Culture and Community
The Dean Office for Culture and Community Outreach Programs (PROEXC) promotes community outreach and cultural initiatives, which are understood as academic activities articulated with teaching and research, having the mission to promote a dialogical, transformative and integrating relationship between the university and the society. These actions are regulated by the Resolution 09/2007 of the University’s Coordinating Council for Education, Research and Community Outreach Activities (CCEPE), and have as higher deliberative body the Community Outreach Activities Council, which is responsible for "establishing policies, guidelines, specific strategies and action plans, in addition to monitoring and producing systems for evaluating the community outreach production of the university.
Currently, UFPE has over 350 community outreach initiatives.
Community Outreach Inititives
Community outreach and cultural activities are an important and effective institutional instrument that promotes the exchange of knowledge and integration with society. Furthermore, while benefiting the population by contributing to the improvement of the quality of life, socio-productive inclusion, and environmental protection, outreach and cultural actions - which include technical, scientific, cultural, and artistic activities - provide students with the opportunity for contextualized theoretical and practical learning, cultural development, social responsibility, and citizenship formation.
Community outreach projects are defined as a set of procedural and continuous actions of an educational, artistic, social, sports, cultural, scientific or technological nature, with a defined objective and within a determined time frame. The initiatives constitute activities of academic interest, of educational, technological, social, scientific, artistic-cultural, sports, among other manifestations, which aim at to develop, expand and disseminate knowledge produced or recognized by UFPE. They are carried out by the academic community and registered at the Dean Office for Culture and Community Outreach Program.
Sports
UFPE’s Sports and Leisure Activities Complex (CAEL) is a unit commited to promote healthy practices by encouraging and promoting physical activities for the UFPE and local communities. Its framework is composed of sports courts, water park with olimpic pool, soccer fields, atletic tracks, gymnastics and judo and weightlifting rooms, in addition to 6 classrooms and 6 research labs.
Libraries
UFPE provides library spaces at each one of its academic centers, our so called “special libraries”, which include specific collections according to the center’s expertise. However, the major library at UFPE is our “Main Library” - a huge building that encompasses 4 auditoriums and 6 study rooms.
Laboratories
Part of UFPE's Community Outreach initiatives focuses on Research, which is why we have projects such as the Voxar Labs, at our Informatics Center. Voxar is an R&D laboratory and has the mission of training people by expanding realities and experiences.They work through multidisciplinary groups exploring augmented rality applications in areas such as health and education, based in cutting-edge research related to visualization, tracking and natural interaction, developing real products with industry and academic partners.
Our Oil and Energy Research Institute (LITPEG) is another great example of integration between University, industry, government and society. The building hosts 12 labs from multiple academic centers in 13.000 square meters (almost 140 thousand square feet) and has the objective of integrating actions aimed at developing research, innovation, teaching and extension activities on a multi, inter and transdisciplinary basis, in the different areas of the production chain of the oil, gas and biofuels industry and the like.This initiative meets national and regional demands for research, technical services and training of qualified human resources.
Culture
UFPE thrives in this rich cultural context. The state of Pernambuco and Recife are focal points of great artistic, folkloric, historical and geographic diversity. At the same time as UFPE is a product of this cultural mix, it also transforms it in different ways. Academically, the University incorporates this cultural diversity into its teaching and research.
UFPE fully supports the creative industries, promoting research and experimentation in fashion, film, webdesign and game design. That is the reason for our many state-of-the-art facilities for the experimentation and the showcasing of art and culture, such as our Open Air Theater (picture above), our Movie Theater and the Medicine Memorial Building (both pictured below).
The Benfica Cultural Center is another place of artistic practice and is located in the former School of Fine Arts. This building was listed for its excellence in its service to the community and encouraging diverse cultural practices. Making up part of the Benfica Center are the Joaquim Cardozo Theater, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and the UFPE museum collection, which features over 1.200 pieces from renowned artists, such as the Brazilian genius of popular ceramics Mestre Vitalino (1909-1963).
Our campus is also home to several art presentation and exhibitions.