The Collection as Infrastructure for Territorial Development

 In 2022, the estate of artist Rossini Perez, born in Macaíba in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte, was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to the Pinacoteca do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte in Natal. The artist — whose work was marked by his international circulation across Africa, Europe, and Latin America — had long dreamed of seeing his collection transformed into an institution. After his passing in 2020, a collaboration between his heirs, the director of the Instituto Rossini Perez, Sabrina Moura, and a group of curators and cultural professionals gave shape to this new structure.

The arrival of this collection in Natal was not only the creation of an institution responsible for preserving the artist’s works and archives.
It marked the activation of an entire chain of development — pedagogical, cultural, symbolic, and territorial.

Because when collections are activated with intention, they stop being mere groups of objects and become strategic infrastructures for strengthening local networks, diversifying education, and redesigning public cultural policies.

In other words, the relocation of the artist’s collection to Natal became a model of territory-based governance.

At the time of the transfer, the Pinacoteca do Rio Grande do Norte did not yet have a formal structure to manage large-scale art collections.

Rather than an obstacle, this became an opportunity for innovation — the creation of a participatory inventory process in partnership with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), involving undergraduate art students, faculty, and professionals in the field.

This process fostered the development of specific skills in areas such as:

• Museology and collection documentation
• Preventive conservation
• Curatorial and cultural heritage management
   

Traditional art education was thus expanded to include the technical and operational dimensions essential to the cultural ecosystem.

A second dimension of impact emerged through the activation of the collection in cultural production.

In 2024, the exhibition Desenhos de Rossini Perez (Drawings by Rossini Perez) was held at the Pinacoteca do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte — a direct outcome of the training process.

The exhibition was conceived and submitted for federal cultural funding by undergraduate student Ana Carolina Alves, and curated by professors Fabiola Alves, Everardo Ramos, and Mariana do Vale.

The project also engaged students and alumni in multiple areas: executive production, audiovisual content creation, institutional communication, and mediation. 

This demonstrates how the collection operated as a cross-disciplinary pedagogical tool, connecting teaching, outreach, student leadership, and professional practice.

The visibility of the collection attracted researchers from international academic institutions.

Among them were Abigail Dardashti (University of California) and Gonzalo Pinilla (Knox College), who conducted in-depth research on Rossini Perez’s trajectory and the broader issues emerging from his archive — such as the networks of Latin American and African printmaking.

As part of their institutional exchange, these scholars offered workshops, courses, and public lectures at the university, fostering a reciprocal and qualified exchange of knowledge.

This represents a clear example of decentralized internationalization — where an institution in Brazil’s Northeast assumes a central role in the global circuit of knowledge production and circulation.

Another significant impact was the transfer of knowledge to the public school system.

Based on the collection, continuing education programs were developed for public school teachers, including short courses, technical visits, and the creation of educational materials.

These resources enabled the integration of Rossini Perez’s work into classroom content, broadening the pedagogical repertoire and reinforcing the role of art as a structural component of the curriculum.

The collection thus became a mediating tool between heritage and educational policy.

At the regional level, activating the collection encouraged new institutional collaborations.

In 2025, the collection left the Pinacoteca and was placed under the custody of UFRN, on a loan basis.

In partnership with the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), UFRN faculty and students carried out a joint research mission, fostering exchanges with their peers.

This initiative contributes to the consolidation of a Northeastern network for the circulation of collections, expertise, and curatorial experience.

It shows that cultural development does not depend solely on concentration in major urban centers, but on active territorial networks capable of generating impact from their own historical and creative density.

By being strategically activated, the Rossini Perez Collection became more than a body of artworks:
it turned into a platform for developing local capacities, a vector for technical and symbolic formation, and an infrastructure for internationalization, cultural mediation, and regional collaboration.

Its arrival catalyzed a structural transformation:

• In university education
• In the relationship with territory
• In the field of cultural production
• And in policies that value local art
   

Among the Institute’s next steps are the creation of its own headquarters and the organization of a new exhibition, part of the second edition of the Atelier for Initiation to Art Curatorship.

In other words, it’s not only the collection that’s being activated —
it’s the territory itself.