The Guimarães Rosa Institute (IGR) is a Brazilian government agency dedicated to cultural and educational diplomacy in Brazil. It is up to the IGR to draw up guidelines for Brazilian foreign policy in the field of cultural and educational relations. Included among its attributions are:
The IGR was created in 2022 as an integral unit of the regimental structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and replaced the extinct Cultural and Educational Department. Abroad, the 24 IGR units replaced the Brazilian Cultural Centers (CCB). IGR units abroad operate in a decentralized manner and are subordinated to Brazilian diplomatic or consular missions abroad.
The choice of the writer and diplomat Guimarães Rosa to name the IGR aimed to recognize the integration of the roles of art, culture, and language as instruments of foreign policy in the context of cultural and educational diplomacy.
The IGR was launched as part of the celebrations of the Bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, in September 2022. The first director of the IGR was Ambassador Paula Alves de Souza, who held the position from April 2022 to March 2023.
The first Brazilian Cultural Center was inaugurated in 1962 in the city of Lima, and the first selection of candidates for the Readers Program was held in 1965. Since then, dozens of other units have been created.
The Guimarães Rosa Institute in Georgetown (former CCBG) was created on March 15, 1970, the year in which the Brazil-Guyana Cultural Agreement came into force, the main instrument for the dissemination of Brazilian culture in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Located in an area that was, in colonial times, a plantation, the IGR Georgetown is located in the traditional neighborhood called “Queenstown”, created in 1887 in honor of Queen Victoria, who celebrated her jubilee that year.
Despite its geographic proximity to Brazil, the historical and cultural roots of English-speaking Guiana bring it closer to the Caribbean
than in South America, which makes it even more important to
role of the IGR in the dissemination of our culture and the Portuguese language.
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