INVITED EDITORIAL

Eliane Matos Brandão1, Maria da Graça Moscoso Marques2, Marilda Andrade1

1Fluminense Federal University
2Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT

This is an editorial about the inauguration of the Director's Gallery of the Aurora de Afonso Costa Nursing School, Fluminense Federal University (UFF) – organized by the Memory Center, body responsible for preserving the memory and history of the institution. The purpose of this permanent exhibition is to preserve the memory of this collective by recording the image of its leaders, helping to forge the feeling of unity that makes this group a whole and not a set of individual cuts without interconnection. The process of building the gallery and the people involved is also presented; ending with the description of the inauguration ceremony held on July 12, 2018, at the referred Nursing School.

Descriptors: History of Nursing; Social Construction of Identity; Faculty, Nursing.

A gallery of photos of the institutional leaders deals with signs in the edification of the personified identity of a particular group, which demarcates temporal spaces for the construction of historical knowledge(1). The Romans, when forming their empire, took advantage of the statuary as a way to keep perennial and present the registration of its leaders in its vast territory(2). This implied keeping alive the sociocultural memory of those who ruled, making their deeds reviewed by maintaining the symbolic supervision of space. Thus, visitors to the space must respect managers, even in the face of their physical absence – but present in iconography – as well as the significance of the connection of the past with the present(3).

Nowadays, this practice can still be seen in the most diverse institutions, both in the portraits of the presidents of Brazil and in the various galleries spread by representative organizations, such as clubs and associations. The purpose of these permanent exhibitions is to preserve the collective memory, through the recording of the image of its leaders, to worship institutional belonging(4).

In this perspective, the Director's Gallery of the Aurora de Afonso Costa Nursing School (EEAAC, acronym in Portuguese), Fluminense Federal University (UFF, acronym in Portuguese), was born with the intention of strengthening the social body's link with the school, being part of a greater concern, which is the record of the history of the institution. The Gallery composes the EEAAC Memory Center, responsible for the custody and preservation of documents of the institution.

The Project of the Gallery of Directors was composed in addition to the images of the leaders; there was a concern to preserve and store the documentary mass guarded by the Memory Center, in which were found records about the trajectory of the institution that deserve to be analyzed for the construction of the historical knowledge of the Brazilian Nursing(5). The goal, therefore, of the EEAAC Board of Directors is to rescue history and preserve the institution's memory; with it, it is hoped to strengthen the relationship with its social body, in favor of the sedimentation of the identity of the School(6).

Its intellectual conception took place in two stages, namely: written and photographic documentary consultation; and harmonization of the building for the exhibition of the imaginary record of the memory of the institutional rulers. For this, several professionals were involved: nurses, museologists, archivists, engineers, photographers, carpenters, administrative technicians and graduates of EEAAC. Therefore, delivering the Director's Gallery to the academic community of the EEAAC/UFF was a moment of accomplishment, emotion, and duty fulfilled by the work team by socializing the link from the past to the present.

The materialization of the Gallery by the Memory Center, created in 2004 and inaugurated in 2007, is part of one of its regimental functions. The unveiling of the EEAAC's Gallery of Directors, as well as an institutional registry, is a tribute to the leaders and their families, symbolizing their passages through institutional hierarchical positions and their recognition/knowledge by the community formed by the social body of the educational institution(7).

Figure 1

Figure 1: Gallery of directors of the School of Nursing Aurora Afonso Costa

The gallery's inauguration ceremony, which took place on July 12, 2018 in the EEAAC, was attended by living leaders, relatives of absentee leaders, students from the past, and other illustrious guests, such as representatives of nursing entities in Rio de Janeiro, members of the scientific community, officials and professors of the EEAAC, who celebrated the rite with their attendance. The event was conducted by the UFF ceremonial and its opening was under the responsibility of the UFF Ancient Music Group, which presented a musical concert that undoubtedly brought to the ceremony the artistic and cultural touch that only music can present.

