The general director of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), Reginaldo Freitas Júnior, met this Thursday morning (2) with the extraordinary secretary of Culture of Rio Grande do Norte, Maryland Brito, to propose the development of partnerships between the institutions. The meeting took place at the Rampa Cultural Complex, in the Santos Reis neighborhood, east of Natal.
The meeting was marked by a productive and open dialogue, where potential projects and initiatives that could be carried out together were discussed, aiming at expanding access to culture in Macaíba, the municipality in which the ISD is located. The intention is to establish an agenda that promotes film screenings, exhibitions, seminars and stimulates cultural production among people with disabilities, students from the public school system in Macaíba and residents of local communities.
To this end, the ISD’s general director has made the Institute’s physical structure available to the state’s cultural agents. “We have a fully equipped auditorium that is accessible to people with disabilities and can be turned into a movie theater. We also have an exhibition space that can host countless artistic projects. We have no shortage of ideas. What we want is to break out of inertia and make the Santos Dumont Institute a means of access to culture in Macaíba,” stated Reginaldo Freitas Júnior.
The ideas shared were well received by the Extraordinary Secretary of Culture. Maryland Brito explained the department's mission to promote cultural and artistic diversity in the state and highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships to achieve these goals. She also emphasized the need to include people with disabilities in cultural incentive notices, as a way to promote greater equity in access to resources to support the sector.
“Our intention is to change the world through culture. There is a quote by Einstein that says that the mind, once expanded, is like a parachute: it never returns to the same place. And culture brings this, it brings this break. And for people with disabilities, I also know that culture is a way to break paradigms. When they are there in dance, in the movies, in other things, their attention ends up going to something other than their disability,” he emphasized.
At the end of the meeting, both parties agreed to begin a process of detailed assessment of the opportunities identified and the formation of working groups with the aim of establishing the basis for future cooperation. Reginaldo Freitas Júnior and Maryland Brito highlighted their mutual commitment to boost cultural and educational development in the state, with a focus on the inclusion of people with disabilities in cultural activities.
“What holds people with disabilities back is the limitation of their social participation. Most of them do not participate in leisure and cultural activities, do not go to the movies or the theater, and do not leave their homes. In fact, they leave their homes to go to the health service and from the health service to their homes. I believe that our partnership can leverage this. We can have a cultural agenda for Rio Grande do Norte that is absolutely based on inclusion,” Reginaldo projected.
About ISD
The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) is a Social Organization linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC) and includes the Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute and the Anita Garibaldi Center for Health Education and Research, both in Macaíba. ISD's mission is to promote education for life, forming citizens through integrated teaching, research and extension actions, in addition to contributing to a fairer and more humane transformation of Brazilian social reality.
