Latin American Consortium

Teaching resources, information, and a network of shared expertise in preventive conservation for conservation educators in Latin America

Project Details

A large group of people stand and talk in a courtyard in Santiago, Chile

Participants in the spring 2000 workshop on emergency planning during a workshop exercise at the Museo Histórico Nacional in Santiago, Chile. The group surveyed exhibit rooms of the museum with regard to emergency preparedness issues.

About

Goal

The goal of the Latin American Consortium was to enhance preventive conservation—the management of the environmental conditions under which collections are housed and used—in Latin America by increasing educators' access to teaching resources, information, and expertise in this area of conservation. Consortium members included educators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Cuba associated with university-level courses for professionals and courses for museum personnel.

Outcomes

  • Working group on emergency planning, whose main activity was a workshop held in May–June 2000 at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, followed up with another in 2002.
  • Working group on buildings and their collections that offered a workshop May 14–19, 2001, at the Centro de Conservação e Restauração de Bens Culturais Móveis (CECOR), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. The workshop was intended for full- and part-time teachers affiliated with universities, museums, and heritage organizations, including both collection conservators and architects who came from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba.
  • A consortium website that served as both a repository of information and materials and as a conduit for communication among project participants

Background

In recent years, preventive conservation—the management of the environmental conditions under which collections are housed and used—has made great strides in research and in application. Because preventive conservation considers the welfare of whole collections rather than the treatment of individual objects, it allows a more efficient use of limited resources for the benefit of a larger part of our material heritage.

Research at the Conservation Institute and elsewhere has contributed to a better understanding of the effects of environmental conditions on materials in museum and library collections and how—through appropriate actions—deleterious effects can be mitigated or even eliminated. Timely access to this information is critical, particularly for the people who are preparing the next generation of conservation professionals.

Project History

The Latin American Consortium was initiated in October 1997 during a four-day meeting at the Conservation Institute attended by directors and staff of seven Latin American conservation training programs. Participants of the meeting discussed the feasibility of working collaboratively with the Institute to develop teaching capability in a number of different areas of preventive conservation. That meeting launched the consortium project.

Members of the consortium included educators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Cuba. They were associated with formal university-level courses for conservation professionals, as well as short occasional courses for museum personnel. Working as a network, the institutions of the consortium offered mutual support by exchanging information, ideas, and resources.

Partners

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

Consortium Members

Fundación Antorchas, Argentina; Centro de Conservação e Restauração de Bens Culturais Móveis (CECOR),UFMG, Brazil; Universidade da São Paulo, Brazil; Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil; Vitae—Apoio à Cultura, Educação e Promoção Social, Brazil; Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales, Chile; Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, Chile; Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Chile; Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile; Dirección de Patrimonio, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia; Fundación Universidad Externado, Colombia; Centro Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museología, Cuba; Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración, y Museografía, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico