Whole Culture: Eco-Art + Art Museums

Bunny Larson-Fraley

11 December 2015

       What are the dynamics between contemporary eco-art and art museums? Art museums can be ideal locations for considering our cultural mindset, which includes our relationship with the environment. Are human ideas about the earth truly integrated into our culture? Museums in all fields are adopting excellent greening procedures, but have topics of ecological sustainability and ecological diversity entered into the dialogue in the heart of art museums— in their exhibits, through eco-art? Do artists feel an affinity to these venues? Do average art museums mesh culturally with the political ideas behind environmental art? What are strategies for successfully placing eco-art in art museum settings? Imagining art museums as places for expansive human exchange, environmental topics should be included in exhibits as one of many increasingly important issues in the 21st century consciousness. If accomplished effectively, co-creative effort between art museums and eco-artists can be a forward-looking and pleasurable shared responsibility.

       A hindrance to art museums as a place for environmental discourse may be the perception of environmental questions within the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Often these topics are reduced to discussions of architectural greening procedures. To their credit, many museums do readily incorporate environmental concerns into their policy-making, by considering factors like energy consumption, cleaning/maintenance chemicals, exhibition construction materials and reuse of these materials,[1] and influence on transportation by bicycle, car/van pool, electric golf carts, propane fuel buses, or hybrid-electric buses.[2] In their public spaces, these museums may post signage for visitors, addressing water conservation, recycling, and minimization of consumer waste. However, these museums may believe that, through these policies, they have already made their contribution to environmental consciousness.

       Rachel Madan, in her 2011 book Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century, collects numerous case studies of the greening of museums, including that of about fifteen art museums. These art museum examples have both traditional and contemporary art collections. Most greening includes reducing consumption of electricity, gas, and water. This might mean monitoring energy consumption, installing LED lighting, increasing use of natural daylight, collecting/storing rainfall for watering landscaping, and replacing non-native plants with native ones. Museums write a “Low Carbon Policy”, or follow a “light conservation budget”.[3] A few museums also consider eco-friendly construction materials.[4] Madan documents evidence of museums’ willingness to adopt sustainability policies. However, only two of the fifteen case study art museums seem to include environmental topics in their exhibits, as part of their sustainability efforts. These are the Design Museum in London and the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne.[5] The Design Museum in London organized the exhibit Sustainable Futures in 2009, which included an open source hydrogen car, energy-consumption monitors, recycled materials, air purifiers, and artist Fritz Haeg’s local farming/gardening project Edible Estates.[6] The Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne was one of 25 Australian galleries and museums that recently worked in association with the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 Festival.[7] Heide Museum’s contribution was an exhibit, Weathering, of Rosemary Laing’s photography relating to human effects on climate change.[8] Although some art museums do consider eco-art exhibits as a tool for sustainability education, Rachel Madan’s case studies show that this is still not a norm. Perhaps more art museums could recognize that the consideration of environmental art for their exhibits can be part of their sustainability policy.

       The California Association of Museums (CAM) may have been addressing the need for art itself to be recognized as a tool for environmental awareness, in helping coordinate the exhibit, Ignite! The Art of Sustainability. The show was organized following CAM’s Green Museums Initiative events in 2011, and was created as a traveling exhibition. Its locations from 2012 to 2015 included the UC Davis Design Museum, the Humboldt State University Art Gallery in Arcata, Arte Americas: Casa de Cultura in Fresno, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Longmont Museum in Colorado, the Museum of History & Art in Ontario, and the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah.[9] This seems to have been a fairly small-scale show, with thirteen Californian environmental artists. It’s interesting to note the variety of art possibilities with the subject of ecology, from more conventional events like these, to more conspicuous biennales, like the 2014 Taipei Biennial that focused on negative human alteration of the environment. There seems to be an overall movement toward recognizing art as a catalyst for environmental awareness, and art museums will probably have to recognize this more fully in the future.

Factors for Museums to Consider

       One obstacle to museums' thorough consideration of eco-art is that the goals of art museums and the goals of eco-artists may not always be aligned. Artists may view some museums and some established art world institutions as part of the problem of a corporate-driven culture. For example, biennale eco-art is in danger of being viewed by those involved with eco-art as superficial and opportunistic[10] or made-to-order and "greenwashed".[11] Further, many artists cannot relate to a museum that seems hypocritical, like the Tate, who claims to aim for sustainability, but who works with BP oil.[12] (See Figure 1.)

