Smithsonian signed an agreement with Ibram, which is the closest Brazilian counterpart. They will exchange scholars, cooperate on collections and generally build joint capacity. This is a good example of a sustainable exchange, a win-win where everyone gives, everyone gets and the total good increases. There is a link to a story about it here. My boss Ambassador Shannon had a good statement, which I will steal and use myself.
He said it originally in Portuguese – “Essa parceria firmada entre Smithsonian e Ibram é um ato de respeito mútuo que abre espaço para todos os nossos povos entenderem melhor a importância da cultura e das democracias e começarem a construir uma rede de acordos conectando os museus em todas as Américas para realizar nossa capacidade de sermos americanos no sentido original da palavra”
My quick translation – This partnership signed between Smithsonian and Ibram is an act of mutual respect which opens a space for all our people to better understand the importance of culture and of democracies; we are constructing a web of agreements connecting museums in all of the Americas in order to achieve our capacity to be Americans in the broad sense of the word.
My picture is only tangentially related to the text. I took it in Petrópolis, where we went, among other places, as part of the Smithsonian project.