Museu de Arte do Rio
Museu de Arte do Rio is an art museum in Rio de Janeiro which was inaugurated on 1 March 2013. It is maintained by a partnership between municipal public institutions and private initiatives.
The museum is part of a project to revitalize downtown Rio de Janeiro which began in 2009 through a municipal law that intended to invest up to R$8 billion real in the years following its passage.
The initiative is between local government and the Fundação Roberto Marinho, and does activities that involve fundraising, registering, research, preservation, and the creation of cultural goods to the community. The entire architectural plan was organized by Jacobsen Arquitetura, with ideas made by three main architects: Paulo Jacobsen, Bernardo Jacobsen, and Thiago Bernardes. The primary goal of the project was to establish a flow system where everything would function in an integrated and efficient manner, together with the creation of the Escola do Olhar, an arts and culture development space.
The museum
Located in the Centro district of Rio de Janeiro, it is next to Avenida Rio Branco. It is located in the historic downtown and occupies two buildings at Praça Mauá, between Centro and the Zona Portuária.A project devised in partnership with the Fundação Roberto Marinho, the museum is a partnership between municipal, state and federal governments, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Culture, and seeks to promote a valorization of the history of the city.
One of the buildings is the Palacete Dom João VI, constructed with an eclectic style. It was dedicated to exposition rooms, dubbed the "Pavilhão de Exposições", and took advantage of a high level of space between the pavement and building, as well as the freeform structure of the rooms. The other, adjacent to the palace, was used as the Mariano Procópio bus station prior to being integrated into the museum, the "Escola do Olhar", along with housing the administrative offices and other departments.
The two buildings are connected by a suspended catwalk, a "fluid cover", which occupies a total area of 2,300 square meters and a constructed area of 11,240 m².