Getty Announces Climate Plan for PST ART Exhibitions

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The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has announced a Climate Impact Programme for PST ART (formerly known as Pacific Standard Time), which they call ‘the largest art event in the United States’.

PST will bring together more than 60 institutions across Southern California when it riffs on the theme Art & Science Collide from 15 September. Planned exhibitions include Social Forest: Oaks of Tovaangar at the Broad and Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art at UCLA’s Fowler Museum.

‘Many of the exhibitions in Art & Science Collide underscore the magnitude of the climate crisis and also the ways we can engage as change-makers,’ said Katherine E. Fleming, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

She said participating institutions would be ‘the proving ground behind the scenes for diverse, data-driven sustainability practices that have the potential to alter the arts and culture sector at large.’

Led by LHL Consulting, the programme will offer webinars on sustainably mounting exhibitions, expert advice on minimising waste and emissions, and encourage institutions to complete climate impact reports.

Art is far from the most polluting industry, but many in it aspire to lead action on climate change.

‘As trusted institutions, museums have the power to support the health and resilience of their communities while showcasing creative climate leadership through thoughtful, responsible exhibition preparation and presentation,’ said Laura Lupton, Founder and Principal of LHL Consulting.

Alongside the Climate Impact Programme, Getty is supporting Gallery Climate Coalition to update its carbon calculator.

PST ART’s model of bringing together a network of related exhibitions across institutions is supported by remarks recently made by Michael Govan, Art Director of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), following the news that LACMA would partner with the Las Vegas Museum of Art, slated to open in 2028.

‘I think that’s a very 20th century idea — to keep adding wings until you’re a million square feet on Fifth Avenue,’ Govan told the Los Angeles Times. ‘The 21st century idea is that you build infrastructure in other communities, as well as deep, long-term relationships. That’s my paradigm shift,’ he said. —[O]

Main image: Mark Dion, Studies for Excavations (2023). Illustration. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles. © Mark Dion.