Educational program
A Visit that Engages
Mediation is a conversation. The art educator brings context, manages the group and the time, but does not monopolize interpretation: the visit includes observation pauses, open-ended questions, and moments where the group compares hypotheses.
Heritage education runs through the entire journey. Heritage, here, is not something frozen in the past, but a living relationship of recognition, transmission, and belonging. That is why the visit values the people who make Carnival: old guards, baianas, composers, artisans, drummers, passistas (samba dancers), and so many other workers.
The Samba Matrices of Rio de Janeiro (partido-alto, samba de terreiro, and samba-enredo) are recognized by Iphan as Cultural Heritage of Brazil.
Seven movements
Sufficient information to orient the visitor.
Slow down and examine evidence: a sketch, a costume, a document, an instrument, a photograph, or a gesture.
Move beyond reception and start investigating.
Body, sound, interactivity, and creation.
Link the experience to other parts of the exhibition, to the group's background, and to broader social issues.
Transform content into production.
Synthesize and recognize the collective dimension of knowledge.
Objectives
Promote educational, cultural, artistic, and heritage experiences that allow diverse audiences to understand, experience, and interpret the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro's samba schools as living cultural heritage and an expression of Afro-Brazilian culture.
- Present the origins, transformations, and continuities of Rio's Carnival and its samba schools.
- Recognize the centrality of African and Afro-Brazilian roots in shaping samba and carnival culture.
- Value masters, communities, artists, artisans, and workers as producers and transmitters of knowledge.
- Explore the connections between music, dance, visual arts, literature, fashion, set design, engineering, technology, and performance.
- Develop critical viewers and listeners of objects, images, sounds, documents, videos, testimonials, and immersive environments.
- Encourage curiosity, imagination, original creation, and collaboration among visitors.
- Connect cultural heritage, identity, territory, memory, labor, and citizenship.
- Bring schools and families closer to non-formal cultural experiences, creating continuity before and after the visit.
- Ensure physical, sensory, communicational, cognitive, digital, methodological, and attitudinal accessibility strategies.
Four axes
Abre-Alas and The Cradle of Samba: processions, ranchos, blocos and cordões, Pequenas Áfricas, Tias Baianas, Praça XI, Estácio, pioneer schools, and the affirmation of Black culture.
From artisans to the front commission, the transformation of ideas into materials, movements, sounds, and technical solutions. Who conceives, who executes, and how much everything depends on cooperation.
The assembly area, the entrance to the Avenida, and the immersive experience: the moment when dispersed processes become a collective event.
Timeline, voting, virtual reality, and creations made along the journey place the visitor as the protagonist of Carnival memory.
Accessibility and universal design
The program does not create a separate visit for people with disabilities. The content and narrative are common to everyone. What is adapted are the pace, language, resources, route, and forms of interaction.
During scheduling, the team asks which resources and support are desired. During the visit, the educator speaks directly to the person, asks before helping, respects assistive technologies, and gives time for responses.