{"id":59841,"date":"2020-05-25T18:34:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T21:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=59841"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:08:38","slug":"during-18th-museum-week-favela-museums-fight-pandemic-with-local-actions-and-online-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=59841","title":{"rendered":"During 18th Museum Week, Favela Museums Fight Pandemic with Local Actions and Online Classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 18th Annual Museum Week<\/a>, an important event for Brazilian museums organized by the Brazilian Institute of Museums (Ibram<\/a>), a group of museological institutions, took place <\/span>May 18-24, bringing museums and related organizations together with activities open to the public. This year\u2019s Museum Week had the theme of \u201cMuseums for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.” Though all physical events were canceled, activities were made available in an online program<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The week typically features strong participation from Rio’s community museums<\/a>. These community museums practice social museology<\/a>: they are often territorial museums, meaning their territories are part of the museum which is built by the actions of residents. As part of their social function of developing historical counternarratives<\/a>, community museums focus on preserving the right to memory<\/a> and to popular resistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, in 2020, faced with the Covid-19<\/a> pandemic, community museums and memory-preservation projects in Rio favelas and quilombos have, along with countless other favela-based organizations<\/a>, changed their focus to fighting the pandemic in their communities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Museums and Memory-Preservation Projects to Fight the Pandemic<\/h3>\n

Community museums are living museums and they have found themselves at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19, taking action in their territories and on social media. These museums are used to preserving memories, but now, more than ever, museum teams and other institutions are making history through direct organizing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been happening in all locations where community museums are based. They are taking part in existing campaigns, or sometimes the museums themselves are promoting [anti-Covid-19] campaigns, because the authorities\u2019 attempts to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic are very poor in comparison to what they should be doing in favelas. Their efforts are negligible. So organizations, collectives, and community museums have taken the lead<\/a>,\u201d explains Claudia Rose Ribeiro Da Silva, coordinator of the\u00a0Mar\u00e9 Museum<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Mar\u00e9 Museum<\/h3>\n

Since the beginning of the quarantine, the Mar\u00e9 Museum, located in the favelas of Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, in the city’s North Zone<\/a>, and managed by the Center for Studies and Solidarity Actions of Mar\u00e9 (CEASM<\/a>), has been closed to visitors. But the museum has been supporting the Covid-19 Mar\u00e9 Mobilization Front<\/a> with 60 volunteers. The museum’s space has served as a support point, and has become a part of the campaign to reduce the damage of the pandemic. The federal government’s public health institute, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz<\/a>), donated 2,200 food parcels and hygiene kits to the Mar\u00e9 Museum, which then passed them on to the Mar\u00e9 Mobilization Front.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mar\u00e9 Museum had many physical activities planned for Museum Week, but all have been postponed. At the moment, \u201cour participation, especially this week, is to help strengthen the Mar\u00e9 Mobilization Front\u2019s campaign. This is important not just because it shows how a community museum works, but also how all museums need to fulfill their social role and take part in this fight against the pandemic,\u201d Silva explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Quilombo do Camorim Cultural Association (ACUQCA)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Camorim Quilombo<\/a>, the archeological site of an original rural quilombo (<\/span>a historic community descended from fugitive slaves) that has become an urban quilombo today, is located in Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a>, a neighborhood in Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>. Adilson Batista Almeida from the Camorim Quilombo Cultural Association (ACUQCA<\/a>) explains that all of the organization\u2019s activities with schools and universities were suspended even before the municipal decree<\/a> imposing the closure of museums, theaters, and cinemas to contain the pandemic. \u201cWe were planning a large event in April and we saw that we were not going to be able to do it. So now we\u2019ve joined the frontline in terms of social aid, helping with food parcels for the community and providing information about how to prevent the spread of Covid-19,\u201d he emphasizes. There have been three Covid-19 deaths in the community so far.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe State is not giving us any support: it wasn\u2019t supporting us before, and now it\u2019s only gotten worse,\u201d says Almeida. Almeida, the president and director of the ACUQCA, said that in 2019 the community archeological site received visits from 15,000 students from public schools in the region. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rol\u00e9 dos Favelados<\/h3>\n

