Green Tea

Green Tea

by AIC Sustainability Committee
ArtsScience
Season 3
Sustainable Exhibitions and Carbon Literacy with Elise Foster Vander Elst
“Every job is a climate job.” Continuing the conversation of sustainable exhibitions, Elise Foster Vander Elst from the Design Museum speaks with Lindsey about her experience developing a Life Cycle Assessment of an exhibition and what she learned from the process. The conversation begins with the impact of the Waste Age exhibition and leads into the value of metrics and tools used to calculate carbon impact. Carbon Literacy Training has become a huge priority for cultural heritage institutions in the UK to help understand the starting points and where there is room to improve. Lastly, Elise highlights the significance of working with nearby institutions and colleagues from related industries and the momentum that can come from working together. By leaning on the work already done by folks in our field, sustainable action can be more approachable and doesn't have to feel like a significant labor lift by individuals. For previous episodes discussing this topic, see S3 E4 Multifaceted Approach to Sustainable Exhibitions with Kim Kraczon and S1 E8 Mitigating Exhibition Plastic Waste with Alessandro Scola. Stay tuned as we have another episode with this topic coming up in a few months. Resources: The Design Museum Working to Make Change at the Design Museum The HERDS Q&A with Elise What is MAGNET Museums 2030: A Community for Greener Exhibitions ICOM UK Gallery Climate Coalition
S3 · E7
Jul 27, 2026
51:04
GREen ENdeavor in Art ResToration (GREENART) with Fay Kiskira
In this episode, Lindsey is joined by Fay Kiskira to talk about the GREENART project that she participated in. This multi-year project partnered conservators, chemists, and sustainability specialists together to develop, test, and assess the impact of new products used in cleaning paper-based objects from various time periods and regions. As a conservator testing the hydrogels and nano fluids, Fay describes the challenges of working with a wide array of materials, the spectral analyses used to evaluate the treatments’ effectiveness, and the gratification found when a solution is successful. Efthymia (Fay) Kiskira is a Paper Conservator and Researcher specializing in the conservation of paper-based cultural heritage. She holds a BSc in Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art from the Technological Educational Institute (T.E.I.) of Athens and an MA with Distinction in Conservation of Fine Art from Northumbria University (UK). Between 2015 and 2020, she worked with a range of archives and libraries in Greece and the United Kingdom, gaining extensive experience in the conservation of archival and library collections. Since 2021, she has served as the Paper Conservator at the Archives of Asylon Aniaton in Athens, and in 2026 she founded Mnéme, a private conservation studio providing collection surveys, conservation treatments, and preservation consultancy for institutional and private collections. For a similar discussion see S1 E13, where Roxy spoke with Soroya Alcala from the MFAHouston about their GREENART gels project with a paintings' focus. Additionally in S2 E7, Rosie Grayburn and Gwen Fife talked with Roxy about their research into greener solvents for multiple media types. While reducing negative environmental impact is often the primary motivation for developing greener’ solutions for conservation treatments, we should also remember that the health of conservators is just as important. A greener solution or option should be less hazardous to both human and ecological health. Resources: Eco-Friendly Materials in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage: Assessment of Green Gels and Fluids for Cleaning Surfaces of Cultural Heritage Objects GREENART HORIZONS GREen ENdeavor in Art ResToration ARTICON Lab Varnish removal on Works of Art on Paper, A Controversial Matter. Recent Reflections on the Materials and Methodology Used for the Treatment of the Varnish Layer Non Destructive Testing (NDT) methods for the evaluation of new green materials forartwork conservation GREENART at TATE Mnéme Paper Conservation
S3 · E6
Jun 29, 2026
29:50
LA Fires 2025: National Heritage Responders' Stories
