A governança local nas práticas preservacionistas em Uberaba: a atuação do Conselho do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico de Uberaba, suas políticas, práticas e desafios

Abstract

The policies for the protection of cultural heritage implemented at a local level are still recent in most of the Brazilian municipalities, especially in the newest urban formations. This agenda, previously centralized at the federal level, gradually became competence for states and municipalities. In view of the challenges faced in the management of cultural heritage in local contexts, the present work studies the public policies protecting the cultural heritage in Uberaba-MG, a bicentennial city whose collection of historical and cultural heritage testifies part of the process of occupation of the interior of the country. Despite the existence of preservationist policies and protection actions, designed by the Municipality since 1984, they have proved to be ineffective and the city has suffered from the continuous destruction of its cultural heritage, especially of its historic buildings. In this context, this work investigates the emergence of preservation actions implemented in Uberaba, as well as the influence of public policies in the state of Minas Gerais through the ICMS – Patrimônio Cultural program. In order to understand how the management of preservation was consolidated and what its results were, this work assesses the municipal protection laws, the list of safeguard actions implemented by the municipality and the state of conservation of safeguarded properties. The study investigates even further the performance of the bodies responsible for the preservation practices in the municipality, seeking to understand the modus operandi of the Council of Historical and Artistic Heritage of Uberaba (CONPHAU) and of its technical team. The Council's deliberations, the context of its actions and the profile of the members' performance were analyzed, with the goal of identifying their difficulties and obstacles, aiming to understand the effectiveness of the actions developed in the municipality, as well as to propose alternatives that can contribute to a greater effectiveness in the implementation and continuity of protection policies at the municipal level.