Getty launches global art and sustainability initiative with UCL’s ISH as key partner

The Getty Trust, one of the world’s leading institutions for the visual arts, was founded through the bequest of businessman and collector J. Paul Getty. Today, it supports global research, conservation, and education in the arts through its museum, institutes and grant-making.

The Getty has announced a multi-year global initiative that connecting the arts and culture sector to the wider effort for sustainability. The Getty Global Art and Sustainability Fellows programme will support early-career professionals and visual artists at the forefront of climate resilience in fifteen cultural and scientific organisations across six continents. 

Fellows will contribute to critical priorities in sustainable heritage management, apply cutting-edge scientific approaches to cultural challenges, and communicate the cultural dimensions of the climate and biodiversity crises. Each Fellowship will run for two years, with organisations potentially hosting up to three consecutive fellowships. Katherine Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust noted:

Getty is launching this initiative amongst global concern about climate threats and the need for practical solutions, and we continue to believe that the arts can play an unorthodox but compelling role in this conversation. This is just one part of a much larger, holistic approach by Getty around sustainability.

The new cohort of Getty Fellows will be drawn from a wide range of disciplines and specialisations, including higher education, museums and galleries, libraries and archives, cultural heritage management, and all areas of visual arts practice. Alongside ISH, the illustrious final list includes: the Academy of Athens (Greece), Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain). ISH was honoured for its proven success in delivering sustainable solutions to real-world cultural heritage and collections management problems. 

At ISH, Fellows will work with academic staff to and external partners on interdisciplinary projects. Working with the Victoria and Albert Museum as a principal case study, the initial Fellow will focus on reducing 'scope three emissions' in the cultural sector. Future fellowship topics may include innovations in sustainable collections management or ways artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing might help save heritage threatened by disasters. ISH Founding Director May Cassar observed: 

The Getty has partnered with ISH from its inception, taking a keen interest in our development of post-graduate pedagogy for preventive conservation.  Now, two decades later, we are well placed to guide our Fellows in tackling the climate crisis.

The programme is designed to advance two key areas of work at the intersection of art and sustainability: public-facing interpretation such as residencies, exhibitions and outreach; and the preservation of cultural collections and sites through scientific and technical innovation. Camille Kirk, sustainability director at Getty noted: 

These partners were chosen for their abilities to advance the field at this intersection with sustainability, and we anticipate that their efforts as part of this program will contribute leadership and change-making in this area. We look forward to convening these experts so they can connect, discover potential collaborations, and share the regional, national, and global implications of their work as they help to further develop the research and build adaptive skills across the cultural sector.

Links:

• Find out more about The Getty and the Fellowship program.
• Find out more about the UCL Institute of Sustainable Heritage’s research.
• Find out more about the 20-year anniversary of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage.
• Find out more about the Europa Nostra-winning Odeuropa project co-led by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage.