GLAM/Newsletter/June 2018/Contents/Brazil report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue VI, June 2018

Brazil report

A GLAMWiki on the Belgian Heritage in Brazil

Brazilian Wikimedians and the web portal Patrimônio Belga no Brasil (Belgian Heritage in Brazil) have launched a new GLAMWiki on the influence of Belgian individuals and companies in Brazil. The web portal was founded by Marc Storms, who is now involved in coordinating the GLAMWiki initiative along with Brazilian Wikimedians, particularly Hermógenes Teixeira Pinto Filho and Joalpe.

Patrimônio Belga no Brasil defines itself as an "inventory of the Belgian heritage in Brazil". It was launched in 2014 and received in 2017 an award from the Belgian Foreign Ministry for the description of the Vila Belga in the city of Santa Maria. Its main objective is to give visibility and preserve the Belgian influence in Brazil.

A landing on-wiki project page was set up, here. It is still under development and will provide a context and updates on the GLAMWiki. It also lists content to be improved on Wikipedia and Wikidata associated to this initiative.

Activities associated to this initiative include the upload to Commons of thousands of images on the Belgian influence in Brazil, including artwork, historical photographs and archives. They also include improving content on notorious individuals and companies who have played a role in the context of the historical Belgium-Brazil relationship.

First steps

At this point, an official ratification has been published on the web portal Patrimônio Belga no Brasil, as the initiative rests upon content relicensing. A request for OTRS validation has been filed, to be included on a specific license for the project (here).

The goal is to have this GLAMWiki project connected to outreach activities, including edit-a-thons with the Belgian community or diplomatic instances in Brazil. Ideally, activities can be set up in parallel with Wikimedians from Belgium; a first discussion on setting up cross-community activities in the context of this GLAMWiki initiative will possibly take place in Wikimania.

The GLAMWiki project with Patrimônio Belga no Brasil is to some extent a spin-off of the undergoing initiative with Museu Paulista. Wikimedians involved in the Museu Paulista initiative have uploaded a full set of artwork from Belgian painter Adrien Henri Vital van Emelen, one of the most important collections in this museum, and as references for the paintings were being looked for a contact with Marc Storms, from Patrimônio Belga no Brasil, was established and a new project was launched.

Pilot upload

The Wikimedia Commons category of this GLAM initiative is Category:Patrimônio belga no Brasil. A set of images --sculptures from Adrien van Emelen-- was uploaded as OTRS validation was being processed.