Art Bridges convenes museums to spur art access
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Art Bridges Foundation recently convened museum leaders and conservation experts to rethink a barrier to art access: strict temperature and humidity standards.
Why it matters: Organizers say outdated climate-control requirements can prevent art from being loaned to smaller museums, keeping some works in storage rather than on display.
- Plus, museums can save thousands on energy costs while reducing carbon emissions.
Driving the news: Founded by Alice Walton, Art Bridges partners with more than 250 museums nationwide to help share American art with communities across the U.S. and its territories.
- The Bentonville gathering brought together leaders and staff from institutions including the Guggenheim, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and National Gallery of Art.
Friction point: The foundation discovered that rigid loan requirements around humidity and temperature were creating unnecessary concerns for museums trying to share collections, Art Bridges CEO Anne Kraybill told Axios.
- In one example, the Toledo Museum of Art nearly declined a loan to the Hudson River Museum over humidity swings during August.
- Toledo leaders revisited the actual risk, weighed it against the public value of sharing the paintings and eventually allowed the loan, she said.
Context: Many standards followed by museums took hold in the 1960s and hardened into doctrine, even though broader climate ranges have been supported by conservation science for more than 25 years, Caitlin Southwick, founder of Ki Culture told attendees.
- Flexibility doesn't mean lower standards but is a recognition that there's not a universal best practice.
- Climate ranges should reflect the actual object being loaned, the building and local environment, she said.
The big picture: Museums around the world are broadening climate ranges with little evidence of harm to most collections and with significant financial upside, Southwick told attendees.
- Climate-control systems account for 60% to 70% of a typical museum building's energy use.
- At the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, a wider allowable range for temperature and humidity saved about $23,000 per month, she said.
- A smaller institution in Denmark is saving $3,000 per month.
What they're saying: Mike Brown of the Portland Museum of Art in Maine told Axios the savings at his museum have been meaningful enough to help pay for overdue infrastructure work in an aging building.
- Updated standards cut energy use by about 20%, he told Maine Public.
What's next: Kraybill said she hopes the Bentonville gathering leads to more hands-on regional training for museum staff.