On Friday, April 21, the eve of Earth Day, the Climate Coalition Gallery (GCC) – an international non-profit organization that advocates for reducing the carbon footprint of the art sector – is hosting an official launch event for its New York chapter at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The institution’s associate director of sustainability, Whitney McGuire, is a member of the nine-person founding committee for the new chapter, which joins existing GCC branches in London, Los Angeles, Berlin, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.
Other members of the organization’s New York chapter include dealers Ales Ortuzar (of Ortuzar Projects), Matthew Wood (of Mendes Wood DM) and Chiara Repetto (of Kaufmann Repetto), consultant Lisa Schiff, director of the ‘Swiss Institute Stefanie Hessler, former director of the Frieze fair Loring Randolph (who now directs the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection), artist Haley Mellin (who also directs the environmental association Art to Acres) and Laura Lupton, who co-founded the Galleries Commit and Artists Commit collectives. The coalition, which launched in 2020today has more than 800 members in 40 countries.
Referring to all of the arts workers represented on the founding committee in New York, Victoria Siddall, co-founder and trustee of GCC (and former Global Director of Frieze Fairs), said: “It is this spirit of collaboration that will allow us to bring real change, while allowing our industry to prosper and our actions will have a ripple effect that will go far beyond the world of art.
The launch of GCC’s New York chapter comes with a call for artists, galleries, non-profit organizations and local institutions to join the coalition, whose primary goal is to reduce carbon emissions from the industry. 50% by 2030.
In recent events and initiatives, the coalition has been increasingly careful to discourage greenwashing and empty promises. “It’s not good members hanging around on a list, we have to see that actions are being taken, otherwise it looks like greenwashing which is bad for them and bad for us,” the GCC director said, Heath Lowndes. said The arts journal columnist (and founding coalition member) Louisa Buck earlier this year.
Coalition spear its Active Members program last year, in part to ensure that promises are followed by action. In order to receive an active member badge, participants must have completed an emissions report or carbon footprint for the past two years, maintained a team dedicated to green initiatives, and published an environmental responsibility statement. The active membership status of Coalition members will be reassessed annually.
