The Museu Virtual de Instrumentos Musicais – MVIM (Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments), was conceived and developed by the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia – IBICT (Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology) (FAPERJ) from two projects with financial support from the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – FAPERJ (Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support in the State of Rio de Janeiro).
The first project approved in the Edital de Apoio à Produção e Divulgação das Artes no Estado do Rio de Janeiro – 2011 ( Support the Production and Promotion of Arts in the State of Rio de Janeiro) aimed to vitalize, reactivate, restructure and expand the Delgado de Carvalho Instrumental Museum – MIDC, of the School of Music at the Federal University of Rio of January. In 2014, the two main goals were completed: (1) the preservation and organization of the original collection of the Delgado de Carvalho Museum and (2) the creation of the Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments.
At the end of 2018, a new project “Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments: space for the convergence of collections and knowledge” began, with the support of the FAPERJ – Humanidades. This new project aims to gather in the MVIM virtual space collections of musical instruments from other Brazilian institutions, presenting and disseminating it in a dynamic, innovative way, thus transforming it into a space of convergence of collections and knowledge. Two lines of action are being followed: (1) the expansion of the collection, carried out in partnership with the Villa-Lobos Museum and the Moreira Salles Institute, whose collections are being included in the MVIM online catalog; (2) the elaboration of videos with specialists and virtual interviews with luthiers and musicians dealing with aspects related to musical instruments.
MVIM, the result of an interdisciplinary dialogue between new technologies, Musicology and Museology, effectively consolidates itself as an innovative, research and dialogue space.