City Museums

Maria Pace Chiavari

is an architect, PhD in Urban Planning (PROURB/UFRJ). Member of the International Committee for the collections and Cities Museums Activities (CAMOC) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

She is Italian and owes the title of Honorary Carioca Citizen of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

City museums and their importance to urban centers in the 21st century

At the present time we can see changes in Rio de Janeiro that interfere with the life experience of the population and with the urban memory relationship. The city museums of 21st century present in urban centers both ways of thinking and of interacting based on participation, collaboration and involvement of the community. This is reflected in the changing of traditional landscapes configuration of museology – the collections, cultural heritage and territory – to its population. The range changes – it's no longer limited to the original collection – but extended to the communication network that connects the cultural institution with territorial systems and urban landscape, which is regarded as equity.

The participatory management – supported by a network of communication between "eco-museums" – is what makes the city museum to be seen as a complex ecosystem which the function – according to Professor Marlen Mouliou of the University of Athena – is "to test and verify the city's health status and to conceive possible measures".