Reese J.
Yelp
What a great place! This was the first place I visited as part of Belo Horizonte's cultural circuit, the Circuito Liberdade, and was without a doubt the best of all the stops I visited over two days. The building is absolutely beautiful, with a fancy staircase that greets you when you enter and an open air garden area in the center. If you need a break from checking out the exhibits, there is a cafe in the back where you can grab some coffee or snacks. Like the majority of the Circuito, entry is free and there is plenty of space to store your bags in lockers.
The bottom floor had several exhibits on Brazilian artists and my favorite was definitely the Sebastião Salgado section. Having seen the film The Salt of the Earth, I was familiar with some of his work, but the exhibit here provided a lot of new information. There was also an interactive section where you could select different periods of his life and watch a 5-15 minute video highlighting pictures from the selected period.
The next two floors provide an excellent history of Minas Gerais and Brazil as a whole. Using movies, interactive displays, and signs/handouts in Portuguese and English, there is plenty to learn about Brazilian culture, music, film, and plenty more. I don't know how often the exhibits rotate or if they are all permanent, but I would come again either way.