Casa do Pontal Picture 1

More information on Casa do Pontal Photo by: In Hiding

The Casa do Pontal is the largest and most important Museum of Folk Art in Brazil. The collection contains over 8000 sculptures and models made by approximately 200 folk artists from all over Brazil. Include in the collection are works produced throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The entire collection, the building, the gardens and the exhibit itself were conceived and executed by French designer Jacques Van de Beuque, He is also responsible for amassing the collection in which he invested his own financial resources as well as fifty years of research and travel.
The permanent collection contains over 8000 works representative of the different urban and rural cultures of Brazil, 5,000 of which are on display in the Museum's 1500 m2 of galleries. Organized thematically, they reflect every day activities, celebrations and festivals and the real in the fantasy lives of the people. Scattered throughout the galleries are explanatory texts in Portuguese, English and French.
Marked for preservation by the Rio de Janeiro Committee to Protect the Artistic and Cultural Heritage in 1989, the Museum received the Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade award in 1996 from the Institute for Historical and Artistic Heritage in recognition of its work. It was considered "the best initiative (in Brazil) for the preservation of artistic and historic buildings and other goods"..
According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), associated with Unesco, "the Casa do Pontal is not only a complete Museum of Brazilian folk Art, but a Museum of Anthropology as well, the only one in the country that has a broad vision of the life and culture of the Brazilian People"

The Casa do Pontal Museum is located on a 12,000 m² site in the Recreio, near the Barra da Tijuca, Between the solid granite Stone, White Stone, and Prainha.
Estrada do Pontal, 3295
Recreio
Rio de Janeiro RJ 22785-580
Phones and Fax
(0055-21) 2490-3278
(0055-21) 2490-4013
faleconosco@museucasadopontal.com.br

How to get there
Coming from the Southern part of the City
Take Av. das Americas, in the direction of Barra to Recreio. At the Recreio Shopping Center, follow the signs and take the right-hand exit just before the overpass. Go to the Canal. At the canal, turn left, following the signs, passing under the overpass.
Proceed for 1 km, along the Canal until you arrive at another sign. Now turn to the right, crossing the bridge over the Canal and head to the right again, following the signs.
Continue for another 2 km on the Estada do Pontal until you reach the entrance to the Museu Casa do Pontal, which you will see on the left.

Coming from the Western part of the City
After the descent down the Grota Funda, take the Estrada do Pontal to your right. Proceed approximately 2 km and you will find the Museu Casa do Pontal on your left, on the opposite side of the road, and shortly after passing St. Patrick’s School.

The permanent collection of the Museum has on display, in its 1,500 m2 of galleries, more than 5,000 works, produced from 1950 to the present, representing the different rural and urban cultures of Brazil.
The exposition is organized thematically, according to everyday activities, festivals and celebrations, fantasies and religious lives of the people.
Throughout the galleries there are more than 100 explanatory texts in English, Portuguese and French; photographic enlargements of the artists and the folk festivals, and more than 1,000 titles of works, with the authorship, birthplace of the artist and the decade in which the work was produced. The pieces are contained in more than 100 illuminated glass cases.

http://www.museucasadopontal.com.br/museucasadopontal/htdocs/site.asp?secao=2

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