Fig. 1: Tate Museum: Protest staged by the art collective, Liberate Tate, drawing attention to Tate’s
financial connection with BP Oil, and why some eco-artists are averse to becoming involved with the Tate. (Source: Immo Klink)

       Even institutions that have good intentions may have questionable financial connections. For instance, it's interesting that the eco-show EXPO 1: New York at MoMA PS1 in 2013 was partially funded by Volkswagen,[13] considering Volkswagen has since been found to falsify emissions tests for some of their vehicles. Museums must acknowledge the implications of their alliances. Museums must recognize the political implications of different companies. Museums must consider how industrialization affects different ecosystems, and the impact that industrialization imposes on the people who live on those lands and who are more closely affected by that pollution and destruction.[14] Have museums looked at the larger context of these financial systems? How many art museums are dependent on corporate sponsorship, or on sponsors with ties to corporations?

       Could pressure from corporate connections distance those art museums from a true interest in the utopian ideal of an eco-community? An eco-community could be imagined as a participatory, humane, self-sustaining group of diverse, aware citizens who are recognized as capable of self-management. Government would be decentralized. Technology would make use of solar/wind/hydro power. Proportionality and localism, rather than expansion, would be encouraged.[15] This might be counter to what some museums would feel is a sound profitable business model. Especially in the U.S., although we speak more and more about an environmental crisis, we continue to prioritize financial growth, ignoring how this aggravates ecological problems.[16] Art museums that are truly interested in sustainability could consider whether their own structure and funding are compatible with the soul of the environmental movement.

       Political theorists have written that detractors to an ecologically ideal society are those who gain from transnational corporate production and hierarchy. Writer Timothy W. Luke, using the ideas of American "eco-anarchist" Murray Bookchin as a springboard, has written that these detractors misrepresent eco-communities as either 1) traditional conservatism, 2) romanticized fantasy primitivism, or 3) totalitarian collectivism.[17] Luke broadly discusses culture through Bookchin's philosophy. Applying these ideas to art museums, though, it raises the question of whether various art museums seriously support the idea of an ecologically sound community, or whether they downplay the viability of this possibility.

       Sometimes the influence of a structured museum can hamper artists' ability to truly attempt change outside the venue. The institution may fear the risk of supporting activist activities outside the safety of its own walls. In the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, some artist-museum partnerships were reviewed as producing art of "passivity and despair".[18] Alternatively, the projects that took activist actions, which would be considered artistic because of their use of metaphors, were rejected by the museums, and instead, picked up by a local center (which describes itself on its website as a "culture house/ free space"). There is a conflict of goals when an art institution welcomes activist aesthetics, but drains them of their efficacy.[19]

       Some artists may prefer to work outside the culture of museums. For example, in conjunction with 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris, COP21, the activist group Avaaz organized a project that could be seen as an art installation, in response to the government’s cancellation of the authorization of protest marches in support of true progress at COP21. This project placed 10,000 pairs of shoes in the Place de la Republique (including the shoes of Pope Francis and of Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon) to symbolize the people who would’ve been marching[20]—for this symbology, it was necessary that the shoes be placed outdoors near the streets of Paris, and needed no connection with a museum. A Britain-based underground art group, Brandalism, rallied 80 artists from 19 countries to replace 600 billboards throughout Paris, with their own images, in response to corporations’ connections with COP21. Brandalism’s tongue-in-cheek “ads” used corporate advertising methods to criticize the hypocrisy of these companies.[21] (See Figure 2.) Again, for the spirit of this project, it was necessary that the pieces be placed in the outdoor urban environment, and did not require the support of an art museum.

Fig. 2: Paris, during the 2015 Climate Change Conference COP21. Truth-in-advertising images by
the art collective Brandalism, referencing corporate sponsorship of the conference. (Source: Branbrook)

       There are also many venues, besides art museums, that are available for environmental art— for instance, residencies. Residencies can result in meaningful community interaction. Some locations have been praised for their ecologically aware practices, e.g. White Rabbit in Nova Scotia, Site Residency on the Swedish island Gotland, and Mustarinda in northern Finland.[22] However, some residencies for environmental artists function more as nature retreats. They attract tourist-like "privileged nomads" who residence-hop, from one glamorously "simple life" to the next, and who believe they're interested in the environment, but who don't fully consider the impact of their materials, or the footprint of their frequent plane travel.[23] It is worth noting that venues other than museums can still present their own problems.

