Environmental Sustainability in the Southern California Visual Arts Field
Authors:   , Naideau Cynthia Joy , Yau Pamela 
Published: April 2022

As the climate crisis continues to penetrate the news and everyday lives of Earth's inhabitants, this paper aims to investigate how visual arts organizations can do their part in contributing positively to the contemporary environmental movement. This text will explore the role of environmental sustainability in visual arts organizations in Southern California as well as the role that these institutions have in the contemporary environmental movement. The paper will also examine how visual arts organizations try to be more environmentally conscious and what actions they are taking or what limitations they might find to doing so. Through the use of an electronically disseminated survey, sent to the community of visual arts organizations of varying types including museums, galleries, and art centers in Southern California, and semi-structured interviews with administrators in the field I was able to gain a sense of the environmentally sustainable practices in the sector. Looking at the literature surrounding the field, it is clear that little has been explored with regards to the visual arts' impact on the climate movement. To understand where this field fits within the larger scientific field, this paper will provide context about the history of environmentalism within the United States and more regional Southern California, explore pivotal legislation that might influence the actions of these organizations, and look at environmental scientific data to understand the quantitative impact of actions. To prepare for the future of the field, the text will also explore different green business practices currently enacted by organizations as well as the possibility and potential for artist involvement in the contemporary environmental movement. The results of the surveys and interviews indicated that administrators in the visual arts field were actively participating in actions with an environmentally sustainable objective however, there is always more that could be done to point the future of climate change in the right direction. While some admitted their own leadership was limiting their organization's abilities to improve eco-friendly habits, others noted that resistance from stakeholders and staff made it difficult to focus on making sustainable changes. Seeing as many visual arts organizations are nonprofits, getting most of their funding from outside sources such as grant makers, individual major givers, and corporate funders, budgets had to be focused on the bottom line for operations and had little accessory funds to devote to big, long-term environmentally sustainable changes. In order to progress the field, future steps should be taken to ensure that these organizations are both not limited in taking action but encouraged to. By looking at the ideals of funders, ways to activate peers within the field, and determining if and what incentives are effective in increasing participation, the visual arts field could have a big impact on the contemporary environmental movement on an individual and industry basis.