Maria Augusta Rodrigues (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1942–2025) was a Carnival art director, visual artist, researcher and art teacher. Her engagement with Carnival started in 1969 at the invitation of Fernando Pamplona, her teacher at the UFRJ Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. That same year, she authored her first project, O negro na civilização brasileira, for samba school Império da Tijuca. Just two years later, she joined the winning team of samba school Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, with her research leading to the Festa para um rei negro parade.
One of her biggest contributions was the addition of colour to the parades, expanding the traditional use of the official palette of each samba school. Maria Augusta brought daily life to the avenue, as in the parades for samba school União da Ilha do Governador in 1977 and 1978.
The curation and research for this section were developed with Edu Gonçalves, Carnival art director and researcher, master in art history and collaborator of Maria Augusta.