       Sometimes a museum does not clash culturally with an eco-artist; instead, the obstacle may be the site of the artist's work, which makes an enactment of the art in a museum setting problematic. An artist may prefer to work outside of the physical confines of a museum. An artist may choose to launch large-scale social projects in an outdoor environment— in a landscape or in a neighborhood— without the hindrance of traditional perceptions of art. Mel Chin is a well-known example. His Revival Field near St. Paul, Minnesota (1991-1993),[24] which detoxified a hazardous waste dump by using metal leaching plants,[25] is considered a landmark bio-remediation artwork.[26] Chin characterizes the project as "constructive activism."[27] (See Figure 3.)

Fig. 3: Mel Chin, Revival Field. Metal-leaching plants used to detoxify a hazardous waste dump.
(Source: Mel Chin)

       His more recent plan, Operation Paydirt (2006-), with the accompanying Fundred Dollar Bill Project and Safehouse, is in protest against the lead contamination in New Orleans soil, and brings awareness to the need to protect the health and safety of the children who live there. The project includes art/design participation from children, Chin's own consultations with scientists and his own presentations to the EPA, Health Department, etc., and plans to deliver both symbolic and scientific information to Congress.[28] In both these examples of Chin's work, the site of the art may be far removed from a museum, but a museum can still display photographs and documentation of the activities. For example, notes and drawings for the panning of Revival Field, as well as photographs of the land itself, are part of the Walker Art Center's permanent collection.[29] (See Figure 4.) For the facilitation of Operation Paydirt, Chin has partnered with several locations, including schools, the MIT Community Innovators Lab, and art museums.[30] (See Figure 7.) Documentation of these two projects was also included in the recent retrospective of Chin's work, Mel Chin: Rematch. (See Figure 5 and Figure 6.) This exhibit was organized by, and debuted at, the New Orleans Museum of Art in early 2014.[31] The retrospective then traveled to the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, Missouri, in late 2014,[32] and then to Houston in 2015, where it showed concurrently in four venues: the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Asia Society Texas Center, and the Station Museum of Contemporary Art.[33] Mel Chin is respected in the art community, and museums do recognize documentation of his work as art.

Fig. 4: Mel Chin, plans for Revival Field, included in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center. (Source: Walker Art Center)

Fig. 5: Mel Chin, scale model of Revival Field, exhibited in a museum setting. (Source: New Orleans Museum of Art)

Fig. 6: Mel Chin: children’s illustrated dollars, and vault door, from Fundred Dollar Bill Project.
In response to lead contamination in New Orleans soil. Each participant’s dollar is presented as an
equivalency to requested funding from the federal government for clean-up. (Make these dollars real.) (Source: Mel Chin)

Fig. 7: Mel Chin: Art museum interactive for Fundred Dollar Bill Project. Participants illustrating dollars. One of several locales, including art museums and schools. (Source: Mel Chin)

       Further recent examples of projects carried out in environments, and meant to help local populations, are Hsu Su-chen and Lu Chien-min's Plant-Matter Needed (2008-) which supports the Taiwanese Amis Tribe in resisting urban development, Wu Mali's A Cultural Action at Plum Tree Creek (2010-) which addresses damaged streams near Taipei through educational community involvement, and Huang Po-chin's 500 Lemon Trees (2013-) which includes artistic farming entrepreneurship. These three projects were located in rural areas, but their documentation and reenactment were shared at Manchester's Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, in the exhibit Micro Micro Revolution in 2015.[34] This process was carried out in different ways for each project, but for example, in the case of Plant-Matter Needed, a reproduction Amis tribal house was built in the museum in Manchester, and the Amis Chief was invited to lead a ceremony including a blessing and singing at the opening of the exhibit. (See Figure 8.) This helped to disseminate news globally, and to jumpstart a dialogue about the need to limit the encroachment of corporations on local communities. Because documentation and reenactment of a remote project were both included in a museum, a wider audience was reached!

