USP São Carlos Campus Unveils New Traveling Exhibition and Experience Centers

On Monday, August 5, the USP campus in São Carlos hosted three events commemorating USP’s anniversary: ​​the opening of the exhibition USP 90 years: an immersive journey through our Museums and the inauguration of two new experience centers for the academic community.

The day’s program began with the opening of the exhibition USP 90 years: an immersive journey through our Museums . This is a unique exhibition created by the Rector’s Office to celebrate the University’s anniversary. The initiative was planned and executed jointly by USP’s four statutory museums – the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE), the Paulista Museum (MP) and the Museum of Zoology (MZ) – which selected excerpts from their contents for an exclusive tour of USP’s campuses. Before São Carlos, the attraction had already been to Ribeirão Preto, Pirassununga and Bauru. It will then head to the city of Piracicaba. 

Some of this material is being exhibited with original pieces. Others, due to their inestimable value and the logistical and insurance costs involved in their transportation, were recreated in digital replicas or immersions, in a project developed, especially with interactive technologies, by the USP Innovation Center (InovaUSP). Also part of the itinerary is the video installation 4M , an immersive documentary film by artist and videomaker Tadeu Jungle, which addresses the theme of museology. 

The result is environments that reproduce experiences normally only experienced at the headquarters of these museums, allowing the public from the interior to also have access to this knowledge in a more direct way and feel invited to visit in person. 

Until the end of the year, the exhibition will be touring all campuses in the interior and, in January 2026, the tour will end on the capital’s campus, closing the cycle of 90-year celebrations. 

For the rector of USP, Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior, “ this initiative has been very useful in promoting a closer relationship between our museums and the USP community on the various campuses and also with the non-USP community, from nearby regions, which often do not know all the cultural wealth we have to offer ”.

Carlotti also emphasizes that “this type of content helps to improve the training of not only students, but also teachers and staff, allowing USP to be a place of excellence in training not only in technical terms, but also in humanities. People who have more contact with culture can be better people to change society .” 

The coordinator of the event, Hussam El Dine Zaher, highlighted the great acceptance that the activity has received in the cities: “ We are inaugurating the fourth stage of this itinerary, totaling 55 days of exhibition open to the public, in which we received 7,800 visitors, including children from 135 schools in more than 20 different cities. We hope to finish this itinerary with a total of more than 10 thousand people, confirming with the numbers the enormous interest that the population of the interior has always shown in the cultural activities of USP ”, commented Zaher, who is also the deputy pro-rector of Culture and University Extension at USP. 

The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by academic leaders from the USP campus in São Carlos and other municipal authorities.

The exhibition can be visited in the city until September 6, from Monday to Saturday, from 9 am to 6 pm, at the Convention Center, located at Avenida José Antonio Santilli, 2000, Bela Vista São-Carlense. Admission is free and open to all. Spontaneous visitors do not need to schedule in advance. School groups can reserve their times and follow the route with the help of trained monitors. More information can be found on the project website .

Living Centers

On the same day as the exhibition opening, two community centers were inaugurated, the first of their kind in São Carlos. Built in two different areas of the campus, known as Area 1 and Area 2, the new spaces were designed so that people can meet, talk, study or relax. 

The spaces, all made of sustainable materials, are part of the Pertencer Program , a USP socio-environmental planning action that supports projects for the use and occupation of external areas as places of inclusion, welcome and belonging. 

The advisor to the Rector’s Office responsible for the project, Hugo Yoshizaki, who is also a professor at the Polytechnic School (Poli), explains that the objective is to “enhance the territory of the University’s campuses and Units to improve the quality of life and well-being of the USP community through the connection and integration of different territorial scales: city, campus, units and open spaces”. 

At the inauguration, the USP rector celebrated the progress made in implementing these spaces on all campuses. “ The spaces we are making available today show how the Pertencer Project makes concrete the goal of offering pleasant spaces for socializing, with useful facilities such as power outlets, water and bathrooms, so as to increase the density of the campuses not only in terms of buildings or research, but also in terms of living, ” he commented, announcing that new spaces like this are planned for other parts of the campus, in addition to an area dedicated to sports. 

In total, the opening of 36 community centers is planned, offering structures with power points, internet, benches and landscaping, as well as, in some cases, bathrooms and food. 

The mayor of the USP campus in São Carlos, Luís Fernando Costa Alberto, highlighted how these structures favor university life : “ This is an idea that came in line with projects that we were already doing for the campus, as we understand the importance of the entire community having a coexistence with the exchange of ideas and experiences ”.

In Area 1, the Community Center is located between the Central Square and the Palquinho, and in Area 2, between the Aeronautical Engineering and Materials and Manufacturing Engineering buildings.