Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo
Ibirapuera museum tracing African and Afro-Brazilian history, art and religion across five centuries.
The museum occupies the Padre Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, a long, pilotis-raised block designed by Oscar Niemeyer for the 1954 fourth-centenary celebrations of São Paulo. Opened as a museum in 2004 under the direction of the Bahian sculptor and curator Emanoel Araujo, it holds several thousand works and documents covering the African diaspora in Brazil. Araujo assembled much of the collection himself, and the institution was renamed in his honour after his death in 2022.
Displays are arranged thematically rather than chronologically, covering slavery and the transatlantic trade, work, religion, festivals and contemporary art. Sculpture, painting, photography, textiles, ritual objects and archival papers appear side by side, with substantial holdings from Nigeria and Benin alongside Brazilian material. The long-term exhibition fills most of the pavilion, while temporary shows, a cinema programme and an education service occupy further galleries. The building sits inside Ibirapuera Park, a short walk from Gate 10.
Highlights
- Oscar Niemeyer's 1954 pavilion, raised on pilotis in Ibirapuera Park
- Long-term display on slavery, religion, work and festival traditions
- African holdings centred on Nigeria and Benin gathered by Emanoel Araujo
- Temporary galleries, cinema programme and accessible tactile resources
![[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]title QS:P1476,en:"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"label QS:Len,"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/500px-Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
