Museums and urban revitalization: Museu de Artes e Ofícios and Praça da Estação in Belo Horizonte

Abstract

One of the main conditions in which the birth of new museums is observed are the museums that are implemented during the urban revitalization process. If what is intended with these initiatives is to give “new life” to areas that were previously considered “degraded”, it is worth asking what role these institutions should play in these processes. In view of the fact that in Brazil, in the late twentieth century and in the beginning of the current century, several urban regeneration proposals and projects were developed, we selected the process of implementation of the Museu de Artes e Ofícios (Museum of Arts and Trades – MAO) as the target of the present investigation, as well as its connection with the urban revitalization process of part of the central region of the city of Belo Horizonte.