ICF sits alongside other organisations and practitioners in the visual arts who acknowledge the connection between the climate and other environmental crises and the threat of current and future homelessness, disease, food and water shortage, forced migrations and poverty for millions of people around the world, as well as the major damage being caused to our natural ecosystems.
Arts organisations – particularly in the Global North – have a disproportionately large impact on the environment, mainly due to substantial amounts of international travel, art shipping, waste production, and the use of energy and materials. We believe that arts organisations have a responsibility to address and mitigate these impacts and utilise their public platforms and cultural influence to create a substantial space for critical reflection, research, dialogue, experimentation, and exchange between artists, curators and the public grounded in climate justice.
ICF’s mission is to encourage and advocate for an inclusive arts industry committed to equality, responding to the social, cultural and environmental factors affecting artists and practitioners across the arts sector. To fulfill this mission, we need to take urgent environmental action, because art and culture across the world is directly threatened by the climate crisis. Therefore, we aim to take action in line with the principles of climate justice, recognising the connections between the climate crisis and other global injustices.
The ICF team acknowledges that our exhibitions, projects, and public and online events have an inherent impact on the environment. As an NPO, we work with Julie’s Bicycle and report our carbon emissions annually. We identify our biggest sources of carbon emissions to be our travel and transportation, printing and supplies, and waste produced through artworks and exhibitions.
We acknowledge our responsibility and pledge to mitigate our environmental impacts and work towards a more sustainable future. We have formed a Green Team who will meet regularly throughout the year 2024-5 to addressing the following key considerations and committments:
- Embedding environmental considerations and terms in our participant and partner agreements;
- Best practice methods for data collection, processing and evaluation with our evaluators;
- Understanding the impact of our digital footprint and ways of working and implementing necessary changes to improve efficiency;
- Outreach to transport companies and suppliers we work with to discuss ways of reducing environmental impact;
- Developing a database of companies that provide sustainable packaging and building materials, organisations engaged in recycling exhibition materials, and couriers that demonstrate best practice regarding environmental sustainability;
- Developing an environmental strategy for our Diaspora Pavilion 3 project with our partners and support from a consultant.
You can request our full environmental policy by emailing info@internationalcuratorsforum.org or using the Contact Us page on our website. While we actively work to uphold our environmental responsibilities, we recognise that there is always more to be done and steps that we can take that we might not yet be aware of. We welcome feedback and insight from artists, practitioners, audiences and stakeholders on this environmental statement, our targets, and our action plans.