“We wanted to help U.S. art institutions join the climate fray,” Fred Iseman, the president of the foundation, said in a statement. “There is a void to be filled, a crying need to provide technical know-how and financial support to art institutions to scope their needs, define problems and implement solutions.”
The first round of grants, which start at about $7,300 (the Laguna Art Museum in
Laguna Beach, Calif.) and include a top award of $100,000, totals $5.1 million and
includes 79 institutions in more than 25 states.
Fifteen of the institutions are in New York and are tentpole museums like the
Metropolitan Museum of Art ($50,000). Elsewhere, the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston ($100,000), and smaller museums like the William A. Farnsworth Library
and Art Museum in Rockland, Maine ($29,523), are also recipients.
The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa is using the funds
to create a more resilient power system and cleaner air system that will transform it
into a safe haven for at-risk residents during natural disasters like forest fires
($100,000), while the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico will use a $50,000
grant to help it create an earthquake-safe museum. The Guggenheim ($35,000), the
Museum of Modern Art ($50,000) and the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College
in Massachusetts ($100,000) are using the grants to help them become carbon
neutral.
An additional $4.9 million is set to be awarded over the next two years, with the
next grant cycle expected to open in early 2022. A full list of grantees is available at
frankenthalerclimateinitiative.org.