George Eastman Museum receives grant for sustainability efforts

Andrea Deckert//August 1, 2024//

The George Eastman Museum has received a grant award of $98,220 from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Frankenthaler Climate Initiative. (Submitted photo/George Eastman Museum)

George Eastman Museum (file photo)

Andrea Deckert//August 1, 2024//

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The George Eastman Museum has received a grant award of $98,220 from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Frankenthaler Climate Initiative — the largest private national grantmaking program to support climate change action at cultural institutions and the first nationwide program of its kind for the visual arts.

The grant supports the installation of a new LED lighting system in the museum’s main galleries and adjacent exhibition spaces.

The project will remediate inefficient incandescent lighting in the main galleries – the museum’s largest exhibition space – and in the Potter Peristyle and adjacent corridor. Installation of integrated LED fixtures will enable the museum to increase energy efficiency and decrease energy costs. The two-year project begins this month.

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“The George Eastman Museum is proud to join the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in our collective efforts to protect the environment while exhibiting and preserving artworks,” said Bruce Barnes, Ron and Donna Fielding director, George Eastman Museum. “The grant award we have received from the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative aligns with our continuing efforts to decrease energy consumption, improve sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint.”

The project, coinciding with the Eastman Museum’s upcoming 75th anniversary, will continue to build on a series of major infrastructure improvements since 2012 throughout various areas of the Eastman Museum complex, which leaders there said have had a positive impact toward institutional sustainability.

Prior successful LED lighting installations were completed in the project gallery in 2016 and the collection gallery in 2023.

While the primary goal of the project is to increase energy efficiency and sustainability, it also opens opportunities to promote public engagement with climate issues, museum leaders said, noting an upcoming project-related exhibition will provide visitors with a behind-the-scenes view of the institutional sustainability efforts.

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