Guimarães Rosa Institute

In 2026, the Guimarães Rosa Institute (IGR) will support modern and contemporary Brazilian curators, directors, and museum professionals residing in Brazil.

About the Guimarães Rosa Institute

The Guimarães Rosa Institute (IGR) was established in 2022 as successor to the Cultural and Educational Department (DCED) of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty). The IGR is responsible for managing Brazilian cultural diplomacy, encompassing actions across three domains: culture, education, and the Portuguese language.

The decision to update the profile of Brazilian cultural diplomacy resulted from institutional maturity and over 60 years of experience within the State Secretariat’s culture-focused departments. Key milestones in the institutionalization of cultural diplomacy as part of Brazilian foreign policy include the creation of the Intellectual Cooperation Service (1937), the Intellectual Cooperation Division (1938), the Cultural Division (1946), and finally, the Cultural and Information Department (1961). Few foreign ministries in the world possess such a long-standing and widespread cultural service.

Choosing to honor writer and diplomat João Guimarães Rosa reinforces the roles of art, culture, and language as instruments of foreign policy. Regarded as one of the most prominent figures in Brazilian literature and a profound interpreter of the country's reality—having immortalized the characters, landscapes, and idiosyncrasies of the “sertão” (hinterlands)—Guimarães Rosa blends narratives that are simultaneously genuinely Brazilian and universal. His distinguished diplomatic career further strengthens the unit’s vocation as a foreign service body.

In general terms, the IGR is responsible for:

- Developing guidelines for Brazilian cultural diplomacy

- Supporting cultural dissemination and the internationalization of Brazil's creative economies abroad.

- Promoting the Portuguese language to foreigners and the Brazilian diaspora.

- Managing Itamaraty’s Portuguese teaching network abroad.

- Fostering international educational cooperation.

Within the State Secretariat, the Guimarães Rosa Institute holds the rank of a department, reports to the Secretariat for Trade Promotion, Science, Technology, Innovation, and Culture (SECIC), and is headed by a Director, currently Ambassador Marco Antonio Nakata. It comprises four divisions:

- Division for Brazilian Cultural Promotion (DCULT)

- Division for Multilateral Cultural Affairs (DAMC)

- Division for Educational Cooperation (DCE)

- Division for the Portuguese Language (DLP)