The PST ART Climate Impact Program is a classic example of a big journey starting with a single step. In the early stages of PST ART: Art & Science Collide I met with artist, curator, educator, and creative strategist Debra Scacco. As founding director of AIR and its four-year collaboration with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, and co-curator of a PST ART project at California State University Dominguez Hills, she planted the seed that this iteration of PST ART—a regional collaboration of thematically-linked art exhibitions and public programs made possible with Getty support—should embrace climate action.
The Getty Foundation was primed to act when climate change and environmental justice emerged as key themes in many of the PST ART projects that received research funding starting in 2020. When Debra suggested we dedicate a portion of our first in-person convening for all the PST ART partners to sustainability, we gladly agreed. Laura Lupton, co-founder of Artists Commit, led a panel to share information about climate-focused, community-led work happening in the arts sector, and the response was electric. Partners organized a peer-to-peer working group, and it quickly became apparent that this burgeoning community had great potential to reform carbon intensive exhibition-making practices. But they needed a formal structure and dedicated support to take their interest from talk to action.
Getty formalized the PST ART Climate Impact Program (CIP) by bringing Lupton and Scacco on board as founding codirectors through LHL Consulting to develop and deliver the program for the PST ART partner institutions. Recognizing that organizations were already under tremendous pressure reopening in the wake of pandemic, we agreed that the program should be opt-in. All PST ART partners were invited to attend informational webinars and peer-to-peer working sessions, and access 1:1 meetings with LHL to strategize on how they could incorporate climate-conscious decisions into their exhibition planning.
The response was overwhelming, with every PST ART organization attending at least one educational event and 69% completing a Climate Impact Report for their exhibition projects. This level of participation is a testament to key PST ART team members’ commitment to climate action, support from their leadership, and the inspirational guidance offered by LHL Consulting.
According to the Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2024, 71% of Californians are worried about global warming. This number is almost certain to increase in the coming years as we continue to experience extreme weather and climate uncertainty, as highlighted by the cataclysmic Palisades and Eaton fires that struck during the final weeks of PST ART: Art & Science Collide. Just as that moment brought our communities closer, so too can the PST ART collaboration unify our sector in collective action. Climate work requires teamwork, and I’m confident that we can continue to develop solutions together within the large-scale collaboration that is PST ART.
- Joan WeinsteinDirectorGetty Foundation