Our second episode of National Heritage Responders Stories centers around the wildfires in the Los Angeles area during Jan/Feb 2025. Lindsey speaks with Dawn Jaros, Tara Kennedy, and Megan Brakob Narvey who responded in different ways. Each person approached the response from their unique skillset and background: in-person through community clinics, on the phone giving health and safety advice, and through information-sharing webinars given to the heritage community. Dawn talks about her involvement with ARLA and the impact it has had bringing LA conservators together to help the local community triage and navigate the trauma of losing their material culture. FAIC’s Climate Resilience Resources was mentioned in this episode. If you would like to learn more about these tools and how they can assist your disaster planning, listen to Season 1 Episode 10 “Introduction to the Climate Resilience Resources” or see the resource list below. Our first episode of National Heritage Responders Stories was Season 2 Episode 11: Lahaina 2023. Unfortunately, we do expect to have this as a reoccurring segment on the podcast, as climate disasters are likely to escalate in intensity and frequency in the coming years. If you have deployed to a disaster site in the past, we would appreciate the opportunity to learn from your experience and hear your story. You can contact us at aicsustainability (at) gmail (dot) com. If you would like to support the work of the National Heritage Responders, please donate directly: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-national-heritage-responders. Resources: FAIC Emergency Programs and Assistance National Heritage Responders Climate Resilience Resources Alliance for Response Alliance for Response Resources Art Recovery Los Angeles (ARLA) Fire Risk Heritage D-Plan Pocket Response Plan AIC Emergency Committee Zotero Resource Bank Tabletop Exercises for Cultural Institutions: A Disaster Planning Tool for Libraries, Archives and Museums
S3 · E5
May 25, 2026
57:39
A Multifaceted Approach to Sustainable Exhibitions with Kim Kraczon
Together Roxy and Kim troubleshoot the multifaceted nature of what “sustainability” means. To create holistic change, there should be consideration of more than one singular facet (carbon emissions, energy use, waste management, etc). Kim highlights the various published guides on how to go about making more socio-environmental beneficial choices and how various priorities can be balanced or have co-benefits based on institutions’ choices. Using these guides as starting frameworks, institutions can build off of each other’s work tailoring it to fit their own needs. Specifically considering exhibitions: choices about material purchasing, use, and reuse and policy decisions like prioritizing using internal collections instead of loans can have a significant impact both financially and socio-environmentally. Using her experience working in contemporary artists’ studios, Kim directs the conversation towards including artists’ agency in the storage and display of their work and being flexible to their ideas which may be counter to our current expectations. Other topics in this episode include breaking down silos and establishing communication with artists, art handlers, and couriers throughout the exhibition installation and travel processes. Kim mentions a guide from the Design museum as a specific case study. Later this year, we will be speaking with Elise Vander Elst from the Design museum about their research and the impact guide, which you can find in the show notes. Stay tuned! Design Museum - Waste Age Exhibition and Guide Reusable Crate Systems https://rok-box.com https://turtlebox.com/en/ GCC Carbon Calculator – GCC’s free (for members) online carbon calculator – recent update includes exhibition and fine art shipping materials GCC Artist Toolkit - brings together practical ideas, actions, and resources to support all aspects of art production, display, and storage – includes a section on exhibition-making GCC Artist Resource Index – a repository of online tools and resources for studio practice, materials, exhibition-making, impact measurement tools, material sharing and reuse platforms, fine art transport, and social sustainability Objects as Temporal Entities – The Centre for Sustainable Curating and the Synthetic Collective set out to provide discussion points and riders that could be added to acquisition contracts, detailing the outcomes of conversation on sustainable options for the care of artworks and objects in collections. Acquisitions riders and discussion points
S3 · E4
Apr 27, 2026
47:47
Sustainability as part of Conservation Education in Latin America
In this episode, Lindsey speaks with Cecilia Salgado and Marlene Sámano about their role as cultural heritage conservators and educators in Mexico and Latin America more broadly. Cecilia Salgado is a photographic conservator in private practice who is currently studying for a Masters in Sustainability and Social-Environmental Projects. Currently her work involves finding adaptive strategies in photographic conservation towards a low environmental impact in her practice. Marlene Sámano is an architectural heritage conservator and a professor at La Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía (ENCRyM). Her work in teaching includes the intangible and constructive cultural aspects to create a more holistically approach toward built heritage conservation. They describe how sustainability is incorporated into their work and how it is both a new concept and an old one rooted in traditional understanding of the landscape. Both guests touch on how