Located in the
Centro district of Rio de Janeiro, it is next to
Avenida Rio Branco. It is located in the historic downtown and occupies two buildings at
Praça Mauá, between Centro and the
Zona Portuária. A project devised in partnership with the Fundação Roberto Marinho, the museum is a partnership between municipal, state and federal governments, with the support of the
Federal Ministry of Culture, and seeks to promote a valorization of the history of the city. One of the buildings is the
Palacete Dom João VI, constructed with an eclectic style. It was dedicated to exposition rooms, dubbed the "Pavilhão de Exposições", and took advantage of a high level of space between the pavement and building, as well as the freeform structure of the rooms. The other, adjacent to the palace, was used as the Mariano Procópio bus station prior to being integrated into the museum, the "Escola do Olhar", along with housing the administrative offices and other departments. The two buildings are connected by a suspended catwalk, a "fluid cover", which occupies a total area of 2,300 square meters and a constructed area of 11,240 m².
Inauguration With the presence of many governmental representatives from all levels of government, the space was inaugurated on 1 March 2013, despite some areas still being in progress. At the time, the governor of the state of
Rio de Janeiro,
Sérgio Cabral, estimated that the construction of the museum cost R$76 million. Along with this, during the Museum's opening, Cabral announced that all of the records of the Bank of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Banerj) would be moved to the museum.
Architectural prize The museum was awarded, in the year of its inauguration in 2013, the best construction project of the year in the museum category for the
Architizer A+ Awards. The Museu de Arte do Rio competed with the
Heydar Aliyev Center,
New Rijksmuseum, the Zhujiajiao Museum of Humanities & Arts, and the
Danish Maritime Museum. == See also ==