The Institute

From 2000 to 2007, Corumbá hosted the Dance Showcase, a free event held in Generoso Ponce square that brought several renowned companies to perform in the region, which at the time had little access to cultural assets. Márcia Rolon and Angelo Rabelo, organizers of the Dance Showcase, began receiving requests from the population to create an institution where their children could become artists and also be on stage. From this demand came the idea of creating a free arts school where children would learn dance and music. The project also envisioned promoting cultural exchange with the neighboring country, Bolivia.

Taking advantage of the Federal Government’s Monumenta Program, which encouraged the revitalization of Corumbá’s port area, Márcia and Col. Ângelo Rabelo found the Moinho-Corumbaense, a former J. Macêdo factory that had ceased operations in 1970. Believing in the benefit the project would bring to the region, the company J. Macêdo granted the building for 20 years, and the company Vale invested resources in its renovation and remains the project’s main partner.

Moinho Cultural was born in 2004 as a project of the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro (IHP), a private, non-profit organization created in 2002 for the preservation of the Pantanal and the strengthening of the identity of the Pantanal people. The project began its activities initially serving 180 children at social risk.

In 2011, participation in the Ashoka-McKinsey Scaling-Up Program helped the project managers decide to create the Instituto Moinho Cultural, an independent organization, yet a partner of the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro. Thus, the corporate name in the CNPJ was changed to Instituto Moinho Cultural Sul-Americano, concentrating efforts in a single area of activity (sociocultural), as well as broadening the social impact by replicating the Moinho Cultural System, its own methodology for teaching the arts.