In part a reaction to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles just over one year ago, a number of the city’s most significant arts institutions issued a collective pledge to follow climate-minded guidelines known as the Bizot Green Protocol.
Initiated in 2015 by the Bizot Group, a network of art museum directors from institutions around the world, the protocol has been amended and revised in the decade since, as catastrophes attributable to climate change have intensified. Institutions behind the newly issued pledge include the Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Hammer Museum, and the blue-chip gallery Hauser & Wirth.
“This is the first time that Los Angeles art institutions have announced together their commitment to these recommendations, and it is our hope that it will motivate others to commit as well,” Camille Kirk, sustainability director at Getty, said in a press release.
A joint statement from the collective reads: “Though not a direct cause, climate change was an exacerbating factor in the size and devastation of the recent Los Angeles-area fires, which took a toll on our cultural institutions, galleries and artists. Increasingly, the cultural sector is being shaped by and is responding to climate change as part of fulfilling our mission of caring for and exhibiting our shared cultural heritage.”
Among the collective’s aims are commitments to “experimenting with wider climate-control parameters for temperature and relative humidity in our facilities, changing criteria for outgoing loans when safe for the works of art of our collections and incorporating measures to reduce air travel and design waste.”
The original Bizot Green Protocol drew in part on research conducted for the Getty Conservation Institute’s “Managing Collection Environments” initiative. The collective pledge also follows the LA institutions’ participation in the Climate Impact Program established by artist Debra Scacco and consultant Laura Lupton as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide in 2024–25.
