sustainability policy

Last amended: May 2024

In 2024 Kunstverein Aughrim commissioned artist Shane Malone-Murphy to produce a Sustainability Policy. The goal for this policy is to implement an actionable, pragmatic, scalable, tough and honest policy to ensure that Kunstverein Aughrim will help to do the work of becoming and maintaining sustainability.

This policy recognises that climate action requires a fundamental commitment to care and good stewardship, that foregrounds justice and fairness in order to uproot the harmful systems perpetuating the current climate crisis. This commitment cannot come from individuals alone and instead must be fostered out of the collective strength of community, as a unified movement of action, encompassing many perspectives and voices, working towards a shared purpose.

Guided by Kunstverein Aughrim’s ethos as a curatorial production office, that bridges the gap between artistic practice and public presentation, this policy will act as a tool for positively bridging the gap between cultural attitudes and the rapid action needed to combat climate change.

This tool will take many forms. Sometimes, a set of rules and lists of resources, objective actions that can help mitigate carbon emissions. Other times, it will be softer. Offering orientations toward an understanding of what sustainability could be, seeking to embed a desire for transformative action across the cultural community.

Regularly Monitor and Report On Our Activities

Kunstverein Aughrim will continually audit our energy consumption and carbon footprint. The data collected from these audits will be entered into the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Climate Tools database to ensure a proper record and to allow for reflection in order to continuously reduce the annual carbon emissions of Kunstverein Aughrim.

Refuse and Reduce Air Travel

As a public-facing curatorial production office, located in a small town in rural Ireland, and working with artists nationally and internationally as part of an international network, the largest impact Kunstvererin Aughrim enacts on the environment is the emissions resulting from the transport of artworks and travel of artists, team members, collaborators and audiences of the Kunstverein.

Kunstverein Aughrim will support and encourage artists, team members, collaborators and audiences to travel consciously. Kunstverein Aughrim will commit to prioritising video conferencing for meetings when possible, and encouraging the use of ride-sharing and public transport for in-person visits to the Kunstverein. With limited rural public transport options this involves facilitating individual pick-ups and connections to and from bus and train stations in local transport hubs (Arklow and Rathdrum). International travel will be over land and sea where possible. If air travel is the only feasible option (due to an individual’s time constraints for example) Kunstverein Aughrim will compare the carbon emissions between different airlines and flight routes, and commit to using the trip wisely by combining several reasons for travel and facilitating longer stays where possible.

Strategic Climate Fund

Following the Gallery Climate Coalition recommendation, Kunstverein Aughrim will establish a strategic climate fund (SCF). SCFs are funds set up by an organisation that will help sustain other forms of environmentalism such as:

Investing in carbon reduction measures within Kunstverein Aughrim that would otherwise be unaffordable.
Supporting initiatives to urgently reduce the art world’s carbon footprint.
Supporting frontline projects and campaigns that will make a strategic difference to the climate crisis.
Supporting artists to travel in an environmentally conscious method.
Supporting local actions towards biodiversity and sustainability in partnership with Aughrim Tidy Towns CLG.

Kunstverein Aughrim will fund its SCF through an ‘internal carbon tax’, allocating a proportion of the annual budget to this SCF, proportional to the annual carbon emissions.

Events at Kunstverein Aughrim

The environmental impacts of each exhibition undertaken with Kunstverein Aughrim will be assessed in the planning stages with each stage of the exhibition prioritising sustainable methods and solutions like:

Buying materials locally.
Decide in advance which parts of the material production will be reused, discarded or recycled.
Dismantling plan before starting installing.
Avoid using single use materials.
If additional tools are needed, prioritise borrowing or renting rather than buying new tools.
Using only recycled and renewably sources tableware and packaging.
In the longer term to work with Aughrim Tidy Towns CLG and Men’s Sheds to foster investment in shared community resources.

The CO2 emissions of each exhibition will be entered in the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Climate Tools in order to give us a record of the impact of each exhibition.

Kunstverein Aughrim will continue to work with environmentally friendly printers for the production of our publications and other printed materials, and to restrict the amount of publications to a limited number of copies (200).

