View of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. © Soeren Stache/dpa-Zentralbild/POOL/dpa/Archivbild
A network of cultural workers is intended to support museums and other institutions on their way to more sustainability in the art world. For this purpose, the first German branch of the international Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) was founded in the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin.
Berlin - Museum director Klaus Biesenbach and the US artist Haley Mellin, who is also known for her environmental commitment, spoke on Thursday in Berlin of an important step for sustainability in cultural institutions such as museums. Artists such as Katharina Grosse, Olafur Eliasson, Tino Sehgal and Simon Denny were involved in the preparations, as was the President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner.
Founded in London in 2020, the GCC is an international non-profit initiative that imparts knowledge about sustainability and the use of resources in art institutions. In order to reduce environmental pollution, for example, the aim is to quickly halve CO2 emissions in the art sector.
Mellin initiated the "Art to Acres" project in 2017, which allows rainforest areas to be placed under protection. In 2020, she and Biesenbach founded the Environmental Council at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in Los Angeles. Dpa