USP Museums and Collections Exhibition to be displayed at House of Dona Yayá

The USP Center for Cultural Preservation (CPC) opens from May 15th the exhibition USP Museums and Collections. The exhibition portrays through photographic panels the diversity of collections belonging to museums, archives, libraries, memory and documentation centers, centers of cultural and scientific dissemination of the University that promote research, teaching practice and university extension. The Office of the Provost for Culture and Extension as well as the Superintendence of Social Communication are CPC partners for this action.

The initiative aims to reach a wider audience, beyond the academic community, presenting to society a complex universe of varied sources of information, knowledge, affection, and aesthetic appreciation. Coinciding with the 17th Museum Week event, promoted by Ibram, special visiting hours take place on May 18th, Saturday, and May 19th, Sunday, from 9 am to 5 pm.

Round table 

As part of the opening ceremony, the CPC promotes the roundtable discussion Acervos e Museus Universitários: relevância, desafios e diálogos (University Collections and Museums: relevance, challenges, and dialogues). In addition to the professors Martha Marandino (FE-USP) and Simone Scifoni (FFCHL-USP), respectively director and deputy director of the CPC, Claudia Carvalho, director of the House of Science of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Adriana Mortara, director of the Butantan Institute Historical Museum are also attending. Participation is open to the public without registration.

According to Professor Martha Marandio, the purpose of this debate is “to discuss the role, importance and challenges of university collections and museums, an issue that becomes even more relevant given the recent attacks that public universities have been suffering in Brazil and the cut-off announcements. This research reinforces the importance of universities in their research and extension dimension and culture, in addition to other initiatives, such as USP Museum Week. ”

University Heritage

The collections scattered across the campuses, units, and organs are many and varied. They range from artistic collections to natural science teaching collections, personal archives of intellectuals and academics, documentary collections gathered in research in the most diverse fields of knowledge, administrative files that document the University’s trajectory to precious archaeological collections.

There are millions of objects, works of art, archival documents, teaching aids, among various media and formats. The collections serve both researchers from USP and other institutions, as well as the general public. They are also shapers of the memory and identity of university life.

Many of these collections were built as a result of the activities of researchers, students, faculty, and technicians at USP, others have their existence prior to the University itself and have been incorporated for their invaluable contribution to the construction of knowledge.

The exhibition “Museus e Acervos da USP” (USP Museums and Collections), as well as the publication of the Guia de museus e acervos (Guide to Museums and Collections) and the Guia dos bens tombados ou em processo de tombamento da Universidade de São Paulo (Guide to the tangible cultural heritage or items in the process of turning into tangible cultural heritage at the University of São Paulo), are part of CPC-USP’s actions aimed at the survey, dissemination, and reflection on safeguarding the cultural assets of the University.

The work of inventorying this heritage began by the CPC in 1999, at the time the Cultural Preservation Commission, with the development of the USP project: Diagnóstico de potencialidades museológicas (Museological potentialities diagnosis), developed by Professor Maria Cristina Bruno. Guides can be found on the CPC website (https://bit.ly/309kTxd).

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EXHIBITION  Museus e Acervos da USP