Blogpost Brazil-Netherlands Student Workshop Museum Management

During a two-day workshop in Rio de Janeiro on 10 and 11 August, four Brazilian and four Dutch students design together a brand new museum concept. The students present the results at the seminar Brazil-Netherlands Exchange on Managing Public Cultural Spaces on 12 August. The teaching staff consists of Giep Hagoort, professor emeritus Art & Economics at University Utrecht, and Rosane Carvalho, museologist and coordinator of the Museums Management MBA at Candido Mendes University in Rio. Both the workshop and the seminar are organized by FGV and DutchCulture.

Dutch art management students
Lisa: "Olá! I am thrilled to be taking part in this cultural collaboration between Brazil and the Netherlands. I recently completed the Master programme Cultural Economics & Entrepreneurship at Erasmus University Rotterdam and consider this a great opportunity to put my knowledge into practice. Heritage and museums are of my specific interest and I am curious about the role and function museums fulfill in Brazil compared to Dutch museums. I am looking forward to a pleasant and inspiring collaboration with the Brazilian students and of course getting to know the culture and city of Rio de Janeiro. Te vejo no Brasil!"

Rick: “I have almost completed the Media and Entertainment Management-programme at Hogeschool Inholland in Rotterdam. I am currently writing my thesis about cultural entrepreneurship focusing on free festivals in de region of the city of Vlaardingen in the Netherlands. I am very curious about to what extent museums in Brazil are enterprising and where there are opportunities to become more culturally entrepreneurial. My expectations are that the Dutch student team will have three busy, but educational days in Rio de Janeiro and that we can exchange a lot of knowledge with the Brazilian students and the various museums. Besides this, I am also very curious about the city and Brazilian culture in general.”

Davey: “I study at the HKU University of the Arts in Utrecht. When you get an opportunity like this, you never say no. Working with museums and showing new dimensions to an institute is a trigger to my imagination. Bringing two cultures together (Dutch & Brazilian) with different norms and ethics is where the exciting stuff happens. Our group is young and fresh, and I bet that we can bring new insights. The biggest challenge I fear is not our ideas, but the community who needs to adapt them. I mean: bringing a museum back to its original means not by giving the audience entertainment, but by giving them back their imagination to be conscious of themselves and the world around them.”

Willemijn: “I recently completed my Master's degree in Cultural Management, from the University of Antwerp. I find it very interesting to be engaged in a trade in which the product is not always easy to sell, the creator behind the product is a creative person who has a lot of passion for his product and you as an art manager are always challenged to convey the value of this product to (new) customers. It is of social importance that on the one hand this is carried out with a lot of passion and enthusiasm and that on the other hand it is conducted with enormous expertise and professional competence. Thinking about how the management of art will look like in the future is the challenge of our generation. I hope to gain new insights by collaborating with the Brazilian students. I’m looking forward to this great experience.”