Medalha Mário de Andrade

The Mário de Andrade Medal (Medalha Mário de Andrade) is one of the principal honors awarded by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, IPHAN), established in 2017 to honor individuals, civil society organizations, and public institutions that have contributed to IPHAN’s efforts to safeguard Brazilian cultural heritage.

The medal’s features are as follows: it is circular in shape, with two concentric circles; the obverse bears the image of Mário de Andrade, a Brazilian poet, short-story writer, columnist, novelist, musicologist, art historian, critic, and photographer. In 1936, he was invited by Gustavo Capanema, then Minister of Education and Health, to write a preliminary proposal for the creation of a national heritage preservation body, at the request of Brazil’s then-governor, Getúlio Vargas. After SPHAN was established, he was appointed director of IPHAN’s 4th Region, which comprised the states of São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.