Parque do Queimado
A little bit of history
Parque do Queimado housed the first water treatment and distribution center in Brazil, in the second half of the 19th century, but the history of this place started even sooner.
More than four centuries ago, the Jesuit priests discovered an important source of water there that served Soledade and Lapinha, in Salvador, in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The set of buildings of the old water distribution company was officially inaugurated, with the presence of D. Pedro II and the empress Teresa Cristina, in 1859. The Queimado Water Supply Company was an engineering landmark in Brazil, being the country's first urban water treatment and distribution plant. In 1997, the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN) inscribed the Fountain and the Park in the National Historical Book, giving the Federal Government protection to the area. The rehabilitation works of NEOJIBA's headquarters were analyzed, authorized and supervised by IPHAN.
Revitalization and Inauguration
Almost two decades after the listing, in 2014, the place was given by the Bahia Water and Sanitation Company (Embasa) to the Institute for Social Development through Music (IDSM), responsible for the management of NEOJIBA.
The requalification works for the first stage of implementation of the NEOJIBA headquarters lasted three years, with an investment of R$ 12.3 million from the Government of the State of Bahia and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), via the Federal Law of Incentive to Culture. In 2017, the site was visited for the first time by the engineers at Nagata Acoustics, the company that signed the acoustic project for the work - more specifically, the Sala NEOJIBA and the rehearsal rooms. The Japanese company is responsible for the acoustic treatment of some of the best concert halls in the world, such as the new Philharmonie in Paris, France, and the Disney Hall, in Los Angeles, United States. Nagata Acoustics also signs the acoustic project for the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música, El Sistema headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela.
The architectural design of Parque do Queimado was prepared by the Swiss company Butikofer de Oliveira Vernay Architectes, with local coordination and co-authorship by the architect and urban planner Sergio Ekerman. For the mastery with which they transformed a historic building into a center of international musical practice and teaching, Olivia de Oliveira and Sergio Ekerman received the 14th Architects and Urban Planners of the Year Award, in the Private Sector Category, a tribute granted by the National Federation of Architects and Urban Planners ( FNA).
On July 9, 2019, Parque do Queimado reopened its doors to the community, officially becoming the Headquarters of the NEOJIBA Program and one of the best equipped spaces for music practice and teaching in the country. The party featured a special presentation by the NEOJIBA Camerata and singers Mateus Aleluia and Elomar. The event received authorities such as Governor Rui Costa and Secretary of Justice, Human Rights and Social Development Carlos Martins, in addition to many IDSM partners. Conductor Ricardo Castro's speech on the opening day is available in full on NEOJIBA's YouTube channel.
Structure
With more than 10,000 square meters, the Park is one of the last green areas in the old center of Salvador. In this environment, more than one hundred seedlings of Ipê, Jacarandá and Pau-Brasil also grow, planted at the initiative of IDSM in partnership with the Arboretum Program, which conserves and restores forest diversity in Bahia.
For activities of collective musical practice, it receives more than a thousand children, adolescents and young people from Monday to Friday, in alternate shifts. The musical performances take place on different days, according to specially scheduled projects, with emphasis on the free performances that take place on Sundays and that attract a large audience not only from the surroundings, but from all over Salvador.
The headquarters has a chamber music room for 180 spectators, the Sala NEOJIBA, which has already received great national and international musicians in free and open presentations to the public. The NEOJIBA Room has excellent acoustics and air conditioning, comparable to the best equipment of this style in the world. The headquarters also houses five rehearsal rooms and a shed for orchestral meetings and larger performances and soon, it will receive another space for music, the Arca NEOJIBA, stage set up in the green area, a project selected in the Matchfunding BNDES public notice, which received also donations that enabled its construction, in the first collaborative campaign in which the program participated.
Parque do Queimado is equipped with an optical fiber internet connection thanks to a partnership signed with the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of the State of Bahia - SECTI, State University of Bahia - UNEB and Rede Metropolitana de Salvador - REMESSA.
In the Park are also the teams of the Musical Directorate, Educational Directorate, Social Development, Communication and Production, in addition to the Physical and Digital Archive that stores all the memory of NEOJIBA.
Parque do Queimado is today a dynamic space for family and community coexistence, aimed at exchange actions for young musicians from Brazil and the world, in person and via high capacity internet.
A program of Guided Visits has been developed to meet the demand of students, tourists, musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, journalists and any group of people from different cities in Brazil and the world, interested in knowing a little more about its structure and about the activities carried out there. Visits are planned according to the profile of each group and take place only upon reservation by prior request using a form. Guided visits are free, with the possibility of voluntary donations by the group that wishes to contribute to the activities of the Program.
Business visibility actions
The Park is able to receive promotional actions from local, national and international companies that are in line with NEOJIBA's mission and values, as well as actions in exchange for sponsorship proposals for the training activities performed by the Central Nucleus and the musical presentations of the training courses Program.