OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTERS OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE OF BRAZIL 

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To: 

Rossieli Soares da Silva 
Minister of Education 

Sérgio Sá Leitão 
Minister of Culture 

Dear Ministers, Your Excellencies, 

As we saw the collection of the Museu Nacional destroyed in what has already been widely recognized an “announced tragedy”, we are writing to call your attention to the problems of university museums in Brazil, expecting effective action before other “announced tragedies” will take place. 

The Museu Nacional is a university museum, characterized by the “principle of inseparability between teaching, research and extension”, as established in Article 207 of the Brazilian Constitution. In Brazil, there are thousands of university museums, whose collections encompass cultural assets in all areas of the sciences, arts, humanities and technology, as well as invaluable books and manuscripts. 

These museums and their collections preserve “tangible and intangible assets related to higher education institutions and their institutional bodies, as well as to the academic community of professors, researchers and students, and the social and cultural environment that shapes this heritage”(EUROPEAN UNION, 2005). As cultural assets, they must be protected and promoted by the Brazilian State, as shared responsibility with the Union and all entities of the Brazilian Federation, as expressed in articles 23 and 215 of our Constitution. 

Like many university museums, the Museu Nacional is linked to a federal entity, which in turn is subordinate to the Ministry of Education. However, this Ministry does not allocate in its budget dedicated funds for museums, collections or cultural heritage under its responsibility, nor does it have any control over how many museums and cultural heritage is administered on a daily basis by Brazilian universities, not even those belonging to federal institutions, as is the case of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). 

The Ministry of Culture, the Brazilian Institute of Museums (IBRAM) and the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), responsible for the promotion and protection of the Brazilian cultural heritage, do not have specific lines of action for university museums either, which historically have been outside its sphere of action. The budget of the Ministry of Culture barely supports the maintenance of its own operating structures. 

In this dysfunctional scenario, university museums are absolutely invisible. They rely almost exclusively on the internal politics of their university for the allocation of resources essential to their existence. 
Both the Museu National and the smaller university museums all across Brazil are increasingly dependent on project funding. However, firefighting systems and the maintenance of buildings and collections should not be dependent on project funding. Brazil has just seen the sad result of public management anchored exclusively on project funding: the 21 million reais raised by the Museu Nacional through BNDES did not solve the problem of the lack of investment in basic infrastructure and the daily maintenance of institutions. 

It is impossible to manage museums and preserve our cultural heritage only with project funding. How many university museums in Brazil will have to burn, be flooded, stolen from or simply face closure before the scale of their daily tragic situation becomes clear to everyone!? 

In view of the above, the entities and citizens listed below express their solidarity with the Museu Nacional and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and request from Your Excellencies: 

1. Immediate attendance to the emergency demands requested by the direction and technical team of the Museu Nacional, in order to safeguard those parts of the Museum and its collections that were not consumed by the fire; 

2. Creation of a permanent funding program in the annual budget of the Ministry of Education to guarantee direct resources for the maintenance of university museums in federal institutions; 

3. Establishment of a permanent funding program in the annual budget of the Ministry of Culture to support university museums at all administrative levels; 

4. Composition of a permanent institutional structure to support university museums in Brazil, encompassing the government and civil society, both at ministerial level and in federal institutions. 

Hoping that Your Excellencies will support the reconstruction of the National Museum and help avoid further tragedies in Brazilian university museums, we the undersigned: 

Network of Teachers and Researchers in Museology 
Brazilian Permanent Forum of University Museums 
Brazilian Network of University Collections and Museums 

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