Kirsty Robertson believes art galleries and museums have a powerful role to play in promoting environmental sustainability.

“It’s beautiful that museums preserve things and try to keep them for the future. But we also know that's really energy intensive,” says Kirsty, a visual arts professor at Western University and Canada Research Chair in Museums, Art and Sustainability.  

“We have to control temperature and humidity. Our works are very carefully packaged. And increasingly, we're thinking about our energy footprint.”

Reducing the environmental impact of galleries and museums is why Kirsty launched the Centre for Sustainable Curating (CSC) at Western in 2021.  

The CSC supports research, exhibitions, visual and digital production and education focused on environmental and social justice. It encourages research into waste, pollution, and the climate crisis, and the development of exhibitions and artworks with low carbon footprints.

“Through the centre, we think about questions that need asking. ‘Can we have slightly looser temperature and humidity controls? Could some artworks or artifacts that are not meant to last have a natural lifespan?’ The purpose isn't to just erase or forget about collections. It's to think differently about how we're collecting and what we're keeping for the future.”

From those questions, Kirsty and the CSC’s faculty, staff and students develop options for museum operations with an eye to sustainability.

“We come up with do-it-yourself, scrappy alternatives for a range of places that could be artist-run centres with really limited budgets or larger organizations looking for sustainable alternatives.”  

For example, since many museums use labels and signage made of vinyl, the CSC has been exploring paper options that can be adhered to the wall with paste made from rice or tapioca starch. The labels look like vinyl but can be composted at the end of an exhibition.  

Sustainable practices like these are spreading to museums around the world thanks in part to the CSC's outreach efforts. Their guide, Using the Resources at Hand: Sustainable Exhibition Design, is now used across the sector.

“The guide gives tips on how to curate less environmentally impactful exhibitions. There are many museums and galleries that have improved their exhibition practice, and we share that knowledge through images and guidelines.”

Like so much of university scholarship, Kirsty says collaboration is at the heart of the impact the CSC and other groups are making on sustainability.  

“Working together, the sector as a whole has shifted dramatically. Five years ago, not very many people were even thinking about sustainability in the arts sector. Now, it’s a leader in generating, sharing and implementing ideas, and giving museum visitors tips on how they can make change in their lives as well.”

She believes this focus on sustainability is giving museums and galleries a new relevance.  

“Looking at galleries and museums through the lens of sustainability provides a way to address their environmental footprint, protect cultural heritage for the future and think about how they can become places where the future is both imagined and represented.”

That future depends on what Kirsty says is the core mandate of the CSC – giving students an opportunity to learn and take their knowledge forward for further impact.  

“They learn how to think about their work, question things, test things, use their creativity. And then they go out into the sector ready for the challenges that they will encounter, both in museums and also in the wider world.”