João Doria, the state governor for São Paulo, organized an event this Tuesday, 26, to unveil the Ipiranga Museum restoration project. Alongside project partners the University of São Paulo (USP) and EDP, a company that operates across the electricity industry value chain, Doria invited private sector companies to join the mission to return the Ipiranga Museum to the general public. The Company was the first to announce in January that it would be a master sponsor for the restoration, investing R$ 12 million through the Federal Cultural Incentive Act. “The Ipiranga Museum is a place of immense historical importance for both Brazil and Portugal. EDP arrived here over 20 years ago and is Portugal’s biggest investor in Brazil. We felt an obligation to contribute towards this major investment, which will help protect our historical and cultural heritage and mirrors our efforts at the Portuguese Language Museum”, said Miguel Seta, EDP’s CEO in Brazil. The event was attended by members of the business community and Jorge Cabral, Portugal’s ambassador to Brazil.  

At the restoration is expected to take 30 months and post-construction architectural designs for the Museum were presented at the meeting. The building will gain an additional 5 thousand square meters of floor space and will be adapted to comply with current infrastructure, accessibility, safety and sustainability regulations. The additional space will be used to provide new facilities, including a temporary exhibition venue, auditorium, rooms for educational initiatives, a coffee shop and store. The Museum is scheduled to reopen in 2022.

“We contacted USP because we want to support the project and give the Museum a new lease of life, restoring it to celebrate Brazil 200th anniversary of Independence. We are committed to the mission of supporting the restoration project, which will benefit Brazilians generally as well as the entire Portuguese-speaking community. The project will be landmark for everyone who is proud of their Portuguese roots. I am very happy to see the sense of patriotism behind the restoration and thank Portugal for the wonderful example it has set through EDP, which was the first company to swiftly accept our invitation”, state governor João Doria told guests at the Bandeirantes Palace.

“We need private sector support to move ahead with this major project to restore the Ipiranga Museum.  EDP’s support signals a new phase for the Ipiranga Museum and the University, as it will help the Museum find new paths to financial sustainability in the years ahead, allowing it to fulfill its mission to support research, culture and education”, said Solange Lima, an USP professor and director of the Ipiranga Museum. 

A Museum with a heartbeat

At the Ipiranga Museum collection of over 450 thousand items, including objects, iconography and manuscripts dating from the 16th to the mid 20th century,  is key to understanding Brazilian society. The landmark building was built on 1890 and the Museum was opened to the public in 1895.  The neoclassical building marks the spot where the Dom Pedro I allegedly read the Proclamation of Independence in 1822, on the banks of the Ipiranga River. One of the most well-known items in the collection is the ‘Independence or death!’ painting by artist Pedro Américo, dated 1888.  The cultural venue, which has been closed since 2013, received an average of 350 thousand visitors every year.

“We are preparing for this next step and FUSP - the University of São Paulo Foundation - is managing the project’s finances. FUSP has over 20 years’ experience managing projects and agreements that support the University’s activities through public-private partnerships”, said the Ipiranga Museum director.

Commitment to cultural heritage

EDP believes that supporting the culture and arts of Portuguese-speaking countries helps showcase the richness and diversity of the most frequently-spoken language in the southern hemisphere. Part of the company’s mission is to showcase the depth and breadth of the Portuguese language, which is why EDP decided to become the biggest sponsor for reconstruction of São Paulo’s Portuguese Language Museum: it will invest R$ 20 million through 2019.

EDP has also created a travelling exhibition called “The Power of the Portuguese Language” (A Energia da Língua Portuguesa) to take the Museum’s experience across the country. The exhibition travelled inside a truck, bringing culture and information about the language to more than 23 thousand visitors in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia and Ceará. The Company is also a cultural sponsor of the 25th International Book Biennial in São Paulo and co-sponsor of the International Literary Festival in Paraty (FLIP).

About EDP Brazil

EDP has over 20 years’ experience and is one of the biggest private-sector companies operating across the entire value chain. The Company has over 10,000 direct and indirect staff and is involved in energy Generation, Distribution, Transmission, Sales and Services. The company has six hydro power plants and one thermal power station that serve around 3.4 million people in the states of São Paulo and Espírito Santo. The Company recently acquired a majority stake in CELESC, from Santa Catarina. In Brazil, the company is noted for its Innovation, Governance and Sustainability and has been included in the B3 Business Sustainability Index (BSI) for 13 consecutive years.