Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Cultural center and movie theater in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil occupies a building at Rua Primeiro de Março 66 whose glass and dark metal dome, ringed by a cream-colored sculpted cornice, covers the rotunda. Inside are exhibition rooms on the first and second floors, a 110-seat cinema, a 53-seat video room, three theaters, a 90-seat auditorium and a fifth-floor library.
The cornerstone of the building, designed by architect Francisco Joaquim Béthencourt da Silva, was laid in 1880; it opened in 1906 as the headquarters of the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro. In the 1920s it passed to Banco do Brasil, serving as its own headquarters and later as the Central and Primeiro de Março branches. The cultural center was conceived in 1986 under bank president Camilo Calazans de Magalhães and inaugurated on 12 October 1989, the first museum in the CCBB network.
The name recalls the former banking institution that owned and operated the complex, which now welcomes thousands of visitors to theater productions, concerts, and film screenings. The wide range of programming reflects the aim to be an open house for different art forms, appealing to all age groups and social backgrounds.
The entrance is located on Rua Primeiro de Março in downtown Rio de Janeiro, just a few blocks from Praça XV. Inside, orientation signs help locate the cinema, theater, exhibition rooms, library, and museum spread across multiple floors.
The Art Newspaper's April 2014 survey placed CCBB RJ 21st among the world's most visited art museums, with 2,034,397 visitors in 2013. The same publication later reported that its exhibition Picasso and Spanish Modernity was the most visited post-impressionist and modern show worldwide in 2015.
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