  The VISCACHA (VIsible Soar photometry of star Clusters in tApii and Coxi
HuguA) Survey is an ongoing project based on deep photometric observations of
Magellanic Cloud star clusters, collected using the SOuthern Astrophysical
Research (SOAR) telescope together with the SOAR Adaptive Module Imager. Since
2015 more than 200 hours of telescope time were used to observe about 130
stellar clusters, most of them with low mass (M < 10$^4$ M$_\odot$) and/or
located in the outermost regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small
Magellanic Cloud. With this high quality data set, we homogeneously determine
physical properties from statistical analysis of colour-magnitude diagrams,
radial density profiles, luminosity functions and mass functions. Ages,
metallicities, reddening, distances, present-day masses, mass function slopes
and structural parameters for these clusters are derived and used as a proxy to
investigate the interplay between the environment in the Magellanic Clouds and
the evolution of such systems. In this first paper we present the VISCACHA
Survey and its initial results, concerning the SMC clusters AM3, K37, HW20 and
NGC796 and the LMC ones KMHK228, OHSC3, SL576, SL61 and SL897, chosen to
compose a representative subset of our cluster sample. The project's long term
goals and legacy to the community are also addressed.
