Protecting Art From Climate Change
When we think about climate change we normally think about effects to cities, the environment, animals, and humans. But what about art? What about the things that humans have created and have been preserved and cared for for hundreds of years? While not a crime in the classic sense, how is art expected to survive?
Bundanon
From a country who is no stranger to extreme weather comes a potential solution to this question. In New South Wales, Australia there is an art organization called Bundanon that is working on the leading edge of science and conservation to preserve its collection.
First, a little bit about Bundanon itself. It’s a national arts organization located near Nowra, City of Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia (on the east coast of the country). The site of the organization was the home of Australian painter Arthur Boyd.
In the early 1970s, Boyd purchased this land, which had been a farm property, and added a few new buildings to be his family home and studio. His art style ranged from impressionist landscapes to expressionist figures but when living on this property he started a series of large scale landscape paintings based on the natural world around him.
In 1993 the Boyd family gifted the entire property, more than 1000 hectares, along with an extensive collection of artwork to the Australian government and the Bundanon National Trust was established. This gift of course included the land, all the buildings (including the historic farm buildings), and paintings by Boyd as well as Sidney Nolan, Brett Whiteley, Joy Hester, and Charles Blackman. Over the years the collection has grown to include more contemporary work from artists in residence programs and donations.
The Directors of the trust have always had ambitious goals for the future of Bundanon, bringing in world renowned architects to build new buildings on the grounds, establishing the artist in residence program and generally making this site available to the public and a credit to Australian art and culture. They’re driven by Boyd’s firmly held belief that ‘you can’t own a landscape’ and they want others to be as inspired by this place as he was.
Climate Change
So, now we know a little bit about this remarkable institution but things are always changing and there are always new challenges and threats to the collection and site. In 2019-2020 there were the Black Summer Bushfires, catastrophic fires that swept across the country. During this time many of the pieces in the Bundanon collection were evacuated to Sydney to ensure their safety. While they were away the trust thought about ways to bring them back safely and ensure their preservation for years to come without taking them out of their setting in Bundanon again.
In 2020 the trust commissioned Kerstin Thompson Architects to build the new Art Museum and Bridge on the property. These buildings house a new creative learning center for school students, a visitor information center, accommodation, and a cafe but most importantly they’re built with climate change in mind.
Both the new Art Museum and the Bridge are designed to respond and adapt to both current and future climate disasters. The Bridge is nearly 530 feet long and is positioned so high into the air that any flood waters would flow right under it. The Art Museum itself is built into the side of the hill to protect it from wildfires. Both buildings are also designed to be environmentally responsible. “Art museums have historically run with high energy consumption,” Bundanon CEO Rachel Kent explains. “Both cooling and heating systems are needed, for example, to maintain a stable temperature critical to the conservation of artworks. With the current climate crisis, this is clearly unsustainable. It is vital that museums and galleries, like other industry sectors, actively seek solutions that aim to have a net-zero energy target” (Cherner, 2022).
Opened in 2022, the Bridge is powered by solar panels on the property, uses passive temperature management, and black water treatment by harvesting and storing rainwater. The museum hopes that these steps can be integrated into the museum industry in general as museums are notorious for energy consumption. “Though Bundanon’s latest additions further solidify the Boyds’ legacy, the enormous artistic estate is more than a place to look at beautiful things in a natural oasis—it’s a step-by-step manual that details how to prevent the disastrous effects of climate change” (Cherner, 2022).
Works Cited
Cherner, Jessica. “Australia Just Opened the Climate Change-Focused Museum of the Future - And It’s Beautiful”. Architectural Digest. 2022. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/australia-opened-climate-change-focused-museum-future?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email