Gorgeous museum. With history and art of Minas Gerais state…read more It is housed in a historical government building with beautiful architecture that has been preserved, with added modern touches. You can see everything in a couple of hours and make sure to grab a coffee at their café. The admission is free.

Possibly my favorite museum in Brazil! Belo Horizonte has lots of museums to choose from, but this…read moreis truly unique. They have displays on poets with small strips of poetry tucked into branches on a tree to be read. They have an exhibit on Sebastião Salgado, our favorite Brazilian photographer with videos and beautiful prints of his work. They have a section on the haunted house and history of Belo Horizonte. They showed some old time farmer movies displayed in a room decorated in farm furniture. They have a room modeled after a theater and the history of opera culture. We also looked at a historical retelling from 3 different time periods and perspectives, an Amazon indigenous, a slave and a Portuguese. They projected a video on a face cast and it looked 3-dimensional, along with a film that accompanied it. All of these were varied and unique methods of celebrating history in a captivating way. The museum is free with storage lockers for big bags, has clean restrooms, an open air courtyard and a bright cafe in the back. All information has both English and Portuguese handouts which made it easy to follow.

This old building are quite impressive from an architectural point of view; beautiful crown…read moremolding, marble steps, grand staircase, high ceilings. The building itself it worth a look. It also has a cafe and concert hall on the ground floor. I saw the exhibition for Iberé Camargo, a famous Brazilian painter known for his dark, heavily oil painted figures with a bicycle. I'm sure there was deeper meaning for each iteration of the pictures but held diminutive titles like you are worthless, made it seem little dreary. I wasn't a particular fan of this artist, but his work covered the entire third floor, so quite a collection. There was a curator on staff who was starting conversations with interested patrons. The museum is free and there are rotating exhibits so it's worth returning to.

Great place for kids and adults to take a walk around the square and learn a little bit about our…read morecity.

Praça da Liberdade itself is very beautiful! It's surrounded by palm trees and a charming…read morelandscape. It's perfect for taking a walk, during the day or night, with family and friends. And it's specially beautiful at Christmas time. The Cultural Circuit around the square is also amazing! The old public buildings were transformed to be cultural centers, housing history, culture and art, besides nice restaurants and cafés. And you can enjoy all the museums for free! You can't miss this spot in the city! ;)

Good-size cultural complex with multiple spaces for events of all types and sizes. There's a…read moretheatre and there are multifunctional rooms that can be used for installations, group projects, etc. I've been here a few times, including for a performance in the foyer. The place is clean, safe, and easy to get to, but nothing that really stands out about it.

Museum just off Praça Liberdade. When we went there were three simultaneous expositions spread over…read morefour floors. We came for the aboriginal art exposition Dreamtime and this did not disappoint. When I lived down under I never saw such a well-curated collection of beautiful indigenous art. Just spectacular. The explanations were in Portuguese and English. My only gripe is that the hung 1 meter above the floor; they should be at eyesight (and bigger font). Entrance to the museum is free and there's good attendance by staff, some of whom speak English. There's a small café on the ground floor that serves good coffee and nice snacks / sweets.

This building only had one small exhibition on the third floor showcasing the transition of…read moremodernist art and the divide from the conservative schooling to the a eccentric. There's a short video with a cheesy train graphic that shows the journey of this transition, highlighting famous Brazilian artists as the time periods progress. There was a curator to explain the pieces and offered us a pamphlet summarizing the art, but they ran out of copies. It's a quick stop on the cultural circuit.

We really enjoyed the American film series they had going on this week. The museum is free and…read moretickets to the movie are also free. Tickets for the movie are given out half an hour before the film in limited quantity downstairs. They didn't look like they were going to run out but it was for counting purposes and seats were not assigned but they start the movie right on the dot so it's hard to find a seat once they turn down the lights. They had a series of documentaries (subtitled in Portuguese) that won prestigious film festival awards. The first movie was saw was "Keep on Keepin' on," a film about the legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and his mentorship and friendship with a blind boy. It was so good that we returned a few days later for another film, "Still Alive" documenting the therapeutic power of music in the elderly with dementia. They had a more abstract visual art exhibit upstairs which was difficult for me to interpret. There were a few films that also odd but one artist, Berna Reale did a series of short films that were interesting. A take on "Cantando na chuva" dressed in gold with a gas mask dancing on a red carpet rolled out in the center of a huge trash pile. They have a open courtyard below, surrounded by a huge park, a gift shop with a big selection of items, and a cafe downstairs that serves food. A great cultural experience in Belo Horizonte.

Very cool arts complex in the center of Belo Horizonte. The space itself is pretty easy to get…read morearound, with a well informed front desk/ticket window to help point you in the right direction. There is also a neat Mineiro craft goods store in the front lobby. My visit coincided with an exhibition on the 5th Marcantonio Vilaça award winners and the American Film Showcase. The Vilaça winners weren't really of my taste, but each artist had a unique style that at least made it interesting. It was also free, so that's always a plus. The American Film Showcase was so good, that we decided to come back for a second day. Featuring three films a day, the showcase was a selection of American documentaries, mostly from the past couple years. I saw Keep On Keeping On and Alive Inside and I was blown away by both films. I'm not sure who selected which films to show, but they did an excellent job. The theater is pretty comfortable for being located within an arts complex and again, the tickets were free. There is also a small cafe outside the theater that offered decently priced and tasty snacks. I tried the carne seca sandwich and it was plenty of food for a dinner. If I lived in Belo Horizonte, I would definitely bookmark the schedule of events for the Palacio das Artes and would visit frequently.