UNIRIO: A Model of Evolving Museology Teaching in Brazil

Abstract

For the better part of the 20th century, the teaching of museology in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was centred in the Curso de Museus (Museums Course), created in 1932 at the Museu Historico Nacional (, National Historical Museum). The course was developed in response to a demand for trained professionals to exclusively staff the after its founding in 1922. Nevertheless, since its first years of existence, the course was also influenced by global ideas and intellectual trends primarily disseminated, from the 1920s onwards, by the Office International des Musées ( International Office of Museums) and by the International Council of Museums () from 1940 to the present day. In a preliminary overview of the teaching of Museology in Brazil, it is fair to assume that the Rio de Janeiro course, which has been held since the 1970s—both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels—at a University rather than in a museum, constitutes the most important model for several new teaching programmes that have emerged all over the country. This paper explores the theoretical emphasis placed on capacity building in Brazilian museology, and particularly in the context of Rio de Janeiro during the final three decades of the 20th century. From the course, which began with a direct connection to museum practices, the teaching of museology in the country has significantly changed, particularly under the major influence of theories developed by the International Committee for Museology (). These ‘ian’ approaches were taken up by Brazilian scholars aiming to develop the foundations of academic thinking in museology, and who consequently established a teaching tradition that encompasses a specific set of theoretical approaches to museums and heritage in the present.