Mining magnate Bernardo Paz, known for establishing the Inhotim museum and nature complex, has announced the Museu Bernardo Paz, as reported by Art News.
This project will transform 311 acres of countryside into a space dedicated to “art, nature, and community,” with the first phase scheduled to open in September 2027.
“Museu Bernardo Paz is taking root and flourishing from a belief in the creative potential of unexpected encounters,” says Paz.
"This is a place to discover new relationships between art and landscapes of different kinds, between artists and audiences that have not yet met one another, and between the community of Brumadinho and visitors from all over the world. All of this is coming together here, and all of it is for the people.”
Space for art, nature, and community
The museum will have over 20 galleries and pavilions, outdoor installations, sculptures, and a landscape with a botanical park and forest. It will include a community center with a library and art studios.
One pavilion will focus on music and dancing, key aspects of Brazilian culture, organisers say.
The first phase includes pavilions for works by Laura Belém, Sandra Gamarra, Sonia Gomes, Michael Heizer, Anna Maria Maiolino, and Pedro Moraleida, plus large sculptures by Torkwase Dyson, Frida Orupabo, Giuseppe Penone, and Mario Garcia Torres.
“At a moment when there is a prevailing global sense of ever-narrowing possibilities—whether in culture, society, the environment, or politics—we hope that Museu Bernardo Paz will be a place that renews the imagination,” says Paulo Miyada, artistic director.
“In a landscape full of conjunctions that challenge established notions of museum and landscape, intense opportunities emerge for creation, inspiration, and transformation.”
Paz co-founded Inhotim in 2006 with New York art advisor Allan Schwartzman, who is also chief curatorial advisor on the new project.
Inhotim combines art with nature preserves and imported plants. It features works by global and Brazilian artists like Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney, Chris Burden, Yayoi Kusama, David Lamelas, Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Valeska Soares, and Adriana Varejão.
“Bernardo Paz opened up unprecedented possibilities for contemporary art museums when he founded Inhotim 20 years ago,” says Schwartzman. “With that landmark institution now established, he is moving beyond it into new experimental territory.
"There is a creative abundance at Museu Bernardo Paz—a distinctive and radical sense of discovery—that will be astonishing in both scope and imaginative force.”
In 2025, the Centre Pompidou announced plans for a new museum near Iguazu Falls in the Brazilian state of Paraná. The Centre Pompidou's first outpost in South America is due to open in 2027. It will be located in the city of Foz do Iguaçu near Iguazu Falls, a Unesco World Heritage site and the second most-visited site in Brazil.
Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.
