Our history
The idea, the seed, the beginning, the ways
To Musa, the motto “living together” is more than a fundamental rule of the mutual understanding between the humans and nonhumans who live here; it is the symbol of an educational and solidarity project committed to promoting sociability between the citizens in the cultural, biological, social, and political diversity in the great Amazon basin.
In 2007, during the annual meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) held in Belém, whose theme was “Amazonia: A National Challenge”, Ennio Candotti, then president of the SBPC, suggested to the governor of the state of Amazonas Eduardo Braga and the dean of the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA) Marilene Correa the creation of a museum in the forest. This museum where the collections and objects on display would be the insects, trees and live fungi, which are born, grow, move and multiply in the forest .
He observed that in Europe we find cultivated and air-conditioned spaces in museums and botanical gardens that imitate those of tropical forests, without fungi, mosquitoes or ants. Here in the Amazonia, we would have the original forest with its world and microworld with a great diversity of botanical, fungal and animal species.
With the idea well received, Candotti was invited to create and direct the museum.
In January 2009, the Museum of the Amazon was founded with the aim of developing programs in museology, research, education and scientific-cultural and ecological tourism related to the biomes and cultures of the Amazon region; and to promote scientific research in biology, anthropology and archaeology, conservation and environmental education.
In 2011, an area of 100ha (1 km2) north of Manaus, a fragment of the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa), was loaned by the Union to Musa for the creation of the museum. Then began the recovery of the botanical garden in this area, an old project by Inpa and the municipality of Manaus.
Between creating a public or private institution, the model of a private law association was chosen with an Administrative Council composed of representatives of the partners and of public and private institutions.
Initially, the museum operated in the Aleixo/Manaus neighborhood, where conferences and debates were also held that guided the Musa project.
In 2011, an area of 30 hectares was incorporated into the Museum, provided by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), where an Agroforestry Training Center (CTA) was created for the development of agroecological techniques that can contribute to the creation of seedlings for reforestation and for the cultivation of medicinal plants and unconventional food plants (pancs).
It was installed in 2013, in a shed in Largo de São Sebastião, in the Praça do Teatro Amazonas, a Science and Culture Center, the “Musa do Largo”, where ethnographic exhibitions were set up and a program of conferences and round tables on topics was held. the frontier of knowledge and cultural current affairs. This center was deactivated at the end of 2021 due to the difficulty of funding it during the pandemic.
A science and culture center, “Musa do Largo”, was installed in 2013, in Largo de São Sebastião, next to Teatro Amazonas, downtown Manaus. Stage for ethnographic exhibitions and a program of conferences and round tables on topics on the frontier of knowledge and cultural current affairs. It was deactivated at the end of 2021 due to the difficulty of funding it during the pandemic.
In 2013 and 2014, with resources from the Amazon Fund, laboratories, visitation trails and a 42m high forest observation tower were built. In 2018, the Musa headquarters was transferred to the area of the reserve north of Manaus, where the museum had been operating since 2011.