Fig. 8: Manchester’s Center for Chinese Contemporary Art: Taiwanese Amis Tribe reenactment.
Public awareness raising through showing models and inviting members of a community to speak.
Actual homes were built after urban development encroachment displaced residents. (Source: CFCCA, Hsu Su-chen, and Lu Chien-ming)

       In addition to environmental projects that assist communities, artists have also created numerous environmental works that assist local animal species. Most often, these are homes constructed for birds and bats, or occasionally small mammals. These structures range from naturalistic to obviously man-made. One example is the work of Yolanda Gutiérrez. In Santuario (Sanctuary) (1995), Gutiérrez wove reed baskets into imaginative tube-like nesting structures for migrating ducks, in order to draw them to the waters of a wildlife reservation in the Xochimilco Ecological Zone near Mexico City. (See Figure 9.) Other works of Gutiérrez include Estimulo (1995) for flamingos, Retono (1995) for egrets, and Conviviendo con Aves y Mariposas (2004) for birds and butterflies. Gutiérrez has consulted with ornithologists for her projects, and her structures have successfully been accepted by hundreds of birds. More examples of artists and animal house art include Lynne Hull's Raptor Roosts (1990-1998) and Marten Havens (1990-1998), Thomas Sayre's Nest (2003) and Phuket Cheddi (2003), Gitta Gschwendtner's Animal Wall (2009), Jorgan Tandberg + Yo Murata's Bat House (2009), Joyce Hwang and Ants of the Prairie's Bat Tower (2010), and Presidio Habitats (2010-2011), a group effort including Ai Weiwei.[35] Although these kinds of works are carried out in the natural environment, photos and videos of these pieces could likely be compiled for part of a museum exhibit, and would likely help to evoke identification from audiences who could understand the common need for shelter and survival. Museums must not forget projects only due to their location— especially if the work is more universal and might speak to a wide audience— when documentation of these projects could be included in an exhibit.

Fig. 9: Documentation photo of Yolanda Gutiérrez’s Santuario nesting structures for ducks.
Ducks received sanctuary in a nature preserve near Mexico City. (Source: Yolanda Gutiérrez)

       A focus on documentation is modeled by the Center for Art + Environment (CA+E), at the Nevada Museum of Art, which archives the process of environmental artists. For example, CA+E has Walter de Maria’s first plan, drawn on a napkin, of The Lightning Field. The CA+E collects and conserves environmental artists’ preliminary sketches, stories, and photos. The center organizes a range of exhibits, focusing either on art objects, or on photo documentation of land, or on documentation of outdoor environmental art. Further, CA+E has been holding conferences since 2008, encouraging discussions on how art and science can be used to address and to solve environmental problems like climate change, resource extraction, and species extinction.[36] Environmental art becomes more powerful when it can reach a wider community through the sharing of its documentation and its meaning.

       Another creative way for art museums to include eco-art in exhibits is to remember that it can be included as one part of a broader show. The Smithsonian's Museum of African Art organized the exhibit Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa in 2013. This show was comprised of many sections: “Material Earth”, “Power of the Earth”, “Imagining the Underground”, “Strategies of the Surface”, “Art as Environmental Action”, and “Earth Works”. With the scope of these subjects, a larger context of the relationship between people and land in Africa became the goal.[37] Because the scope was so wide, both historical art and contemporary eco-art were included in each of the sections. (See Figure 10.) Earth Matters demonstrates how eco-art need not be the only type of art in an exhibit, to still be addressed. This can be a natural way for an art museum to introduce ecological issues: as an integrated part of a larger context.

Fig. 10: Smithsonian’s Museum of African Art: Earth Matters exhibit. Two pieces from the section of the show, “Imagining the Underground.” Benin Copper Panel of animals who live under the surface, circa about 1600s. Photograph of working conditions for miners, cutting under the surface of the earth, by George Osodi, 2009. Combination of traditional and contemporary art in one exhibit increases the impact. (Source: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art)

Factors for Artists to Consider

       Artists can also contribute to making their art a good fit for museums, by adapting the format of their art to different locations, in order to make work for both outside and inside the museum setting. For example, Mary Mattingly works outside museums with her aquatic semi-self-sustaining survival-interested eco-communities— Waterpod in New York (2006-2010), Wetland in Philadelphia (2014-),[38] and Triple Island in New York (2013)— and for her eco-mobile-homes— Flock Houses in New York (2011-).[39] However, Mattingly’s Pull (2013) can be displayed as a photograph of her on a city street, dragging her worldly belongings in the form of a Sisyphean ball wrapped in twine.[40] Mattingly has led participatory performance art around this idea, with attendees invited to help pull/roll/drag the boulder of possessions down the street, which can be part of public programs.[41] She’s also made more static museum versions with Cube (2013) and Colure (2014), which were included in the 2014 show Crossing Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum.[42] She also created a walk-in-sphere installation version of Pull, supported by the Bronx Museum, at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana in 2015.[43] (See Figure 11.) Perhaps it is best when artists have this flexibility, and can communicate through different modes, appropriate to different settings, including those of art museums.

