If you like contemporary art this is the place for you, but if you are more into the classic academy (learning the old master’s techniques), this is not what you are looking for. The “Escola de Belas Artes UFMG” (School of Fine Arts) is the name of the art school of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The school is well known in Brazil and a lot of good and important artists held their studies there. In the hall of professors, there are still important artists giving classes and passing their experience and knowledge to young students/artists. There’s plenty of room to develop your personal work (ateliers), the library is very rich and you can pick up books not only in the art library (which is actually not very big but has plenty of important books) but also on the whole campus. The complexity of libraries is amazing.

My only problem with the school is the lack of professors that still work with classical drawing. Most of them are more into the contemporary manifestation of art such as performance, installations, ready-mades, videos, conceptual art, and this kind of stuff. Which for me had no problem since I really like contemporary art, but I also like drawing techniques, so I needed to study all by myself since no professor would give me the knowledge I was searching for. Also, some of my friends who were more into classical art (painting and drawing) felt that they were not in the right place since they would not have any professor to guide them through this type of art.