Collection Storage Space
The Museu de Arte do Rio inaugurated its new Collection Storage Space on 25 March 2017. The need to extend the space was the fruit of the successful formation of its collection, which now has almost 8 thousand museological items, more than 7 thousand archival pieces and about 16 thousand bibliographical works, of which 1,481 are artists’ books. It is the first art collection conceived for the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. The space, which counted on sponsorship from BNDES to complete the expansion works, features an area that the public can visit, with a glass cube allowing visitors to check out what happens inside it.
The new Collection Storage Space was also designed to further expand MAR’s educational project. It has, like the other areas of the institution, an important role in museological training, as well as showing the importance of preserving the memory of society through works of art, historical objects and visual culture. Guided tours are scheduled for the general public and also for students.
MAR’s current collection – formed starting from the curatorial direction of Paulo Herkenhoff – features works from many artists, but it also possesses objects that represent the cultural patrimony of the city. Divided into significant nuclei, the organisation of this collection was especially planned to account for such culturally vast material. A way to bring together different works and documents that are related in some form. As an example, there is the Urbanism nucleus, which gathers everything from works of art to commemorative plaques from the city.
The collection features contemporary works, but also historical ones. The image of “Saint Joseph of Boots”, by Aleijadinho, is one of the highlights of the collection. MAR is the only museum in Rio with a work by this Minas Gerais artist. Alongside Aleijadinho, there are works from emblematic names from modern art, such as Tarsila do Amaral, Guignard and Pancetti.