Fig. 11: Mary Mattingly, variations on her project Pull. A ball of worldly belongings, not unlike the sentence of Sisyphus. Our burden becomes a burden to the environment. (Sources: Mary Mattingly, Sonia Narang, Nicole Disser)

       Some artists' work already lends itself to a museum setting. For instance, Brandon Ballengee's projects, which are largely scientific, would not have the same impact if they were shown in an unstructured place. Part of the way Ballengee's work seems to be meant to be viewed is with the dissonance that is evident between altered or damaged nature and measured human surroundings. One example of this would be his large-scale installation Collapse, in which numerous specimen jars of dead oceanic creatures are balanced in the shape of a pyramid. This piece was in response to the 2010 BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill, and is meant to show the interconnectedness of species in the Gulf of Mexico.[44] (See Figure 12.) Its metaphoric meaning is in the balancing of the jars, but its emotional power lies in the fact that it brings dead bodies into a building— into a setting where people might normally be able to ignore these animals’ existence, but now cannot. Ballengee’s work has been widely exhibited in both scientific and art institutions. This example, Collapse, was included in the 2014 group art exhibit Beyond Earth Art: Contemporary Artists and the Environment, at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University.[45]

Fig. 12: Brandon Ballengee, museum settings for Collapse. (Sources: Brandon Ballengee, Laurence Godart)

       Ballengee does not seem to be in the minority in making easily displayed pieces. In fact, it seems there is no paucity of artists interested in making museum-ready eco-art. The 2013 show Ja Natuurlijk (Yes Naturally), at the Gemeentemuseum Den Hague, included 73 artists from around the world.[46] The 2014 Taipei Biennial, The Great Acceleration: Art in the Anthropocene, at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, included 52.[47] There was no overlap between the individuals in these two groups, but both shows focused on presenting contemporary ecological art in a large-scale group show. Often the mediums used by eco-artists seem to be chosen with easy display in mind.

       Another important factor for eco-artists to consider, in order to successfully place their work in art museum settings, is the aspect of communication in art. Art that clearly communicates with viewers is effective in contemporary art exhibits. Ideally, artists will find a balance between conceptualism and understandability. Many artists do not seem to understand the value of conveying ideas in a straightforward way. Smokescreens of obfuscatory lexicon impede the viewers’ ability to understand what the art is doing. [48] Eco-art cannot be separated from its core meaning, so it is essential that this meaning be transmitted clearly.

       Maya Lin’s What is Missing? is one example of a project that aims for communication and that invites audience engagement. What is Missing? has been directed at a variety of people, by being produced in a variety of formats. This project includes material for an online website, for a public video, and for both science and art museum locations. What is Missing? raises awareness about loss of biodiversity in ecosystems around the world, but is also meant to advocate for better practices, and to inspire people to help improve situations for the future. In the online website portion of the project, whatismissing.net, both conservation groups and the public have been encouraged to participate by adding their own information and personal stories about biodiversity loss.[49] Lin wants the website to be “subtle”, in order to invite exploration. It is meant as an ongoing project, and Lin hopes to continue to clarify any material that might be too “dense” or “cryptic”,[50] making her interest in communication evident. For the public video, one of the short films in this project was aired at the top of every hour on MTV’s billboard in Times Square, New York, from April 15-30, 2010, which included Earth Day on April 22nd. For a science museum location, Lin installed a permanent public multi-media sculpture, Listening Cone, at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, in 2009. For an art museum setting, Lin designed Empty Room: a dim room with ambient green light, and pinholes in the floor projecting videos of endangered animals. These videos can only be brought into focus with small, clear, hand-held pieces of plexi carried by visitors. (See Figure 13.) The symbology of a technically empty room corresponds with the loss of endangered animal species. Empty Room debuted at the Beijing Center for the Arts in 2009, with corresponding debuts at Salon 94 in New York City and the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York.[51] Since then, in 2014, Empty Room was shown at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, in the exhibit Beyond Earth Art: Contemporary Artists and the Environment.[52] Lin’s flexibility in using many platforms to reach a wider audience is applaudable, as is the crowd-sourced nature of the website portion of her project, and the symbology of her art museum variation, in which visitors’ physical participation is key.

