Global Centre for Climate Action presents: Toward Low-Carbon Curation

Between art production, exhibitions and fairs, temporary installations, and the rise of energy-intensive digital works, the art world contributes significantly to carbon emissions.

How can we become more conscious of the art world’s carbon footprint?

This is a question that Dr. Kirsty Robertson, Canada Research Chair in Museums, Art and Sustainability and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Curating (CSC) at the Western University, and Charlene K. Lau, an art historian and curator at Evergreen Brick Works, have been exploring through their respective practices.

Their approach emphasizes experimentation and developing a mindful strategy to reconsider exhibition materials, waste, and traditional aesthetic standards—working towards a more sustainable arts sector. In this interactive conversation and Q&A, Kirsty and Charlene will share tips, lessons, case studies, and the challenges of presenting low-carbon exhibitions and public artworks. They will also discuss why bringing intention and care to the curation process is a crucial intervention for climate action.

Following their conversation, the audience will be invited to ask questions and share challenges they face in pursuing sustainable exhibition design, fostering collaborative problem-solving and offering guidance on potential experimental paths.

Here is a list of resources you can reference to prepare for the session:

• Using the resources at hand: Sustainable Exhibition Design (Centre for Sustainable Curating)
• Signage Toolkit, FOFA Gallery
• PLASTIC HEART: A DIY Fieldguide for Reducing the Environmental Impact of Art Exhibitions, Synthetic Collective
• A Public (Art) Notice, Synthetic Collective, The Institute for Public Art and Sustainability, The Bentway, Evergreen Brick Works

November 19, 2024 @ 4:30 PM EST (In-Person @ OCAD U): Lecture by Christine Shaw (Blackwood Gallery) on large-scale, interdisciplinary art collaborations for social change.

is the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Museums, Art, and Sustainability and a Professor and Director of Museum and Curatorial Studies at Western University, where she also leads the Centre for Sustainable Curating. Her pedagogy involves curating large-scale speculative and experimental exhibitions with students. In her academic work, she has published extensively on activism, visual culture, and museums, culminating in her book Tear Gas Epiphanies: Protest, Museums, Culture (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019). Her research on museums has expanded into a new project focused on small and micro-collections that repurpose traditional museum formats for critical and politically radical projects. Additionally, she is a founding member of the Synthetic Collective, a group of artists, scientists, and cultural researchers addressing plastic pollution in the Great Lakes Region. Robertson also serves as project co-lead on A Museum for Future Fossils, an ongoing "vernacular museum" that responds curatorially to ecological crises.

is an art historian, critic and curator with nearly two decades of professional experience working with artists and art institutions in Canada and internationally. She has held fellowships at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; Parsons School of Design, The New School; and Performa Biennial. Charlene has also held teaching positions at Parsons School of Design, OCAD University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto Scarborough, Western University and York University. Her scholarly voice and curatorial work have been featured in The Guardian, PAPER, The Goods by Vox and The New Yorker; her scholarly writing has been published in Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, Fashion Theory and Journal of Curatorial Studies and in the edited anthologies The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies (2021) and Visual Typologies from the Early Modern to the Contemporary: Local Contexts and Global Practices (Routledge, 2018). She has written art criticism for publications including Art in America, Artforum, TheAtlantic.com, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, Canadian Art and frieze, among others.Charlene's research interests include the contemporary avant-garde in art, fashion and new media, Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), futurity and transgression. She holds a PhD in Art History and Visual Culture (York University), an MA in the History and Culture of Fashion (London College of Fashion), and a BA in Art History and Visual Studies (University of Toronto).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

205 Richmond St W, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Canada