Instituto Inhotim
Vast contemporary art park set in botanical gardens, with pavilions by leading artists.
Instituto Inhotim is a contemporary art museum and botanical garden in Brumadinho, in the hills of Minas Gerais about 60 kilometres from Belo Horizonte. It was established in 2004 by the mining and steel entrepreneur Bernardo Paz on his former country estate and opened to the public in 2006. Run as a private non-profit institution, it is one of the largest open-air art centres in the world and marked its 20th year of public opening in 2026.
Works by Brazilian and international artists are shown in more than 20 galleries and pavilions and in outdoor installations spread across landscaped grounds of almost 100 hectares open to visitors, within an estate of around 786 hectares that includes a private nature reserve. Several galleries are dedicated to a single artist, among them Tunga, Adriana Varejão, Cildo Meireles, Claudia Andujar and Lygia Pape. The collection numbers several hundred works of painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation.
The gardens, developed from the 1980s onwards with landscape work by Pedro Nehring and Luiz Carlos Orsini, were officially recognised as a botanical garden in 2011. They contain some 4,300 plant species, including one of the world's largest collections of palms, with around 1,500 species, set around a series of artificial lakes. The institute also runs educational programmes with schools and communities in Brumadinho, and holds music, workshops and other events in the park throughout the year.
Highlights
- Single-artist galleries devoted to Tunga, Adriana Varejão and Claudia Andujar
- Large-scale outdoor installations set among lakes and tropical gardens
- Botanical garden with around 4,300 species, including 1,500 species of palm
- Galeria Cildo Meireles, due to reopen after renovation in October 2026
- Estate of about 786 hectares including a private nature reserve