Fig. 13: Tate Museum: Maya Lin's Empty Room for What is Missing? Pinhole projections produce images on hand-held pieces of plexi. (Source: Maya Lin Studios, Matthew Neiderhause)

       Another example of an artist’s focus on communication could be Bright Ugochukwu Eke’s projects that highlight a very specific ecological problem in the country where he was born. Eke’s work is in response to acid rain caused by toxic spilling and burning by petroleum refineries in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and the cycle of litter that is caused by the subsequent lack of clean water. Both his works Shields and Clouds make use of plastic bags which are used to sell water at exorbitant prices, since there is now a lack of natural, safe, clean drinking water in the Niger Delta area due to chemicals from oil industrialization. In Shields, Eke collected numerous actual bags from where they had been discarded, and ironed these to fuse them together into large sheets of fabric-like plastic. From this material, he made raincoats and umbrellas, with a functional aesthetic, but as a symbolic barrier to the now toxic water— water, an element which should naturally be part of our lives.[53] In his Clouds installations, Eke fills cellophane bags with water and charcoal, to mimic the unsafe water, and suspends these from the ceiling in dense groups like acid rain drops.[54] (See Figure 14.) His politically thoughtful pieces are part social practice and part fine art. His work has appeared in art museums including the Ålands Konstmuseum near Finland, the Museu Afro Brasil, and the Museum of Art & Design in New York. He has also exhibited in conjunction with the Climate Change Conferences COP15 in Copenhagen (2009), COP17 in Durban (2011), and COP 21 in Paris this month (2015).[55] Eke first narrowed his artistic focus to water during his postgraduate studies with well-known artist El Anatsui. Eke then traveled south to the location of the oil refineries, where he saw these damaged ecosystems for the first time. From there, Eke found subjects like acid rain which he was inspired to address.[56] Eke draws attention to how industrialization breaks down our connection with each other, with the world, and with the environment. Cultural critique is part of eco-art. It must be welcomed into museums as part of museums’ reflection of their communities. Eke’s repeated artistic focus on safe water for this region gets the message across. We respond to this clear repetition of his message because no member of the world community is immune: the desire for safe drinking water is universal. The impact of his imagery, and the empathy it incites with its repetitious plea, reaches us as an undeniable truth.

Fig. 13: Bright Ugochukwu Eke's Shields and Clouds, in response to acid rain. (Source: Axis Gallery)

Museums' Role for a Better World

       Eco-artists and art museum curators should aim to meaningfully engage the public. Art professionals speak of the need to democratize environmental science, so that information can be disseminated to the largest audience. Egalitarian sharing of knowledge can help viewers evaluate the effects of their own behavior, and can culminate in citizens implementing positive changes in their overall community.[57] In the Foreword of the 2011 environmental art book, The New Earthwork, editor Twylene Moyer explains the cultural benefit to both art museums and to society, of including environmental topics in art museum exhibits:

              There is no other issue so universal, no meaning more intrinsic
              than survival... this is the chance to make a real contribution,

              to enter people’s daily lives and perhaps make them better.
              For artists, galleries, and museums, this is an opportunity
              to weave culture into a fabric of new connections joining

              environment, social relations, and human subjectivity... 

              there can be no more false dichotomy between nature 

              and culture— environmental health, social justice,

              and cultural achievement are not mutually exclusive. [58]
              

       Art exhibitions can invite people to engage on many levels, including long-term responses, and combined power. The more citizens are informed by an art exhibit— the more an art exhibit evokes an emotional response— the more it incites people to take part in a dialogue or in a deeper understanding of the world— then the more likely citizens will be to make positive long-term changes, partly because of the art exhibit. Museums can then become a full partner with their communities, rather than being relegated to petrifaction, and seen only in a glorified archivist or scrapbooking role.

       Both art museums and eco-artists are responsible for the factors that must be present for the connection to be strengthened between them. Those who organize art museums can become more aware of the larger context of sustainability. They can guard against being accused of greenwashing, by taking into account cultural, political, and financial aspects of environmental topics. Museums can also use creative methods to include environmental art in their exhibits, whether through documentation or as part of a larger context. Artists can make art for both outside and inside museum settings, and can focus on communicating with viewers through their work. Artists can gauge the success of their art by the variety of people who can understand and interact with their work, and by their art’s ability to incite long-term change in people’s thinking or behavior.

       The more we see eco-art and the more we create eco-art, the more eco-art itself will evolve. As it evolves, it will have more power to change our daily lives for the better. Together, art museum professionals and eco-artists can bring contemporary ecological art into a fully integrated position in art museums. Both museums and artists can be positive agents of change. Their combined power would be immeasurable.