In Brazil’s most historic and first favela, Morro da Provid\u00eancia<\/a> in Rio’s downtown Centro<\/a> area, Rol\u00e9 dos Favelados<\/a> (Stroll of the Favelados), which gives tour-goers a critical vision of the history of resistance in the first favela, has now turned its attention towards the SOS Provid\u00eancia<\/a> campaign. SOS Provid\u00eancia is supporting the community in the fight against Covid-19, together with a range of residents, social movements, and other institutions from the region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As well as distributing food parcels and hygiene products to residents, the SOS Provid\u00eancia<\/a> Collective, formed by local projects and activists from Provid\u00eancia and Rio\u2019s Port Region<\/a>, is organizing the Morador Monitor<\/a> (Resident Monitor) project. The project, supported by 12 volunteers (protected with PPE), managed to map 90% of Provid\u00eancia and the Port Region in its first campaign from May 4-9. As of May 10, the project has detected<\/span> 10 deaths, 34 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 368 suspected cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The aim of this census project, as well as informing people and alerting residents to the underreporting of cases<\/a> in the community, is to collect information about which families need food parcels, hygiene kits, psychological support, and support in accessing the government’s emergency basic income payment, among other needs. The collective has two online fundraising<\/a> campaigns open in order to maintain and expand its community aid<\/a> work. The crowdfunding campaigns, in addition to contributing to the purchase of food parcels and hygiene kits, also help remunerate favela monitors, who receive R$500 (US$90) for every week of work, helping to provide a source of income during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Casa do Jongo da Serrinha<\/h3>\n

Casa do Jongo da Serrinha<\/a> (Serrinha\u2019s House of Jongo), in Madureira<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s North Zone, provides dance, music, and popular culture classes for local children in the community known globally for being a key source of Rio’s cultural heritage<\/a>. The house provides a living space to preserve the memory and practice of jongo and samba in the Serrinha<\/a> favela and is now also focused on supporting the community during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Due to the physical isolation rules during the pandemic, a large proportion of Serrinha residents who make a living in the informal economy are unemployed. Companhia de Aruanda<\/a>, a local artistic and cultural collective, launched the Avante Serrinha<\/a> (Forward Serrinha) campaign. The residents’ association has started to receive donations of food, water, and financial support. Those looking to help can email Fl\u00e1vio da Silva Fran\u00e7a Alves at mestreflavinho[at]gmail.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Evictions Museum<\/h3>\n

The Evictions Museum<\/a>, located in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, in the West Zone, is an activist museum that preserves the memories of the evictions that took place in the favela in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games, as well as those in other communities. The museum celebrated its fourth anniversary in the middle of the pandemic. Residents were thus unable to gather to celebrate, but the community museum did not let the date go unnoticed. The museum shared the following message in a Facebook post<\/a>: \u201cWe want to thank everyone who is fighting evictions. This battle is taking place every day. And during this difficult period, we want to reinforce the importance of social distancing in order to fight Covid-19. Stay at home if you can, since, in this situation, staying at home is an act of care for yourself and for others <\/span>❤.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During the pandemic the Evictions Museum held an online class<\/a> on <\/span>May 14, hosted by professor Diana Bogado<\/a>, about contemporary urban planning linked to the politics of evictions taking place in favelas and peripheral communities in big cities. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Sepetiba Ecomuseum<\/h3>\n

Bianca Wild, coordinator of the Sepetiba Ecomuseum<\/a>, in the far corner of Rio’s West Zone, explains that the ecomuseum is currently focusing on raising awareness in the community about how to take precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Some of the ecomuseum\u2019s team members are living with people who are at particular risk of Covid-19. \u201cWe can\u2019t go out into the field, so we are looking for an alternative: weekly live transmissions<\/a> with themes that we consider to be important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On <\/span>May 20, the Sepetiba Ecomuseum celebrated National Museum Week with a Facebook live event<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ‘Casa do Bumba Meu Boi em Movimento’ Museum<\/h3>\n

The ‘Bumba Meu Boi em Movimento’ Museum (a folklore celebration from the Northeast of Brazil), created by the organization Ra\u00edzes do Gericin\u00f3<\/a>, is located in Vila Catiri, a community in Bangu<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s West Zone. The museum possesses<\/a> “an archive of material from the northeastern state of Maranh\u00e3o, and the vernacular knowledge incarnated in a traditional family from Maranh\u00e3o\u2019s semi-arid sert\u00e3o<\/em> region, principally from Dona Rosa, former \u2018coconut breaker<\/a>\u2019 who has a wealth of knowledge of dance and religious traditions instilled in her from the folklore.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On International Museum Day, May 18, TV247<\/a> organized a debate to highlight the importance of the role of community museums amid the pandemic, with the participation of a number of community museums. Auricelia Merc\u00eas from the Bumba Meu Boi Museum said that the main challenge during the pandemic was not organizing to fight coronavirus, but the lack of hugs: \u201cHere in this museum, we treat the question of friendship as something very important for the territory.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Merc\u00eas, this is not the first time that the community has dealt with hunger. Hunger has always existed, but now it\u2019s increased. Between March and May, the museum attended to 2,000 people from the community. “Our museum is a grassroots one…\u00a0<\/span>In the absence of public authorities, we are here. We won\u2019t give up. We\u2019ve lost friends, people are isolated, but we are not going to stop fighting. This is the message I want to give.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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Support our efforts to provide strategic assistance to Rio\u2019s favelas during the Covid-19 pandemic, including\u00a0<\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0by clicking here<\/a><\/b>.<\/b><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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