Universidadade Federal de Minas Gerais network of museums and science and culture spaces: trajectory, challenges and perspectives

Abstract

Created in 2001, the  Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Network  and Science and Culture Spaces is formed by the voluntary adhesion of spaces, which remain autonomous, but articulated to build common policies and projects in the convergence of education, research and extension with the safeguarding and communication between collections. Over the last five years, the Network’s agenda has focused on improving its own institutional design, producing information about the university heritage as a tool for planning and developing network projects. The agreement of actions for the management of the scientific and cultural heritage imposes the confrontation of several challenges, including the diversity of the spaces that compose the Network, when considering the institutional profile, degree of autonomy, human and financial resources and physical structure. Moreover, the need to deal with a culture still marked by the standards of speciation and creation of “niches” proper to scientific development and the university environment, as highlighted by Thomas Kuhn. The consolidation of network actions requires building a difficult balance, in which hierarchies and competitions are overcome in favor of autonomous and spontaneous reciprocity of rhizomatic articulations, in the search for common objectives and the sharing of resources and experiences.