Video of the presentation that accompanied this paper
at the following Youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqHlUQSuXis

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[1] Sarah S. Brophy and Elizabeth Wylie, The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice, Second Edition, (Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press, 2013), 225.

[2]Ibid., 162.

[3] Rachel Madan, Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century (Edinburgh, UK: MuseumsEtc, 2011), 183, 199, 246, 255, 291, 293, 295.

[4] Ibid., 214, 230, 271

[5] Ibid., 271, 216

[6] Bonnie Alter, “Sustainable Futures Exhibition Asks Can Design Make a Difference?,” Treehugger: Finding A Greener Future, April 15, 2010, http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/sustainable-futures-exhibition-asks-can-design-make-a-difference.html.

[7] “Exhibitions,” ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015, accessed November 13, 2015, http://artclimatechange.org/ exhibitions/.

[8] “Rosemary Laing: Weathering,” ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015, accessed November 13, 2015, http://artclimatechange.org/event/rosemary-laing-weathering/.

[9] “Our Exhibits: Ignite! The Art of Sustainability,” Exhibit Envoy: The Smartest Way to Draw a Crowd, accessed November 21, 2015, http://exhibitenvoy.org/OurExhibits/tabid/110/ID/16/ Ignite_The_Art_of_Sustainability.aspx.

[10] Laura Kenins, “Escapists and Jet-Setters: Residencies and Sustainability,” C: International Contemporary Art, 119 (2013): 10.

[11] Steven Lam, Gabi Ngcobo, Jack Persekian, Nato Thompson, Anne Sophie Witzke, Liberate Tate, “Art, Ecology and Institutions: A Conversation with Artists and Curators,” Third Text, 27, no. 1 (2013): 144.

[12] Ibid., 143.

[13] “EXPO 1: NEW YORK,” MOMAPS1, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.momaps1.org/expo1/about/

[14] Steven Lam, Gabi Ngcobo, Jack Persekian, Nato Thompson, Anne Sophie Witzke, Liberate Tate, “Art, Ecology and Institutions: A Conversation with Artists and Curators,” Third Text, 27, no. 1 (2013): 142.

[15] Timothy W. Luke, Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy and Culture (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 177-194.

[16] Bob Dickenson, “PLEISTOCENE HOLOCENE ANTHROPOCENE,” Art Monthly, 389 (2015): 9.

[17] Timothy W. Luke, Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy and Culture (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 186-187.

[18] Gavin Grindon, “Art & Activism,” Art Monthly, 333 (2010): 10.

[19] Ibid., 11-12.

[20] “Paris Climate Protests Banned, but 10,000 Shoes Remain,” November 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/ environment/video/2015/nov/29/paris-climate-protesters-banned-but-10000-shoes-remain-video.

[21] Rom Levy, “Brandalism: 600 ad takeovers in Paris before the COP21 Climate Conference,” Street Art News, November 28, 2015, http://www.streetartnews.net/2015/11/brandalism-600-ad-takeovers-in-paris.html.

[22] Laura Kenins, “Escapists and Jet-Setters: Residencies and Sustainability,” C: International Contemporary Art, 119 (2013): 10, 14.

[23] Ibid., 11, 14.

[24] Linda Weintraub, To Life! : Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 136.

[25] The New Earthwork: Art Action Agency, edited by Twylene Moyer and Glenn Harper, Hamilton, NJ: isc Press, 2011: 46.

[26] Linda Weintraub, To Life! : Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 136.

[27] The New Earthwork: Art Action Agency, edited by Twylene Moyer and Glenn Harper, Hamilton, NJ: isc Press, 2011: 46.

[28] Linda Weintraub, To Life! : Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 137-140.

[29] “Collections— Browse— Revival Field: Projection + Procedure,” Walker Art Center, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artworks/revival-field-projection-and-procedure.

[30] “About Operation Paydirt,” Fundred: Supporting Operation Paydirt, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.fundred.org/about/operation-paydirt.php.

[31] Devon Britt-Darby, “Blaffer and three other Houston museums present Mel Chin: Rematch,” University of Houston, accessed November 21, 2015, http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2015/january/blaffer-mel-chin/.

[32] “CV,” Mel Chin, accessed November 21, 2015, http://melchin.org/oeuvre/current.

[33] Devon Britt-Darby, “Blaffer and three other Houston museums present Mel Chin: Rematch,” University of Houston, accessed November 21, 2015, http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2015/january/blaffer-mel-chin/.

[34] Bob Dickenson, “PLEISTOCENE HOLOCENE ANTHROPOCENE,” Art Monthly, 389 (2015): 8.

