MAPI, in partnership with INAC – Instituto Nacional de Carnes (National Meat Institute), inaugurated the permanent gallery “Food”, the first step in the museum’s Permanent Exhibition Renovation Plan. This exhibition presents interactive content on the past, present, and future of food practices in the Americas and, in particular, in Uruguay.

It is made up of four thematic spaces. In the first, “Behaviors”, cultural practices associated with food are represented, such as obtaining resources, transforming them, and their presentation and consumption in our Indigenous Americas. It also includes the space “The Group Tells Us”, where Mbya Guaraní individuals living in Uruguay talk about their way of eating. “Researching” invites us to enter the world of science and the construction of scientific knowledge through an example of research in zooarchaeology. And “Uruguay” is a section intended to reflect on food in this territory from early settlement to the present day.

The Food permanent gallery was produced by an interdisciplinary team that included members of MAPI, INAC, and the Visual Design degree program of the School of Architecture of UDELAR, and it has three levels of museographic script: one for the general public; another that allows visitors to deepen the knowledge on display by accessing the scientific documents that support the research exhibited there; and a script specially designed for children, which includes some of the topics covered in the ANEP Educational Program for preschool, primary, and secondary levels. This gallery is accompanied by various educational activities, from guided tours to the workshop “From Hunting to the Supermarket”, which addresses past ways of life through food, how it is obtained, its function, and its handling, covering concepts such as the domestication of animals and plants, horticultural groups, the origin of pottery, and livestock production.