On the 29th and 30th of October 2009, INCCA was officially presented for the first time in Latin America at the Pinacotaca do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Karen te Brake-Baldock (INCCA Central Coordinator) and Alberto de Tagle (Chief Scientist) both from the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) and Teodora Carneiro (conservator at the Pinacoteca) were the main speakers.

The meeting brought together 37 professionals from museums, conservation institutes and private practice in Latin America.  The majority were from were from Sao Paulo, however there were also participants from afar; from other cities in Brazil as well as Chile, Peru, Argentina and Columbia.

See the programme (in Portuguese) here.

See the list of participants here.

Special thanks to go to Marcelo Mattos Araujo , Director of the Pinacoteca, for opening the doors of the museum to INCCA and also to Teodora Carneiro who was responsible for the organizing the event. This meeting would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Consulate-General of the NL in Sao Paulo, ICN and the Pinacoteca.

Over the two days, participants were informed about INCCA; the network history, benefits of membership and how the network functions. A demonstration of the INCCA Database for Artists’ Archives was also given by Teodora Carneiro, who entered a record in-situ, illustrating how just how easy it is to do.  Time was also taken to explain how the network has been operating in different regions such as North America and Europe and the project Inside Installations was presented as an example of collaborative research. Participants also received an interesting tour of the conservation studios and the depots of the Pinacoteca.

The main goal of the meeting was to encourage new membership in the region and to take the first step in creating a regional group an INCCA Latin America. The response from the participants was extremely positive and already a number of individuals have signed up. More importantly however, we are pleased to announce that Gina Machado has volunteered to take on the task of setting up such a group. Former director of the Vitae Foundation in Brazil, Gina is well-known in conservation in the region. The Pinacoteca will continue its support of INCCA Latin America by working closely with Gina.