[35] The New Earthwork: Art Action Agency, edited by Twylene Moyer and Glenn Harper, Hamilton, NJ: isc Press, 2011: 154-167.

[36] Mark Boyer, “Art + Environment Conference Kicks Off This Weekend at the Nevada Museum of Art,” Inhabitat, October 7, 2014, http://inhabitat.com/art-environment-conference-kicks-off-this-weekend-at-the-nevada-museum-of-art/.

[37] Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, accessed November 18, 2015, http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/earthmatters/.

[38] Bob Dickenson, “PLEISTOCENE HOLOCENE ANTHROPOCENE,” Art Monthly, 389 (2015): 9.

[39] Heartney, Eleanor, “Art for the Anthropocene Era: Four artists take on the challenges of our environmental crisis,” Art in America, 102, no. 2 (2014): 80.

[40] “Pull, 2013,” Mary Mattingly, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.marymattingly.com/ html/MATTINGLYHouseUniverse9.html.

[41] “Pull: Participatory Performance and Artist Talk with Mary Mattingly,” Blackwood Gallery, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.blackwoodgallery.ca/events/2014/Pull.html.

[42] Rujeko Hockley, “We Love to Make Connections at the Brooklyn Museum,” Brooklyn Museum Tumblr, December 19, 2014, http://brooklynmuseum.tumblr.com/post/105614254572/we-love-to-make-connections-at-the-brooklyn.

[43] “Mary Mattingly (’10),” Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, accessed October 20, 2015, http://skowhegan.tumblr.com/post/120446545221/mary-mattingly-10-pull-part-of-a-collaboration.

[44] “Collapse,” Brandon Ballengee, accessed November 18, 2015, http://BrandonBallengee.com/collapse/.

[45] Alicia Inez Guzmán, “beyond earth art: contemporary artists and the environment,” Afterimage, 41, no. 6 (2014): 21.

[46] "Complete list of artists," Ja Natuurlijk, accessed November 18, 2015, http://ja-natuurlijk.com/site2/category/ kunstenaars-en/#content-kunstnaar-0.

[47] The Great Acceleration: Art in the Anthropocene, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.taipei biennial2014.org/index.php/en/.

[48] Steven Lam, Gabi Ngcobo, Jack Persekian, Nato Thompson, Anne Sophie Witzke, Liberate Tate, “Art, Ecology and Institutions: A Conversation with Artists and Curators,” Third Text, 27, no. 1 (2013): 146-147.

[49] Gustave Axelson, “What Is Missing? Q&A With Maya Lin,” The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, July 15, 2012, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/what-is-missing-qa-with-maya-lin/.

[50] Diane Toomey, “Maya Lin: A Memorial to A Vanishing Natural World,” Yale: Environment 360, June 25, 2012, http://e360.yale.edu/feature/maya_lin_a_memorial_to_a_vanishing_ natural_world/2545/?utm_source=feed burner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29&utm_content=Google+Reader.

[51] Amanda Reed, “What Is Missing?: Maya Lin's Memorial on the Sixth Extinction,” World Changing: Change Your Thinking, October 12, 2010, http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011645.html.

[52] Alicia Inez Guzmán, “beyond earth art: contemporary artists and the environment,” Afterimage, 41, no. 6 (2014): 21.

[53] Linda Weintraub, To Life! : Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012: 161

[54] “Heavy Clouds,” Axis Gallery, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.axisgallery.com/Axis_Gallery/ Bright_Ugochukwu_Eke_Albums/Pages/Heavy_Clouds,_2011.html.

[55] “Bright Ogochukwu Eke: CV,” Axis Gallery, accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.axisgallery.com/ Axis_Gallery/Eke_CV.html.

[56] “Tang Museum: Bright Ugochukwu Eke on Working with Water,” Art Babble, February 5, 2011,
http://www.artbabble.org/video/tang/tang-museum-bright-ugochukwu-eke-working-water.

[57] Steven Lam, Gabi Ngcobo, Jack Persekian, Nato Thompson, Anne Sophie Witzke, Liberate Tate, “Art, Ecology and Institutions: A Conversation with Artists and Curators,” Third Text, 27, no. 1 (2013): 147

[58] The New Earthwork: Art Action Agency, edited by Twylene Moyer and Glenn Harper, Hamilton, NJ: isc Press, 2011: 9.

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Video of the presentation that accompanied this paper
at the following Youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqHlUQSuXis

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