[[IMGNOT1]São Paulo – How about going to the Cairo Museum at night, on a private visit just for you and your tourist group? Or else take cooking lessons in Morocco and go on a near-customized camping trip with specialized guides explaining, in Portuguese, the details of local art and history? Such is the idea of two entrepreneuring women from Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, who organize trips focusing on routes involving the history and art of countries and cities.
IMGNOT2]]The project is called “Viajando com Arte” (travelling with Art) and promotes two to three trips to different countries each year, including Arab nations. The program has covered France, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Spain and Peru. The initiative has existed for six years and two trips to Egypt have taken place, in 2007 and 2008. “Egypt is the apple of our eyes, we had already scheduled another trip for 2013,” says Mylene Friedrich Rizzo, one of the founders of Viajando com Arte, explaining that the trip was cancelled due to the country’s yet not fully stable situation.
The group which travelled to Egypt, for instance, took a cruise on River Nile, flew over the Valley of the Kings on a balloon, and visited the Cairo Museum at night, including all due historical explanations from Rizzo and her partner Clarisse Zanetello Linhares. Morocco was the destination about three years ago, and there the tourists went night camping on the desert riding camels and were received by musicians with a bonfire and all. They also took cooking classes in Marrakech.
Rizzo explains that the routes involve art and history, but the trips may be defined as experience tourism. “We give all the historical background and the main artistic facts, but it’s not just cultural, we also go to good restaurants and stay in great hotels,” says Rizzo. Adventure is also a strong point. In Italy, the group made a private evening visit to the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, in Peru they went picnicking in the Sacred Valley facing the Ruins of Pisac, and in Turkey the group rode horses in the Valley of Love and had dinner to the sound of violins at the Ruins of Ephesus.
Next on schedule is the first domestic trip, to the Inhotim Art Institute and Botanical Garden, in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, in October. Rizzo and Linhares will accompany the organizers of the Mercosur Biennial, an art show hosted by Porto Alegre, to the destination, one of the world’s foremost contemporary art venues. In November, a trip to New York will be themed “Art and Fashion,” with scheduled stops at three fashion museums and spots. The schedule for 2013 includes Mexico, Thailand and Cambodia. For 2014, Morocco and Turkey.
Travel agency Porto Brasil Viagens operationalizes the trips for Rizzo and Linhares. The two started out in the industry about ten years ago, when they started offering courses and lectures on history and art in a personal project named “Meetings with Art.” Students began asking them to join them in trips, and hence came the idea for “Travelling with Art.” “It came out of the need from people who were not associated with the university to learn more about history and culture,” says Rizzo.
Rizzo holds a degree in Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS) and a postdoctorate in History of Brazil from Faculdade Porto Alegrense (Fapa). Linhares holds a degree in Advertising from PUC-RS, and always made alternative studies on History. According to Rizzo, most tourists who travel with the project are women from the same state as hers. However, according to her, due to the visibility attained in later years, “Travelling with Art” started getting clients from other areas of Brazil.
Contact:
Projeto Viajando com Arte
Telephone: + 55 (51) 9991-1011
Email: encontroscomarte@terra.com.br
Blog: http://wp.clicrbs.com.br/viajandocomarte
Website: www.encontroscomarte.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum