Giro Cultural USP (USP Cultural Tour) is Pró-Reitoria de Cultura e Extensão Universitária program (PRCEU/USP) that promotes free tours to the population, aiming to introduce architectural, artistic and cultural heritage of USP. Unlike other guided tours of a touristic nature existing in the city of São Paulo, the routes of the Giro Cultural USP present a solid content that has been elaborated with the support of professors from the University of São Paulo itself. The main objective of the Giro Cultural USP is to open to the public the largest university in Latin America, its museums, cultural and scientific collections.
The creation of the Giro Cultural USP meets a great demand, mainly from high school students who wish to get to know the University of São Paulo. It is also justified by the need to expand the diffusion of USP’s cultural spaces, an institution recognized for its excellence in teaching and research, but which also stands out for its vast patrimonial collection and university extension activities. It also allies with the need to rethink campus usages and its relationship with society. The tours offer the following options on the Butantã campus: “Panoramic View”, “Cultural Collection” and “Scientific Collection”; and an off-campus option: “USP and Modernist São Paulo”, a route that highlights the main modernist works and buildings in São Paulo.
The itineraries “Scientific Collection” and “Cultural Collection” last approximately two and a half hours, while “Panoramic View” lasts one and a half hours. “USP and Modernist São Paulo”, in turn, lasts four hours.
Since 2018, a new route entitled “USP Getting to know USP” has been made possible, lasting 7 hours and with an audience made up of students, employees, and professors from the campuses in the interior. In all routes, the route is taken by bus, accompanied by at least two mediators, students of the University of São Paulo. The tours are free of charge and open to the entire population. Also, the tours to the University City can be booked for closed groups of up to 40 people, from Tuesday to Friday, at 10am or at 2pm. For the external tour, which takes place on Saturdays, and lasts four hours, the schedule must be made for 10am. The program also counts on the support of USP’s Capital Campus City Hall for the cession of the bus that carries out the internal routes in the University City.