On May 14-19, 2001, the Latin American Consortium presented a workshop on museum buildings and their collections—"Edificios de Museos y Sus Colecciones"—at the Centro de Conservação e Restauração de Bens Culturais Móveis (CECOR) of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The six-day workshop drew 23 participants from teaching organizations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba. Targeting architects and conservators responsible for teaching building-related aspects of preventive conservation, the workshop focused on the latest research and thinking on the museum environment, while promoting greater interdisciplinarity between architects and conservators. As a workshop for teachers, it also modeled different materials and methods of teaching.

The workshop's Web site is similar to other sites established in recent years by and for institutions of higher learning for the purpose of supporting faculty teaching and the exchange of information and other resources. The model curriculum, session outlines, technical notes, and PowerPoint presentations created for this workshop—and for the Consortium's previous workshop on emergency preparedness—now form part of the teaching resources available for downloading by the members on the project's Web site.

The Latin American Consortium includes institutions from the region and the GCI. The primary goal of the Consortium is to enhance preventive conservation by strengthening the existing capabilities of member institutions in designing and implementing training in this area. In July of this year, management of the Consortium was officially transferred from the GCI to CECOR. However, the GCI will continue its membership in this important regional network.