(5) Inspiring Projects, Platforms, and Resources

(5) Inspiring Projects, Platforms, and Resources

It is a relief to find so many organizations working to foster the necessary changes to protect the social, economic, and climate environment through arts and culture. We have included here those platforms focused on museums and curatorial projects that contribute to raising awareness in society.

Getty announced the inauguration of a Climate Impact Program for the largest art event in the United States, PST ART. Returning on September 15 with the theme of Art & Science Collide, PST ART brings together more than 60 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California, offering an opportunity at an unprecedented scale for institutions to build community, unite in climate action, and test and study sustainable exhibition practices while fostering collaboration on minimizing environmental impact within the museum field.

Art of Change 21: The non-profit organisation Art of Change 21 connects contemporary art and major environmental issues and highlights the role of artists and creativity in the ecological transition. It has various modes of action: exhibitions, an art prize, debates, performances, participatory workshops, tools, newsletters, projects co-designed with artists… Since its creation in 2014 just ahead of the COP21 in Paris, Art of Change 21 has played a key role during COP Climate (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

Culture for Climate: Culture for Climate is a grassroots initiative aimed at greening the cultural sector. The group consists of employees of cultural institutions, NGOs, local authorities, and independent artists and curators. Our aim is to promote pro-environmental attitudes without shaming and making accusations that what is done is insufficient or inadequate.

Access Toolkit for Artworkers, created by Caroyln Lazard, Sins Invalid, Unlimited, Leah Clements, Alice Hattrick and Lizzy Rose, following a Disability Justice approach and Talila A Lewis’s definition of ableism in Accessibility In the Arts: A Promise and a Practice. It is supported by Arts Council England and field:arts. This is a practical resource for artworkers, such as curators, producers and arts administrators working independently or in galleries, museums and arts organisations. This toolkit contains practical information on how to plan, produce, and exhibit accessible art projects including information on access riders, financial planning, slow production, display, and creating an accessible workplace.

Circular Arts Network (CAN) is a circular economy tool created to support the arts in combat the climate emergency. It gives you access to the materials you need for your creative projects by providing a place where materials and resources can be exchanged. CAN stands for Circular Arts Network, it’s an online platform that supports a circular economy within the arts.

ICOM Award for Sustainable Development Practice in Museums: This is a global award that recognizes innovative initiatives and exemplary museum practices in sustainable development. It is also the first award that ICOM addresses to all its members.

Cecilia Vicuña: Spin Spin Triangulene Exhibition Carbon Emissions Calculation Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2022 Report Produced By Art into Acres

Strategies for Reducing the Carbon Impact of Temporary and Touring Exhibitions in the Museums and Galleries sector. This comprehensive report delves into current and prospective strategies aimed at minimizing the carbon impact associated with the design and construction of temporary and touring exhibitions within the UK museums and galleries sector. The investigation encompasses an analysis of prevailing museum and stakeholder working practices, explores major challenges hindering carbon reduction, evaluates the effectiveness of Carbon Calculators, and considers the potential for implementing sector-wide initiatives and guidance.

Board Environmental Champions Program. Julie's Bike promotes the Environmental Champions Programme, designed for National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) and Investment Principle Support Organisations (IPSOs), which aims to integrate environmental responsibility into governance. This will enable arts organisations to accelerate their sustainability plans, reduce their environmental impact, and inspire their peers and the public at a crucial time. Participation in the program will enable organizations to effectively embed Arts Council England's principle of environmental responsibility.

Museums For Future. Museums For Future is a global movement of museum workers, cultural heritage professionals, and many others to support the #FridaysForFuture movement with positive actions.

Green Art Lab Alliance. An alliance of art organizations and artists. It contains a manifesto, funding guides to develop cultural sustainable projects, a guide for positive printing, a directory of creative responses to sustainability, and much more.

Art/Switch. Aims to develop climate-conscious practices for a carbon zero, future-proof arts sector, helping the arts to use its inherent creativity to rethink its structure and play a leading role in the sustainable shift. Art/Switch functions as an incubator for these ideas, a hub that brings together different players to hasten this movement of change. Based in Amsterdam and New York.

