Things to do in Sao Paulo, State of Sao Paulo (SP): The Best Museums

Elevated over a concrete platform used for concerts and a weekly crafts fair, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo Art Museum, abbreviated MASP) is itself a work of art; the building is an imposing Modernist box suspended under two bright red concrete supports. Featuring classical European names such as Gauguin, Goya and Gainsborough, the museum also holds one of the largest collections of Brazilian and other Latin American artists on the continent.

Pinacoteca is a museum of visual arts, with emphasis on Brazilian production since the nineteenth century. It belongs to the São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture. It was founded in 1905 by the State Government of São Paulo and it is the oldest art museum in the city. It is installed in the old building of the Arts and Crafts College, designed in the late nineteenth century by the architect Ramos de Azevedo. In the 1990's it underwent an extensive renovation with the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha's project. Pinacoteca hosts about thirty exhibitions and receives about 450,000 visitors yearly. The museum's main focus is to promote to general public a better experience with visual arts with its collection, building and historical relevance.

taú Cultural is an institute dedicated to the research and production of content as well as mapping, fostering and dissemination of artistic and intellectual expressions. In this way, it contributes to the enhancement of the culture of a society as complex and diverse as Brazil. By considering culture a key tool to the construction of the country's identity and an effective means to promote citizenship, Itaú Cultural seeks to democratize and encourage social participation. A center of cultural reference, for 28 years the institute has been promoting and propagating the Brazilian output - both in and out of the country. Its programs - such as Rumos - as well as its mission and vision emphasize the institute's consistent distinctive features that place it among the most important cultural institutions in Brazil.

Temporarily closed - Topped by a purple-and-burgundy-striped conversation piece of a skyscraper at the north pole of Faria Lima, the cultural center named after a renowned Japanese-Brazilian artist (whose son designed the building) features a rotating schedule of visual art exhibitions, including award-winning photography, avant-garde sculptures, and even decorative cachaça bottle labels. The institute is, quite simply, one of the city's best art venues.

Calm, green and refreshing, the city's botanical garden, situated inside the immense Parque Estadual Fontes do Ipiranga (PEFI) on the south side of town, provides a beautifully appointed sanctuary for thousands of tropical plant and animal species. The garden opened in 1938 to preserve part of the remaining Atlantic coastal forest, and it functions as a research facility focusing on Brazilian flora and fauna. The garden also shelters the source of the Rio Ipiranga, which figures heavily into national patriotic lore.

Besides telling the history of Brazilian football, the Football Museum, located at Pacaembu Stadium, in São Paulo – foretells Brazil's history. In a playful, fun and very motion way, our visitor is going to understand the reason why football is within all of us. The museum has its visitation routine based on three pillars: emotion, history and on having fun. Pictures, videos, audios and interactivity are the formula that is enthralling visitors. One of the means by narrating such happenings is right from videos, pictures and so on sensorial experiences.

Tue-Sat 2pm-7pm, Sun 2pm-6pm

Booking needed

Packed with more than 3,000 artifacts from Brazil's five-century history, the Museu Afro Brasil relates how Brazil's history is inextricably tied to the experience of African slaves and their descendants through culture and traditions that have come to define the country. In fact, there are so many statues, photographs, illustrations, masks, dolls, clothes, documents, paintings, furniture, pieces of plantation equipment, installations and mementos, it's almost impossible to take in the whole place in one go. The printed information is almost exclusively in Portuguese, but the museum provides English-speaking guides, and the back stories behind every single object are at once harrowing and hopeful. Hands down, one of the best museums in Latin America.