to nurture the integration of the cultural facilities thus consolidating a network management plan with an eye to democratizing and expanding the public access to the Circuit. This will allow the creation of new audiences and the project’s further use and appropriation, reaching out towards the tourism trade, be it locally, state or nationwide, while promoting Minas Gerais’ culture and art production in order to consolidate the Circuit as an integrated and accessible initiative, dedicated to the education, documentation, promotion, exchange, and nurturing of what is produced in Minas Gerais.

13 out of the 22 cultural spaces are directly maintained by the State of Minas Gerais, whereas 9 of them are sponsored by private partners or federal public institutions.

Itinerant Memorial

Memorial on the move

Memorial Minas Gerais Vale’s actions are not limited to its headquarters building. The itinerant shows Africanities and Mineiridades, conceived by the Educational Program, take selected showings from the museum’s collection to other cities in the State. Visitation is entirely free.

Other events such as meetings aimed at raising themes and establishing the exchange of experiences among the Memorial, educators, teachers, and local cultural agents are also held.

These trips are among the actions aimed at democratizing and expanding the access to the Memorial.

 

Africanities

Created in 2015, the itinerant show “Africanities” raises the discussion about ethno-racial issues and aspects regarding the African matrix and its influence in Brazilian society.

This temporary exhibition gathers panels, video footage, and some collection pieces regarding blackness. These elements are taken from six of the Memorial’s rooms, namely: Celebrations, Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais’ Farms, Minas Gerais’ Villages, Minas Gerais’ Peoples, and Sebastião Salgado Room.

The show has already been held in nine cities of the interior of the State, along with the educational program on ethno-racial relations offered to local educators and teachers.

The itinerant show Africanities won the Ibermuseus Program’s 6^th Ibero-American Award of Education and Museums 2015. The show has also given birth the to publication entitled Memorial Itinerante Africanidades that addresses black culture and the African continent.

 

Mineiridades

Since 2017 Memorial has been promoting the itinerant show called Mineiridades, created in the wake of the success of Africanities. The goal here is to share with the interior of the State the multiple ways of being a Minas Gerais-born citizen.

This is a selected showing taken from the Memorial’s collection, more specifically from the following rooms: Minas Gerais’ Baroque, Celebrations, Minas Gerais’ Farms. Ways and Unways, and Jequitinhonha Valley. This itinerant show also integrates the history of the cities it visits as a way of valuing the local culture and traditions.

The Project has already visited 12 of the State’s cities. The educational meetings held with local teachers and educators resulted in the pedagogical publication “Mirabilia em carro de boi – Tecendo identidades no Memorial Minas Gerais Vale” that addresses educational work done at museums.

 

Publications

Sharing knowledge

Memorial Minas Gerais Vale publishes and makes available books, primers, educational materials and catalogues regarding its actions in the fields of culture, art and education. The goal is to systematize and divulge knowledge generated at the Memorial.

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