The San José Museum of Art already had a green team and a well-developed culture of awareness and commitment to sustainable practice across departments. But they were also wondering how to keep up the momentum and set new goals after a few years of work. Working with Chief Curator Lauren Schell Dickens and Deputy Director Karen Rapp, sustainability coach Rute Collaborative worked through its climate action template month by month, discussing energy, travel and shipping, materials and waste, exhibitions and programming, education, policy, finance and fundraising, and engagement. This way, Lauren and Karen gained some perspective on what they were doing and what they wanted to see in the future. In the end, Rute helped create a multi-year strategy that could be shared with the green team as a roadmap and increase their ownership over different tasks. SJMA was experiencing a leadership transition, and it was hoped that the document could help ensure that sustainable practices remained embedded in SJMA’s culture.
One priority determined when working through the materials and exhibition sections of the climate action plan was to reduce one-time build-outs and exhibition waste. Lauren and her team had piloted the use of curtains instead of temporary walls to divide and create in-gallery blackbox spaces during the 2024 exhibition Kambui Olujimi: North Star. Because that worked well, a portion of the Teiger climate funds went towards an additional one hundred feet of curtain. Other funds were used to update and improve signage and internal communications to bring the organization into compliance with California law SB 1383, which aims to reduce methane pollution and other short-lived climate pollutants through organic waste management, among other methods. As climate change is predicted to lead to greater flooding in San José, the curatorial team also decided to address potential water leaks in on-site collection storage. Climate funds will support the purchase of water leak detection devices, better preparing the below-ground facilities for weather-related facilities issues.
SJMA has developed a consistent emphasis on sustainability and environmentalism in its exhibition program for the last decade, but this theme has never been deliberately centered as part of public programming. Funding will therefore also go toward the launch of a new series of talks highlighting exhibiting or permanent collection artists who engage with sustainability in their practice.