The Centre for Sustainable Curating (CSC)

Check out our recent newsletter with tips on sustainable gallery signage and more details on our Potatotemporal project:
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July Newsletter is out! Check it out here:
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May Newsletter is out! This issue highlights some new resources. Check it out here!

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Check out our first video tutorial: Sustainable Gallery Signage: Charcoal and Nori Paste.

Learn how curators created sustainable and creative gallery signage from The Air of the Now and Gone exhibition at Carleton University Art Gallery and try it yourself!

sustainablecurating.ca/toolkits/tut...

The Air of the Now and Gone is printed in large blue text on a pink background.

1 week left to see The Air of the Now and Gone at CUAG. Curated by @kirstymrobertson.bsky.social and @smithsarah.bsky.social.

Download the exhibition publication and see images from the exhibition on our website : sustainablecurating.ca/exhibitions-...

Listen to the CSC's Director @kirstymrobertson.bsky.social in dialogue with Ashar Mobeen on the Ecologies in Practice Podcast. They discuss Kirsty’s curatorial practice and establishing the Center for Sustainable Curating. Episode 07. Material Trouble: ecologiesinpractice.ca/07-material-...

Book-binding Workshop for The Air of the Now and Gone - Carleton University Art Gallery

We’re RISO printing the exhibition catalogues for The Air of the Now and Gone in anticipation of assembling and binding next week at Carlton University Art Gallery. Join us! Drop in April 1st from 10am-3pm. Sign up and more info:

cuag.ca/event/book-b...

New theme just launched on Ecologies in Practice podcast s01. ‘Material Trouble’ begins with a conversation with artist Emily Chudnovsky. Emily discusses her interdisciplinary approach to art, focusing on sustainability and the use of recycled materials.

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Our March newsletter is out! Active participants of the CSC have been in the news quite a lot since our last newsletter and this month we focus on sharing their exciting work.

Check it out and if you haven't already, sign up for our mailing list:
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"Increasingly, museums and galleries in Canada are being called on to lessen the environmental impacts of their operations, and these conversations extend to the digital footprint of museum work. My PhD research drew me to the fields of environmental media and critical infrastructure studies, and I began to dream of a digital archive that did not rely on cloud storage and was powered by renewable energy. Such an archive could be a useful alternative for arts groups that are committed to lessening the environmental impacts of their digital presence."

Check out our interview with active CSC participant Imogen Clendinning, the artist and researcher who built and designed Archivetemporal, the solar-powered website and archive for our recent project.

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Congratulations to the Centre for Sustainable Curating active participants who received funding from the Western Sustainable Impact Fund for some exciting projects.

Read more a bit about their projects which promote sustainability in the arts: sustainablecurating.ca/congratulati...

White text on a black background that reads: Stadium; Seeds Start in the Dark; Feb 14 — Mar 14; 70 Wyndham St; Christina Kingsbury & Anna Bowen; Natasha Verbeke; Miguel Caba; Vivienne Bessette; Lisa Hirmer; Christina Battle; Curated by sophia bartholomew & Danan Lake

This show opens on Friday, with an opening reception from 6-9PM —> 70 Wyndham Street South, Guelph <— 🌑 🌚 🌱 🌱 ✨

@danansthumbs.bsky.social @cbattle.bsky.social @amrbowen.bsky.social @miguelcaba.bsky.social

Ecologies in Practice Water theme logo. "Ecologies" in light blue text inside a darker blue voice bubble.

Season 1 of the Ecologies in Practice podcast has now launched! The podcast brings together thinkers, makers, and doers from art, science, theory, and practice around pressing environmental issues.

sustainablecurating.ca/ecologies-in...

Archivetemporal is, much like the humble potato, defined by time as well as its material qualities, its vulnerability to disease and decay, its flexibility and its connection to the environment it inhabits. We encourage you to interact with this archive through a detemporalized lens by navigating the overlapping themes and concepts that have defined Objects as Temporal Entities. As a solar-powered website, accessing Archivetemporal depends on sunlight availability and human labour.

Introducing Archivetemporal.

access the solar-powered website: www.archivetemporal.com

read more about the archive: sustainablecurating.ca/intro-archiv...

'The Air of the Now and Gone' printed on RISO in blue on a pink background.

Download the text: 'The Air of the Now and Gone,' curated by Kirsty Robertson + Sarah EK Smith. In the face of the “wicked problem” of climate change, which precludes easy solutions, how can we move forward? How can we address a crisis that prompts apathy and disconnect?

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Exhibition Wall text in charcoal: The Air of the Now and Gone Curated by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E. K. Smith Featuring artists Maude Ares, Christina Battle, Erin Johnson, Colin Lyons, Caroline Monnet, Cynthia Girard-Renard, Niloufar Salimi and Hanae Utamura, and guest writers Siobhan Angus, Elaina Foley and Kristi Leora Gansworth Crisis, catastrophe and disaster abound in contemporary discussions of climate change and its impacts. Such sentiments are so pervasive that we seem to have tipped into what author Cal Flyn describes as a "'yearning for the apocalypse." Given the extent of the damage, a slide into apathy and despair seems inevitable, while calls for hope offer only an empty retort. Are there alternatives? 'Thank You," the poem by Ross Gay that gives this exhibition its title, reminds us we are all connected to each other and to the natural world. The Air of the Now and Gone explores our kinship with the environment, seeking to engage other respon&es, including empathy, wonder, joy, persistence, interdependence, attentiveness, connection and flourishing. Our goal as curators is to resist naivete, and to move beyond hope to engender radical engagement. The artists featured in the exhibition aim to counter apathy and complicate optimism about the future. Their works ask visitors to refuse to look away from the wicked problem of climate change while engaging a spectrum of resonant and unexpected emotional responses.

Now in Ottawa! 'The Air of the Now and Gone,' an exhibition that aims to counter apathy and complicate optimism about the future. On exhibition until May 4th.

Co-curated by @kirstymrobertson.bsky.social & @smithsarah.bsky.social

Image: Wall text in charcoal (K. Robertson)

cuag.ca/exhibition/t...

tomorrow!

Detail of stencil using hand made ink on exhibition wall. Stencil reads: A project by The Centre for Sustainable Curating

signup for our mailing list to keep up with our research and events:
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Mobilizing Museum Minerals Virtual Launch Event. Join us for a roundtable discussion celebrating the publication of the November special issue of Museum and Society. Please register for the Zoom link. Jan. 28, 2025 / 11am ET / 4pm BST Logo for the CSC: Centre for Sustainable Curating

Check out the virtual launch event for Mobilizing Museum Minerals, a special, double issue of 'Museum & Society' Journal co-edited by CSC Post-Doctoral Fellow Camille-Mary Sharp.

More info and to register: sustainablecurating.ca/mobilizing-m...

Our research project 'Objects as Temporary Entities' contains a series of guides, artworks, flowcharts, and a solar-powered archive to encourage more passive environmental controls and the use of sustainable, non-toxic materials in museum storage.

sustainablecurating.ca/exhibitions-...

We're new here and want to introduce the work we do. First up is 'Using the Resources at Hand: Sustainable Exhibition Design' a toolkit that is useful for anyone with an interest in making the museum sector more sustainable.
Access the pdf here: sustainablecurating.ca/toolkits/usi...