The Green Art Website Launched on 26 April

The Green Art website for professionals in the art field to support environmental sustainability will be launched on 26 April. The site will provide a carbon and material footprint calculator to help users monitor and reduce their environmental impact. The project is the result of a network of collaborations between a wide range of visual art organisations and actors, including museums, residencies, associations and educational institutions.

The Green Art website will be launched on Friday 26 April 2024 at the University of the Arts during the Sustainable Visual Arts Day, which will include expert presentations and workshops on sustainability in the visual arts. It will also be possible to participate remotely via streaming.

A calculator for measuring the carbon footprint of an exhibition, production or artwork, as well as advice and tips for more sustainable practices, will be published on the greenart.fi website. The website has a dedicated section for the Sustainable Visual Arts Network. The calculator is free to use and does not require registration. The website and the calculator are published in both Finnish and English.

“The prior interest in the website and the network shows that there is a demand for reliable information and peer support, and that arts organisations are very eager to act,”

says Project Manager Saara Korpela.

“There are many ways for visual arts organisations to influence and measure the impact of their activities. Emissions accounting is a necessary tool among others. I hope that emissions accounting will become as mundane as budget monitoring is today. The key is what the results of the calculator can be used for, and how to change policies to reduce emissions. This requires both open and constructive debate and collaborative action. We need both shared tools and a collaborative network – changing practices is only possible together,”

Korpela continues.

The Green Art Calculator is built on the basis of the calculation principles of the GHG protocol commonly used in carbon footprint calculations. The calculator has been designed to take into account the typical emission sources of visual arts actors. Emissions are divided into five clear categories from largest to smallest: mobility and transport, energy consumption of facilities, purchases, materials and waste. A special feature of the calculator is the large number of emission factors for different materials used in exhibition production, such as wood, fibreboard, metals, plastics and paints. The calculator also includes material footprint data to the extent that it was available from open databases. The material footprint complements the results of the carbon footprint calculation and takes into account the natural resources used.

The website is the result of the Sustainable Visual Arts Network, a network of visual arts practitioners. The network is a peer-to-peer network of organisations in the sector, which aims to strengthen the environmental knowledge of the visual arts sector and support the sector’s transition to ecologically sustainable practices. In 2024, the network will be led by IHME Helsinki and Frame Contemporary Art Finland and is open to all interested actors.

The website and the development project are part of the Green Art project led by Frame Contemporary Art Finland. The project has received support from the Ministry of Education and Culture for the renewal of culture and creative industries. The funding is part of the Next Generation EU programme. The website and the calculator have been developed by Positive Impact Finland Oy (now part of Sitowise Oy) together with Frame, involving project partners and visual arts actors.

The project is made in cooperation with Frame Contemporary Art Finland, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki Kunsthalle, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, IHME Helsinki, Mustarinda Association, Pro Artibus Foundation, Finnish National Gallery,The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes, Finnish Museum Association, Artists’ Association of Finland, Finnish Artists’ Association Studio Foundation, the Academy of Fine Arts of the Uniarts Helsinki and the Arts Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences.

Discover the Green Art Website: