The materialism of the symbolic in São Paulo's museums: MASP and Pinacoteca's funding field

• Grant number: 22/00939-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Belem Hey
• Grantee: Francesco Andrade Tomei
• Supervisor: François Denord
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/01180-6 - A play of art or the art in play: economic elites and the patron system of the MASP and Pinacoteca, BP.DR

Abstract

This study seeks to reconstruct the relations of proximity and donation between economic elites and the two biggest museums of São Paulo (the MASP and the Pinacoteca). Thus, our research inserts itself in the sociology of the elites, by studying groups that possess and accumulate finite and distinctive resources in both economic and cultural systems, therefore intermingling with some aspects of economic and cultural sociology. With the increasing participation of the private sector and companies in the financing of culture, we seek to identify the companies who finance both museums and perceive their distinctive properties. Our main hypothesis is that companies that participate in art philanthropy are at the top of the economic and cultural hierarchy in Brazil and reinforce this position thru those donations. We shall use data already collected in the archives of the MASP and Pinacoteca, concerning the donations, as well as the system of tax breaks and public available information of those companies. The internship will be the opportunity to learn the treatment of statistics utilized for the analysis of the results. We intend to work with descriptive statistics and geometrical analysis of data (AGD). (AU)