For those who want to deepen their knowledge of art history or of contemporary issues related to collecting and exhibitions, there is a great opportunity in the course programmes run by Brazilian museums. After the pandemic, this type of training intensified with the possibility of holding sessions online, which also allows participation from anywhere in the world, for students and teachers alike, broadening the diversity of possibilities. Some institutions have also resumed in-person courses, which are a great opportunity to meet people interested in the same subject.
Besides helping to spread debates and information about their thematic focuses, institutions also find in courses a way to raise funds that are reinvested in other initiatives. Check out in this post a brief selection of museums that run courses and some examples of upcoming ones.
MASP
MASP, for example, maintains the MASP Escola initiative, which brings together all the training activities carried out by the Avenida Paulista museum. These are all open courses, available to anyone interested in the arts, with or without training in the field, taught by specialists. They range from short courses, with four classes, to somewhat longer programmes, with around 14 classes. MASP works with both online and in-person formats.
On 5 June, for example, the course Monet: a luz da natureza begins, with Felipe Martinez; on the 9th, the programme Retratos, reflexões e subjetividades negra na arte starts, with Renata Felinto. The MASP Escola schedule already lists courses through to the end of 2025.
In another line of training, the museum runs semester-long Art History courses organised in a module that brings together four independent yet complementary courses. Each course has around 14 classes and, together, they span the 14th to the 21st century, always with specialised teachers and the participation of guests in special lectures.
MAM-SP
Even with its headquarters temporarily closed due to the restoration works on the marquee of Ibirapuera Park, the Museu da Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP) remains very active with its online courses, offering a highly consistent and varied programme in terms of themes and focuses: from practical training aimed at managers of cultural institutions to art history courses covering a range of artistic languages.
Upcoming courses include Escultura brasileira: do modernismo à contemporaneidade, with Marina Mazze Cerchiaro, starting on 11 June. Towards the end of the month, scheduled to begin on 24 June, comes the course Cinema de autoras: novas narrativas visuais, with Paula Jacob.
Pinacoteca
The Pinacoteca de São Paulo has a course programme aimed at museum professionals, especially museum educators, but also runs training on architectural heritage and art history. The schedule is published on this page.
Instituto Tomie Ohtake
The Instituto Tomie Ohtake, in turn, runs online training focused on contemporary art that seeks to contribute to the education of teachers, artists, culture professionals, students, researchers and anyone else interested in art and its intersections; the Pernambuco-born curator Moacir dos Anjos, for example, has just concluded a course at the institution on the theme "Curadoria, Representação e Política". The Tomie schedule is gathered on this page.
