The International Relations Committee of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) has been invited by colleagues in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to organize a study tour to these cities.  In recent months the IRC has developed a preliminary itinerary for this trip.  The trip will take place June 6 – 14, 2015, beginning in São Paulo. 

 

This trip will act as an intensive introduction to the art libraries and archives of the featured cities and provide a thumbnail view of the state of art librarianship and the arts in Brazil.  The itinerary will include a half-day symposium during which librarians and art historians will profile recent research and emerging trends in both disciplines.  We will be introduced to and spend time at the library of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, the Biblioteca Mario de Andrade, the Museu de Arte Sacra, the Pinacoteca do Estado, and the Museu Afro-Brasil.  On Wednesday evening, June 10, we will travel by air to Rio de Janeiro.  The next three days will be spent in the libraries and collections of the Casa Daros, the Museu Nacional das Belas Artes, Museu de Arte do Rio, and the Museu de Arte Moderna, among others.  Saturday, before departures, there will likely be an option of tours to the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx or the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói — MAC, designed by Oscar Niemeyer.  The itinerary is being further developed and refined by librarians in São Paulo and Rio and will be published when the trip is confirmed.  It is going to be a full and illuminating tour.

 

At this point in our planning, we would like to have a sense of how many people would be interested in coming. We are hoping to include eight to twelve people.  The cost of this trip will be the responsibility of the participant.  Airfare can be anticipated to range, depending upon the airline and point of departure, between $1120 and $1450, round trip, including São Paulo to Rio.  Hotels will cost approximately $100 per night (double occupancy) for a minimum of six nights. 

 

As popular and academic demographics in the United States change at an accelerated pace, librarians must be agile and well equipped to accommodate and provide for new user groups and new areas of academic concentration.  Estimates of the U.S. American Brazilian population range from 400,000 to 1.1 million, concentrated in the Northeast and Florida, but the influence of the arts of Brazil in this country are deep and growing.  This will be a perfect opportunity to broaden your intellectual and bibliographic scopes.  Join us!

 

To gauge interest and feasibility, we would like to hear from potential participants by January 22, 2015.

 

 

On behalf of the International Relations Committee of ARLIS/NA

 

 

Clayton Kirking

Task Force for Brazil Study Tour

-