E-Waste

Set computers, printers and other IT equipment to go into “power save” mode when not in use.
Regularly delete emails that are no longer needed.
Unsubscribing from mailing lists that are no longer needed.
Use large attachments (PDFs) only when necessary.
If the same PDF needs to be sent to a large number of people, These will be uploaded to the Kunstverein Aughrim website and a link shared with those who need it.
Continue to host the Kunstverein Aughrim website with a web host which is powered by renewable energy (Blacknight).
Continue to resize imagery hosted on the Kunstverein Aughrim website in order to be as energy efficient as possible while loading the page.
Establishment of a “Green Fifteen”. Fifteen minutes once a week to clear inboxes of e-waste.

Committing to the Future

Working towards a more sustainable future, is work that consistently needs to be readdressed. Through its wide-reaching networks of artists and organisations, Kunstverein Aughrim seeks to develop new infrastructures for the cultural sector that allow more positive environmental action to take place and this policy is only the first step.

We encourage our collaborators to commit to sustainability. To achieve this Kunstverein Aughrim will assess and share our learnings with our peer networks of other galleries, arts centres, artists’ studios and arts organisations.

Resource Tool Kits

Resources to consider when booking flights:

Exhibition Planning:
https://www.galleriescommit.com/climate-action-database#home/climate-action-database-entry-details/649c639b380949002894b7bf/

Practice:

Select materials from ethical/renewable sources and from suppliers that involve short transport distances
Switch to sustainable materials, methods and processes (i.e. use non-toxic, non-polluting, low impact or recycled material)
Manage waste consciously

Studio

Prefer a low impact travel to commute to the studio (walk or use public transport)Improve the studio’s energy efficiency (improve insulation, use natural light)
If the studio is large, consider sharing it
For printing, use non-toxic inks, recycled paper
Share resources

Platforms supporting environmental sustainability within the arts (UK)

Arts Catalyst
Chrysalis Arts Development
Knockvologan Studies
Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art
Worm: art + ecology
Sustainable Practice

Materials

Future Materials Bank is a great resource that contains materials that inspire, promote, and support the transition towards a more sustainable artistic practice
If using MDF, choose formaldehyde-free MDF, or use plywood (such as poplar multiplex plywood) and other organic-based building materials that can easily be reused or recycled at the end of their use.

Peer-To-Peer Resource For Sharing Tools:
https://plinth.fr/ (FR)
https://www.larecyclerie.com/ (FR)
https://www.barder.art/ (US)
https://freecycle.org/town/MuseumUK (UK)
https://www.material-mafia.net/ (DE)

Other Material Resources:
https://www.futurematerialsbank.com/
https://www.materialspalette.org/
https://idematapp.com/
https://containerexchanger.com/
https://www.ecoset.la/
https://dnacompany.com/earthcrate/
https://living-future.org/red-list/
https://stich.culturalheritage.org/carbon-calculator/#browse
https://www.sustainablematerials.com/

Packaging:
• Pack efficiently to reduce the load and do not use unnecessary equipment (packaging increases the shipping weight of artwork, creating a larger shipping footprint)
• Use ‘eco-friendly’ alternatives, such as paper cloth instead of bubble wrap
• Avoid plastic whenever possible, e.g. use paper tape instead of plastic tape
• Reuse as much as possible
• When you no longer can, recycle in the appropriate waste bins

Packing Resources:
https://ecoland.com/2 (IE)
https://www.articheck.com/ (UK)
https://rok-box.com/ (UK)
https://turtlebox.com/en/ (NL)
https://www.convelio.com/en-gb/home/ (FR)
https://www.crozierfinearts.com/ (Global)
http://taf-taf.fr/ (FR)
https://www.ecoenclose.com/ (US)
https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/mcp/environmental-products/ (UK)

Reading Lists and Resources for Additional Information

Julie’s Bicycle: https://juliesbicycle.com/
Gallery Climate Collation: https://galleryclimatecoalition.org/
Galleries Commit: https://www.galleriescommit.com/
Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira: https://decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity/
Manifesto of Rural Futurism: https://ruralfuturism.com/assets/temp/Manifesto_eng.pdf
Villa Villa: https://villavilla.co/

If you would like to add suggestions, recommendations or further reading and knowledge of resources to our list please get in touch via email: office@kunstverein.ie

KUNSTVEREIN AUGHRIM

SUSTAINABILITY POLICY