The diversity of Brazil’s cultural heritage will be present in the series of activities available to the public, from Monday (11) to next Friday (15), in the building of the Superintendence of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) of Rio de Janeiro, at Avenida Rio Branco, 46, in the city center.
Free activities, such as musical performances, workshops and conversation wheels, are included in actions defined by IPHAN with the theme of heritage – social participation, territories and sustainability. The proposal is a decentralized and collaborative agenda, to be practiced in its regional superintendencies, in partnership with organized civil society throughout the country.
“The territories and communities are the theme of the Iphan Heritage Month. We tried to gather these two concepts, which are the Master of Cultural Heritage Spring in activities that involve both things and nothing better than school, heritage and music,” said Institute’s superintendent in Rio, Patricia Wanzeller, in an interview with Brazil agency.
The program provides for a debate on Afro-Brazilian culture and the choice of the market of the market as a plot of the Beija-Flor de Nilópolis. The samba school will present on the avenue, at the carnival of 2026, the history of this one that is the largest street candomblé in the world, recognized, since 2019, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Brazil. The conversation, on Wednesday (13), will have the participation of Carnival Milton Cunha and representatives of Blue and White of Baixada Fluminense. On the same day, a Beija-Flor drum presentation of Nilópolis will cheer up the audience.
Samba will not be the only musical genre in the meeting. The activities also have crying in the debate between strings and winds: the cry as a cultural heritage of Brazil and a show by the Caras & Coroas group. The female presence in forró and cordel literature will be highlighted with a presentation, on Thursday (14), of the Woman Forrozeira Project, besides the presence of Jongo, an important Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestation characteristic of the Southeast region. “This year, we will focus not only on Forró. Let’s talk about the woman in forró, a role that still needs to gain visibility,” he said.
Eight years after recognition as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), participants will receive information about the importance of the Cais do Valongo archaeological site, in the capital region of the capital. The debate will be attended by the historian, writer and master in cultural goods Thiago Gomide, journalist Monica Sanches, Alexandre Nadai, the Black Institute, Gracy Moreira, House of Aunt Ciata, and E Célio Oliveira, from Afoxé Filhos de Gandhi. The mediation will be of the regional representative in Rio de Janeiro of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, Eliel Moura.
Students
The program also includes a debate table with the theme Games for a Heritage Education. According to the superintendent, the goal is to use the games “to bring to children the knowledge of what is a cultural heritage.” In partnership with the Rio Municipal Secretariat of Education, the Equity Education Workshop will be offered with experience culture, Maloca Games and Mestre Griô and the Afoxé Filhos de Gandhi workshop, both for students of the municipal school system.
“We have a cooperation agreement with the Municipal Secretariat of Education and every day there will be school classes that are close here in Iphan, which will participate in workshops and presentations,” he said.
The public can also follow workshops, screening of the film Cryingparticipate in guided tours to the Superintendency building and attend presentations of cultural manifestations recognized as Brazil’s cultural heritage. In addition, the Carioca Circuit Fair was set up at IPHAN, where exhibitors will carry their products as a cordel literature and traditional forró arrays.
Heritage Day
Celebrated on August 17, Heritage Day was chosen to honor the lawyer and writer Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade, who founded the agency in 1937. According to Iphan, the intention to have a specific date is to “celebrate and promote the preservation of Brazilian cultural and immaterial cultural heritage”.
The last day of the meeting will also have the exhibition of the artisans of Quilombo São José da Serra, the municipality of Valença, in the Café Valley, in the state of Rio. The Jongo workshop will be with quilombo group São José da Serra in another exclusive activity for students from the municipal school system.
At the closing there will be a tribute to the friends of the heritage of Rio de Janeiro and a presentation of the Jongo Wheel of Quilombo São José da Serra. “We walked the communities that inhabit the scenario of Rio de Janeiro society and the territorialities within the cultural expressions they represent,” added Patricia Wanzeller.
“It will be the first time that the building will be open to public visitation, that our doors, which are so photographed, will be open to people who come by and are curious to know what happens here. We are wanting to enter, know the Iphan, know what the institute is and who works in it,” he concluded.
According to the superintendent, the preservation of cultural heritage is a way of defending the sovereignty and identity of Brazil. “At this time when our sovereignty is being threatened by a foreign country, which has put us on the wall, even for economic reasons, it is very important when culture comes as a national identity bond. Culture is our first identity photo, it is when me, you and all the people who live in this almost continental country we identify as citizens of the same country. Even with our diversity, our origin is the same. Fortification of sovereignty, of identity of native recognition. This is what unites us in the end.
