Far from Brazil’s bustling art hubs, artist Dalton Paula and scholar Ceiça Ferreira have established Sertão Negro — a groundbreaking art school in the Cerrado biome, the Brazilian savanna. Located outside Goiânia in the state of Goiás, Sertão Negro fuses contemporary art practices with Afro-Brazilian traditions, community engagement, and ecological care.

Founded in 2021, the school was conceived as a space of quilombist philosophy, referencing historical maroon communities founded by escaped African slaves. It honours self-governance, cultural preservation, and sustainability — principles that guide both its pedagogy and day-to-day operations.

Paula used the entirety of his €100,000 Chanel Next Prize to acquire more land and expand the site with artist studios and housing. He also receives support through the Soros Arts Fellowship, which funds a residency program offering artists not only accommodation and meals, but also travel and stipends — a rarity in the region.

Sertão Negro hosts workshops in ceramics, printmaking, and Capoeira Angola, while encouraging hands-on learning through medicinal gardens and local clean-up efforts. The school places a strong emphasis on inclusion, welcoming Black, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent artists from Brazil and abroad.

Here, artistic practice is more than creation — it’s collective, embodied, and spiritually grounded. As Paula puts it, Sertão Negro is a “dream of healing through art” — a vision rooted in the land, history, and future of Brazil.

Sources:

• The Art Newspaper – Sertão Negro: the art school planting ancestral knowledge in Brazil’s savanna (April 2025)

• Open Society Foundations – Soros Arts Fellowship: Dalton Paula

• ArtReview – Artist Profile: Dalton Paula