Afterwards, the following authorities were invited to compose the ceremonial table: the Vice-rector of the UFF, Professor Antonio Claudio Lucas da Nóbrega; State Representative and Nurse Rejane Almeida; the lecturer Professor Luiz Guilherme Vergara; the Deputy Director of EEAAC, Professor Marilda Andrade; and the coordinator of the Memory Center, Professor Eliane Matos Brandão. These, in their speeches, highlighted the value of the project's contribution to the maintenance of institutional memory; and executed the symbolic revelation of the inauguration plate of the Gallery, which was attended by the former director Professor Deise Ferreira de Souza, representing the honorees.

Later, the speech of Professor Eliane Matos Brandão was given, and it brought as a central point the importance of the directors for the strengthening of the institutional memory, for the recognition of its members as a collective, for the feeling of belonging to the institution, and for its identity. The conference "Art and Care", given by Professor Luiz Guilherme Vergara, Doctor of Art Education from the University of New York (NYU) and former director of the Museum of Modern Art of Niterói, addressed the remarkable relationship between art and nursing.

The historic dimension of the gallery was once again brought to light during the celebration of the Lamp Passage Ceremony, symbolism of Nursing that honors Nurse Florence Nightingale, which alludes to her practice in the Crimean War of illuminating the wards with a lantern in the mid-19th century(8).

The reception to the guests was attended by the students of the Nursing History course, who made the event a pleasant, welcoming and happy moment. The registration was done by Unitevê and the UFF photographer, and all material produced after the disclosure was filed in the EEAAC Memory Center. The unveiling of the Gallery of Directors was followed by the attendees and was performed by the EEAAC Deputy Director, EEAC Memory Center Coordinator and Professor Fernando Porto, of the Alfredo Pinto School of Nursing, as a prominent member of the scientific community and on behalf of the pioneerism of the institution it represents. The photographs that compose the Gallery register the directors and the periods for which they held the position.

Figure 2

From left to right: Rejane Almeida, lecturer Professor Luiz Guilherme Vergara, Prof. Antônio Claudio Lucas da Nóbrega (current vice-rector and rector-elect UFF 2018-2021, Prof. Eliane Brandão (Coordinator of the EEEAAC / UFF Memory Center), Prof. Deise Ferreira (EEAAC Director 1999-2003), Prof. Marilda Andrade (deputy director of EEAAC / UFF 2011-2015 and 2016-2020).

History has this capacity: it can be responsible for revealing relationships and making them live as long as the memory of its members allows. Thus, it is certain that the EEAAC Board of Directors, inaugurated on July 12, 2018, is yet another milestone for the generations that will follow, as a constituent and objective manifestation of each passing of the baton of the governability of the educational institution, in the sense of keeping alive the collective memory.

REFERENCES

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  2. Argan GC. Arte romana. In: História da arte italiana. Vol. I: Da antiguidade a Duccio. São Paulo: Cocac & Naify; 2003. p. 167-193.
  3. Rodrigues D. Património cultural, Memória social e Identidade: uma abordagem antropológica. Ubimuseum. 2012;(1):45-52.
  4. Silva Junior JE, Oliveira Tavares AL. Patrimônio Cultural, Identidade e Memória Social: suas interfaces com a sociedade. Ci Inf Rev. 2018;5(1):3-10.
  5. Burke P. A escrita da história. São Paulo: Unesp; 1992.
  6. Le Goff J. História e memória. 2 ed. São Paulo: UNICAMP; 1992.
  7. Rodrigues D. Patrimônio cultural, memória social e identidade: interconexões entre os conceitos. Letras Escreve. 2018;7(4):337-61.
  8. Padilha MCS, Borenstein, MSS. Enfermagem: história de uma profissão. 2 ed. São Paulo: Difusão; 2015.

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9WBApVLgxU

Received: 08/21/2018 Approved: 08/21/2018