A Escola de Belas Artes de Pelotas: da fundação à federalização (1949-1972) uma contribuição para a história da educação em Pelotas

Abstract

The present study is a historic research about an institution of university level: the Escola de Belas Artes de Pelotas (EBA), nowadays Instituto de Artes e Design of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas (IAD UFPEL). The investigation focus is the origin and the first 23 years of the institution, that is, from 1949, the year of its foundation, as a private course, until 1972, when it became a federal public educational institution. The work is carried out within the scope of the Cultural History theory proposition. The method adopted is that of documental research, mainly of the institution archives, of a private archive and through personal interviews conducted by the researcher. The findings of the research are treated according to the theoretic references adopted. The work investigates and analyses the conditions that leaded to the creation of this institution and also its trajectory until it became a federal institution (thus, in a parallel way, the study reveals elements that constructed the identity of the institution). To attempt to understand such a process, the work makes a recollection of the history of Pelotas, of the history of art teaching institutions, and investigates the participation of personalities that probably had decisive influence over the implementation of the studied art course. With the information obtained through this research it has been possible to infer that the advent of the school in 1949 occurred as a result of a combination of factors, such as the context ( the city of Pelotas ) and the action of individuals, as Dona Marina de Moraes Pires - whose efforts to offer to the city an art course of university level made the difference - and the Italian painter Aldo Locatelli the first painting teacher of the art course.