We Are Museums. Museums Facing Extinction. Fosters systemic changes towards a climate-resilient future, good for people and the Planet through community-based actions. A program designed by EIT Climate-KIC and We Are Museums.

Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice. Building museums' capacity to promote awareness, mitigation, and resilience in the face of climate change. It mobilizes and supports Canadian museum workers and their organizations in building public awareness.

Culture Declares. A growing international movement of individuals and organizations in the cultural sector declaring a climate and ecological emergency by telling the truth, taking action, and seeking justice.

Sustainability in Conservation. SiC Sustainability in Conservation (SiC) is a branch of Ki Culture dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and sustainable practices in the conservation of cultural heritage. By Caitlin Southwick.

Reduce Art Flights. A campaign that upholds that the art world – artists, curators, critics, gallerists, collectors, museum directors, etc. – could or should diminish its use of airplanes. It was initiated by the artist Gustav Metzger in 2007 and the website (first established in 2008) is maintained by the curatorial office Latitudes.

Acclimatize. An online project targeting climate change. A source of inspiration full of ideas and reflections on climate change with texts by Olafur Eliasson, Maria Friberg, Isaac Julien, Bigert & Bergström, and by professionals with different perspectives on climate change, sustainability, and creativity. Initiated and organized by Moderna Museet.

Museums for Climate Action. A site that gathers a range of thinking about how museums might address the challenges of a warming world. Divided into three sections –Rethink, Reimagine and Mobilise– the site includes research material from the project team, a suite of concepts imagining possible museum futures in the climate change era, and key resources to inspire radical climate action in the sector and beyond.

Partners for Arts Climate Targets. PACT is an international coalition of organizations within the visual arts engaged in collaborative efforts to accelerate the sector’s broad adoption of collective climate action.

Galleries Commit. Galleries Commit is a worker-led collective committed to a climate-conscious, resilient, and equitable future for New York City galleries. Current initiatives include Climate Action 8x8, a public commitment letter, a climate action database and a land conservation partnership with Art to Acres. Based in New York.

Culture for the Planet. Our research project “Culture for the Planet”, conducted at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, seeks to develop frameworks and tools to accompany the cultural sector towards more ambitious and more systematic actions for sustainability. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

GREENART. GREENART proposes new solutions based on green & sustainable materials and methods, to preserve, conserve and restore Culture Heritage. Our ambition is to set these new classes of materials as standards in the restoration practice, and as models of cutting-edge technologies to be transferred in transversal fields such as food industry, detergency, cosmetics, and tissue engineering. Based in the European Union and working worldwide.

Sustainable Arts. Here, you will find a selection of helpful tools and tips that will make the planning and execution of cultural projects more sustainable and reduce your carbon footprint. Over the last few years, the international film industry has developed several initiatives and approaches to this end. The recommended measures are summarised in checklists, guidelines, handbooks and digital information platforms. Many of these tips and recommendations for best practice can also be applied to cultural projects that fall outside the realm of film. Based in Switzerland and working worldwide.

Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. For US based museums. The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is an energy and climate granting program launched by Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in partnership with RMI and Environment and Culture Partners. It is the first program of its kind in the U.S. for the visual arts and is the largest private national grant-making program to address climate change through cultural institutions.

Royal Academy of Arts. Learn more about what sustainability can mean and design your own green gallery. Your challenge is to design your own sustainable art museum. You can propose changes to an existing museum or gallery or start from scratch. You’ll make decisions about green space, the efficient use of resources, and how to make the institution meaningful to the communities it serves. Not sure about what really makes a gallery green? You can read a short summary of key considerations on this page. You’ll learn more about refurbishment, social sustainability, and more.

Gender Equity. Summary of Good Practice Recommendations. The new Gender Equity section in the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)’s Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design (the Code) provides ethical approaches for institutions and individuals to support opportunities and representation for women, trans, non-binary and gender diverse artists and address gender disparity in fees. Written by Miranda Samuels, educator, researcher and co-editor of the forthcoming 2024 ‘Countess Report’, this section challenges organisations to interrogate the gender power relations that form Australia’s systems and structures.