Spain’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is hosting an international conference on sustainability strategies this week.
On 3 October, the museum will bring together museum leaders from across the world to share their most innovative sustainability strategies and solutions.
Organised in partnership with World Art Foundations (WAF), the conference will conclude with a lecture by artist Olafur Eliasson on how art can inspire climate action.
Participants include Suhanya Raffel, director of Hong Kong’s M+ museum; Whitney McGuire, associate director of sustainability at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Juan Ignacio Vidarte, director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Daniel Vega, deputy director of exhibitions and conservation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and James Merle Thomas, deputy director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
The symposium will offer sessions exploring the creation of ‘green teams’ in institutions and the development of realistic sustainability plans.
It will also look at how to measure a museum’s carbon footprint, as well as financing opportunities, strategies to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, recommendations on climate control, and the creation of environmentally-friendly visitor experiences.
Innovative sustainability solutions
Additionally, leaders from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao will reveal the sustainability initiatives that have already been implemented. The institution aims to be climate neutral by 2030.
World Art Foundations brings together museums and art foundations and enables them to share ideas, work together and connect with the international art community.
Last year, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao announced a new plan to measure the carbon footprint of its indirect emissions. As part of the plan, it worked out the carbon footprint of organising exhibitions, as well as artwork shipping and courier trips.
In addition, the museum is reducing its energy consumption with the installation of solar panels, and has been helping to purify the air in Bilbao via outdoor advertising campaigns.
Images courtesy of the Guggenheim Museums
