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Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandão, deputy director of the IEA-USP, is the new president of the Brazilian Institute of Museums

by Richard Meckien - published Jan 20, 2015 05:25 PM - - last modified Feb 01, 2017 03:55 PM

Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandão
Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandão,
new president of the IBRAM

Zoologist Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandão, deputy director of the IEA-USP and former director of USP's Museum of Zoology (MZ), will assume the presidency of the Brazilian Institute of Museums (IBRAM), unit of the Ministry of Culture that responds for direct administration of federal museums and the formulation of public policies for the area.

Brandão was invited by the minister Juca Ferreira on January 16 and will be the first president of the Institute to have previously been part of a universitary museum. He will succeed Ângelo Oswaldo, who took over the Department of Culture of the State of Minas Gerais.

The IBRAM was created in January, 2009, to address the rights, duties and obligations regarding federal museums, that used to be subordinate to the Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).

Among the 30 museums under IBRAM's responsibility there are the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of the Republic and the National Historical Museum, all three in the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Lasar Segall Museum in São Paulo and the Museum of Conspiracy, in Minas Gerais.

Brandão has extensive experience in the analysis of issues related to policy and operation of museums. This qualification made him to be elected for the 2010-2013 Executive Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), a consultant institution at UNESCO with about 32,000 specialists and 20,000 museums around the world. Before that, the researcher presided the Brazilian Committee (2006-2010). He also chaired the Organizing Committee of the International ICOM Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and organized the ICOM South-South Museums Dialogue in the same year.

Museu Nacional de Belas Artes e Museu Lasar Segall
National Museum of Fine Arts (top) and the Lasar Segall Museum

Currently, in addition to performing his activities as a professor of the MZ, deputy director of the IEA-USP and Fellow of Research Productivity at CNPq, Brandão is a member of the Brazilian Chamber of Museums of the Secretary of Culture of the State of São Paulo and joins boards to several museums and specialized publications.

STUDY GROUP

The interest of Brandão for public policies in this fields dates back to the 80s, when he joined IEA-USP's Study Group Museums and University (1986-1988), which brought together researchers linked to the most representative collections of USP.

The group was coordinated by art educator Ana Mae Barbosa, then director of USP's Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), and Maria Cristina Bruno, from the former Institute of Prehistory (IPH), built by USP's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE) in 1988.

Besides both coordinators and Brandão, other participants of the group were Martin Grossmann, from USP's School of Communications and Arts (ECA) and currently the director of the IEA-USP; Augusto Froehlich, Elaine Hirata, Maria Isabel D'Agostino Fleming and Suely Cerávolo, all four of the MAE; Maria José Elias and Sonia T. F. Dorta, both of the Paulista Museum; Mirian David Marques, from the MZ; Mariana Vanzolini, from the Plínio Ayrosa Museum; and Marisa Coutinho Afonso, from the HPI.

SCIENTIFIC CAREER

Brandão holds a PhD in Zoology from USP's Institute of Biosciences, where he also studied for his Masters and as an undergraduate. He became full professor in 1995. He has been professor at the MZ since 1999, being the curator of the collection of Hymenoptera insects (order which includes bees, wasps and ants) of the institution. He was director of the MZ (2001-2005), where he currently is a professor and advisor of the Graduate Program in Zoology. He also serves the Graduate Program in Entomology of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of USP's campus in Ribeirão Preto.

Photos (from the top): Sandra Codo/IEA-USP and Ministry of Culture