Rute Collaborative and Racing Magpie began with open-ended conversations to ensure everyone had sufficient context to work together productively. “We talked about the scale of our organization, the type of work we do, about how Lakota artists, people, and culture-bearers already practice climate awareness in the work that they do,” says co-founder Peter Strong. They decided to tackle writing a values statement, a longtime goal of theirs. As co-founder Mary Bordeaux said, “The work that Racing Magpie does is all connected, so it didn’t seem to make sense to us to separate out climate action. So why not include it in the values statement of the organization?”

How to use the values statement led back to practicalities. Since Racing Magpie was about to renovate a new building, a focus on this second space—and on the topics of energy resilience and independence—emerged quickly. With Rute, the Racing Magpie team did research and planning for a solar panel installation. That meant they were ready to apply to the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative’s Catalyst grant, a fund for energy-related upgrades that had to be spent quickly. When Racing Magpie received that grant, plus others, they were able to repurpose their Teiger climate funds to make the renovation of their second building, which began in earnest in summer 2024, even more sustainable.

This story comes from interviews conducted with Alexa Steiner, founder of Rute Collaborative, and Mary Bordeaux and Peter Strong of Racing Magpie.

Rhizome, New York, NY