last modified:2009-01-16 08:15:43
Strengthening Brazilian Studies
The Brazilian Cultural Collection is an exciting new addition to the Marriot Library's expanding resources on Latin American culture. Originating from the Brazilian-American Institute in Washington, D.C., the Collection spans the twentieth century and comprises Brazilian art, film (both feature and documentary), music, and videos. Many of the sound recordings and films are historical documents that are difficult to find elsewhere.
The items from this collection will certainly be of interest not only to students of Brazilian music, film, art and history, but also to any who seek exposure to Brazilian culture. Additionally, the collection with cafilitate acculteration for students of the Portuguese Language by giving them access to a broad range of manifestations from popular culture. Thousands of items are available as part of the Multimedia Center and are searchable in the Marriott Library's general catalogue. This acquisistion will undoubtedly make the Marriott Library and The University of Utah a focal point for scholars and students of Brazilian culture and history.
Among the first to use the Brazilian Cultural Collection is Elena Shtromberg, a new hire in the Department of Art and Art History, whose main areas of research include twentieth-century Brazilian art, Latin American performance art, as well as art from the U.S.-Mexico border region. Professor Shtromberg received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of California at Loz Angeles. Her dissertation, entitled "Conceptual Encounters: Art and Information in Brazil, 1968-1978," investigates the turn to performance art, video art, and visual poetry by Brazilian artists during the military dictatorship.
The dissertation posits that the politicized variant of conceptualism that emerged in Brazil was infuence by the need for artists to seek out alternative modes of communication. Her scholarship in the field of contemporary Latin American art attends to questions of gender, ethnic, and political identity.
During her time working for the Getty Research Institute she organized (with Glenn Philips) Pioneers of Brazilian Video Art (October 2004), a video art screening covering the first decade of video art production in Brazil (1973-1983) and Surveying the Boarder: 3 Decades of Video Art about the U.S. and Mexico (September 2005), a screening of video art highlighting a number of different perspectives surrounding the United States/Mexico border. This year Professor Shtromberg's courses include Border Art: Visual Culture along the U.S. Mexico Border.