Rio de Janeiro is one of those destinations that even if you spend over 20 days only in the city, wouldn’t be enough. There are soo many things to do and places to see. This time we point the light to our favorite museum in Rio de Janeiro (one of them at least!), the Casa do Pontal Museum.
A bit of this museum in Rio de Janeiro
With the mission of working for the memory, recognition, and appreciation of Brazilian popular art (folk art), this is one of the most important museums in Rio de Janeiro.
Through research, preservation and wide dissemination of its collection, the Casa do Pontal Museum, is an essential museum for popular art in Brazil.
Back in 1996, the museum was awarded the Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade Prize, granted by the Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), which recognized it as “the best initiative in the country for the historic and artistic preservation of movable and immovable property”.
To visit this place is to have the first-hand view of what Brazilian popular art is. This museum in Rio de Janeiro brings portraits of the memory of a country rich in culture and diversity. Its collection – the result over four decades of research and travel throughout the country by French designer Jacques Van de Beuque – is composed of about 8 thousand pieces of 200 different Brazilian artists. All pieces were produced from the 20th century, and among them are sculptures, dolls, carvings, modeling, and articulated mechanisms. The last one being the shiny start of Casa do Pontal’s collection. They are all produced with the use of clay, wood, cloth, sand, iron, aluminum, bread crumbs, straw, and wire. Very traditional materials that express Brazilian culture and life as best.
The artists on this museum in Rio de Janeiro who make Casa do Pontal unique
Among the examples are puppets by the super famous and iconic names for Brazil’s art history. Some of those names are Mestre Vitalino, Zé Cabloco, and Manuel Eudócio. They are well-known in this field because they portray the customs of parties and festivities in the interior of Brazil. Brazilian types such as cowboys, cangaceiros, members of samba schools, grooms in wedding dresses are also represented. Pieces by Noemisa, Antonio Porteiro, Adailton Lopes and Mestre Didi also make up the collection, which continues to be updated with various partnerships and collaborations.
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How to get there and a bit of more info
The Casa do Pontal Museum is housed in a 12,000 m² site in the neighborhood Recreio dos Bandeirantes. It is quite tricky to get there from Zona Sul, but we’ll make it easy with maps and step by step explanation and how-to. Don’t worry.
This museum in Rio de Janeiro’s extensive gardens has been specially designed to promote a perfect integration between the vegetation, the galleries of the museum and the ecological reserve that extends around. In more than 35 years of operation, the Museum has been committed to building foundations that allow its collection to be socially protected and widely enjoyed.
In other to get there the most comfortable way if to get a taxi or an uber or whatever you prefer. It will cost you some money, but it is easier. The best is to get the subway all the way to Jardim Oceanico. This station in on the 4th line, the yellow one and it is the last stop on the line. Very easy.
From the Station Jardim Oceanico to this museum in Rio de Janeiro is about 2 hours. With the other option, you can cut this time in half!
After that, you can do the easy way – which is with a taxi or uber – or the cheaper method that is by hopping into the BRT. BRT is a special bus that starts at Jardim Oceanico and goes all the way to the very inside of Rio de Janeiro suburbs.
Casa do Pontal is very green and very far from the city landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Prepare to enter a paradise of green palm tree leaves and dirt roads. It is wonderful!
Hop in the BRT21A all the way to the station “Transoeste – Pedra de Itaúna” and from there, another bus (line LECD25) until close to the number 3101 of this avenue (Avenue Estrada do Pontal, 3101). Hop off and walk 5 or 10 minutes to this hidden museum in Rio de Janeiro’s green suburbs.
The option with subway+car will save you around 60 min on the trip. It won’t cost so much if your currency is Euro or Dollar. We recommend this one a lot.
Casa do Pontal and its projects
Also, this Museum in Rio de Janeiro has a unique program of visiting students, educators, and scholars. Since 1996, it has served more than 400.000 people through its Social and Educational Program!! That is an equivalent of around 111 per day! And that involves theatrical visits, traveling exhibitions and continuing education of educators and managers of cultural projects and social.
Permanent exhibitions enrich the visit. In 1,500 m2 of galleries, 4,500 works produced from the mid-1950s until today are on display, representative of the Brazilian cultural universe, with its varied rural and urban cultures. The exhibition provides a comprehensive view of Brazilian life and its daily, festive, imaginary, and religious activities. It is noteworthy that the Casa do Pontal Museum was thematically organized in 12 sectors that are completed in the circuit of the exhibition.
When in Rio, don’t forget that sometimes the coolest destinations are the hidden ones! We promise that you won’t have to deal with a mass of tourists in this great place.
And also, if you’re into street art, this museum in Rio de Janeiro has a surprise. There’s sort of a shaft/bunker with an exclusive piece from Os Gemeos there! Don’t forget to visit and tell us all about it on our Facebook Group!
