Working Group on Buildings and their Collections

A component of Latin American Consortium
People sitting in chairs in a circle look up and smile into camera

Participants take part in a small group exercise during the workshop on Museum buildings and their collections at the Centro de Conservação e Restauração de Bens Culturais Móveis (CECOR), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. The workshop, designed for teachers of preventive conservation, was a testing ground for new approaches to teaching and resource sharing.

Photo: Luiz Souza

The working group offered the workshop Museum Buildings and their Collections from May 14 to 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. Participants, who included both collection conservators and architects, came from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

  • survey current research, thinking, and practical approaches for addressing the environmental issues of collections and the buildings housing them
  • understand the roles of various professionals in interdisciplinary strategies for achieving appropriate and sustainable environmental conditions
  • present educational strategies and materials that workshop participants could apply in their own training programs

Information and materials relating to the workshop was added to the consortium website, which presented the curriculum, biographies of instructors, suggested reading prior to the workshop, and a complete set of teaching materials prepared for each session. These materials included a session outline that described the learning objectives, content, and teaching strategies for the session; a technical note presenting the key points of the topic; and PowerPoint teaching slides. The materials were complemented by an online gallery of images, related technical notes, and teaching materials from previous preventive conservation courses. The web page also featured links to other relevant online literature and bibliographies. All of these materials were part of the consortium website's teaching resources that project members could download and use in their own teaching.

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