The theory, in practice, works: Managing collections in the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto

Abstract

The work depicts an overview of the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto's revitalization process, since 1993, from the point of view of Collecting Policy. Starting with the acceptance of three conceptual sources (the knowledge of institution´s history, the knowledge of the main lines of the collections and the existence of a long term institutional project) the authors examine the early characteristics of the Museum and the main motives of its stagnation in the following four decades. The theoretical and methodological options are examinated and the possibilities arouse by the process are analyzed. The focus of the museum's trajectory is provided by the perspective of the acquisition and management of the collections, which has gone through major problems of administrative, structural, and even conceptual orders, but today it counts on an efficient policy for the control and expansion of it, which garanteed its updating in relation to the development of Belo Horizonte.