On September 2, 2018, the National Museum/UFRJ in Rio de Janeiro suffered a major fire. It was the most important museum of this kind in Latin America, with a collection of about 20 million objects - including artefacts of long extinct indigenous groups and the last surviving records of their languages. Since the fire, the German Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut have been supporting the National Museum in the rescue work and the development of a concept for a new museum.
In June 2022, the Goethe-Institut and the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, together with numerous museums and cultural institutions and supported by the German Foreign Office, are organising an International Museum Conference in Rio de Janeiro. In particular, it aims to develop concepts that prepare museums of Natural History and Ethnology for the future in difficult times. The central themes of the conference are: "Museums in the field of tension of society", "Collections and Archives" and "Sustainability".
In June 2022, the Goethe-Institut and the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, together with numerous museums and cultural institutions and supported by the German Foreign Office, are organising an International Museum Conference in Rio de Janeiro. In particular, it aims to develop concepts that prepare museums of Natural History and Ethnology for the future in difficult times. The central themes of the conference are: "Museums in the field of tension of society", "Collections and Archives" and "Sustainability".
The conference originally planned for October 5-7, 2020 had to be postponed due to the Corona pandemic to June 2022.
