What can universities learn from SESC-SP? – 03/11/2023 – I am Science

The departure of our dear friend Danilo Santos de Miranda this week made us reflect on his history and work in favor of Art and Culture and how the SESC-SP he created can inspire Brazilian universities. Professor Danilo, as he was known by many, was widely recognized for his dedication to the arts, but his legacy goes beyond, as an experimental thinker of the Brazil we want. Danilo knew very well how to integrate Art and Culture with Leisure and Sports, and also with Education and Research, which became evident with the creation of the SESC-SP Research and Training Center. He created a complete system of applied experimentation at all levels of another possible Brazil. He transformed each SESC-SP unit into a small “social condenser” of imaginations, bodies and identities in search of new possible and desired existences.

Danilo, in addition to being the visionary manager of the SESC-SP system, was certainly a great public intellectual of our time. He was a decisive defender of culture at a time when it was most vilified in Brazilian history, welcoming and supporting artists and groups at a time when the culture promotion system in Brazil collapsed due to Bolsonarist obscurantism and the pandemic. He never backed down from his principles, and always supported provocative actions, exhibitions and presentations to the status quo.

It is precisely from this ability to lead cultural resistance, support and value what is important and at the right time, that Danilo was so relevant to so many people. Therefore, there is not the slightest danger that his work will be forgotten or discontinued. Furthermore, he left a team prepared to fully assume the responsibilities of the SESC-SP system.

The system he progressively expanded, including more interest in research, science, technology and innovation, in a practical, applied and democratic way, through courses, workshops, laboratories, nurseries, community actions, etc. Danilo knew that Art and Science, when working together, contribute to the integral citizenship formation of our people, with imagination and rigor, with freedom and commitment. The alliance between Art and Science is the path to a more open and humanized society, aware of its problems and challenges, from an emancipatory perspective.

Many universities have increasingly realized the importance of this daily articulation between art, education and science. There are many museums, cultural spaces and memorials that are linked to teaching and research, but which are also spaces for interaction and connection with society. The extension deanships became “extension and culture”, and the arts left the box of art schools and museums and began to circulate in all fields of knowledge, sowing new imaginations.

Some examples that we can mention, just to mention a few, are the National Museum of UFRJ, the Darcy Ribeiro Memorial of UnB, the Amnesty Memorial of UFMG, the Museum of Contemporary Art of USP, the Cultural Center in Health or the Mostra Arab World of Cinema, which is at Unifesp and is in the process of reconstruction. They all articulate art, education and research. Universities have theater groups, orchestras, music and dance groups, performing and choral groups, which are places of experimentation, study and human development, including students from all courses.

When we were at the Unifesp rectory, Danilo Miranda was an important partner. We carried out the first Cooperation Agreement between SESC-SP and Unifesp, fulfilling a years-old dream, promoting several collaborative actions. Some of them are emblematic, such as the arrival of Judith Butler, the support for the creation of SoU_Ciência (min 7), the tribute from the Kaapora and Sustainability Chairs and Xingú Project to the honoris causa title to David Kopenawa, the tribute from the Edward Said Chair to the work of the intellectual Palestinian, projects with cultural collectives in the Center of São Paulo and in Guarulhos, the project with Solidarity Economy, etc. Danilo was also very present as a representative of Civil Society on the University Society Strategic Council (CEUS) of Unifesp, participating in two terms, with intense participation in meetings, supporting us in the most critical moments we experienced under Bolsonaro.

Universities have a lot to learn from Danilo. SESC-SP’s vision of broad and socially referenced welcoming and training, always with open doors, giving space to multiple voices, bodies, territories and identities, is an example for universities’ extension and cultural practices. We certainly have other responsibilities as a university, but it is undeniable that SESC-SP’s ability to communicate, include and train is a fantastic example for the opening of our universities, even more so, to social demands and multiple knowledge and forms of expression.

Therefore, Danilo was not only the brilliant director of SESC-SP for 40 years, but an intellectual and activist who can teach us how to renew the identity of universities in Brazil and expand our dialogue, integration and collaboration with society. In addition to continuing and intensifying the partnership with SESC-SP, a vision that considers how to hybridize universities with culture, sport and leisure centers, with doors open to the population, could be provocative. Danilo was a visionary not only for the SESC-SP system, but for any institution that works with education and culture and intensely wants to interact with society in research, imagination and construction of a better world. Hail, dear Danilo!

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