adaptability is essential to our future as a field and as communities: that with climate disasters increasing, we must recognize how our environmental contexts are shifting. We are at a strategic point in history where we can define what sustainability looks like in our field, determine how best to adapt on both local and global scales, and utilize our values to direct our actions to better safeguarding our heritage, supporting our communities standard of living, and bettering the health of our planet. Marlene mentions the Laboratory of Traditional Technology at ENCRyM. Here, an anthropological approach is taken towards knowledge that has been passed down generationally, but is at a risk to be lost. This includes studying historic techniques for producing objects, use of local materials, indigenous knowledge, and ways of relating to the landscape and environment. Manual de Sostenibilidad Ambiental en la Conservación de Fotografías is an open access manual that Cecilia wrote to more easily share tips and techniques. For a similar topic: Please check out Season 2 Episode 10 where we speak with the UCLA Getty program. Resources referenced in the episode: 2017 Earthquake in Mexico STICH Planetary boundary - Stockholm resilience center Circular Economy 7 R’s
S3 · E3
Mar 30, 2026
46:57
Respectful Stewardship with Pejuta Haka Win Red Eagle
At AIC’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Pejuta Haka Win Red Eagle joined the Sustainability Committee on a luncheon panel about mindful collecting in the time of climate change. She returns now to speak with Roxy about her perspectives on the preservation of Native American cultural heritage and the value community partnerships can have on collections care. She highlights how native-led provenance models can positively impact collections care and better inform stewarding institutions in identifying and exhibiting the cultural heritage accurately. It is better to ask the community members than to exhibit materials with minimal understanding because misinterpretation can lead to misinformation. Humility in recognizing that we don’t know everything about the material and reaching out for help leads to more accurate information. The communities are gifting their knowledge and it can lead the field towards a more holistic approach to collections care. Roxy and Pejuta talk about how the paradigms of ownership and stewardship differ in practice and what museums can do to shift towards a stewardship model that openly includes communities of origin. For many communities there is a deeply emotional aspect to their relationships and being trauma-informed and compassionate are ways in which conservators can engage with respect for the material heritage from communities outside their own. Resources: Minnesota Science Museum 2025 Luncheon Post-print (added 5/20/2026) Federally-Recognized American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native entities Minnesota Historical Society Bishop Whipple Indigenous Led NAGPRA
S3 · E2
Feb 23, 2026
46:08
The Mission and Impact of APOYOnline with Beatriz Haspo
"Preservation is a state of mind, it is a mission...so we have to allow this opportunity for everyone to be able to preserve." To start out this new season, Roxy is joined by Beatriz Haspo, volunteer executive director of APOYPOnline: which serves a similar role as AIC does for North American conservators. Beatriz explains the goals of the organization through the topics presented at their latest conference in Panama. She builds on themes presented by multiple previous guests, including Josefa and Bianca, about the value of sharing knowledge within more Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions, and expanding training opportunities beyond North America and Europe. As the conservation community continues to expand globally we see this priority of cross-pollinating of training, lived experiences, and sustainability paradigms becoming more predominant. Beatriz emphasizes the importance of a circle of learning: public communities, Early Career Professionals, and experienced conservators alike can all learn from each other. The responsibility for preservation of our shared heritage is a collective effort and its practices shouldn’t be siloed nor its trainings gate-kept. She shares how she has seen the value in a human-centered approach to disaster relief and what work that APOYOnline members have done to strengthen the resilience of their communities through their work with material culture. This episode ends with Beatriz giving a brief review of the topics discussed in the episode in both Spanish and Portuguese. We hope that by including other languages into our programming that we can expand our audience and facilitate more connections between conservators around the globe by breaking down language barriers. Resources: Webpage: www.apoyonline.org Programs: https://apoyonline.org/programs/ Manos a la obra: https://apoyonline.org/programs/initiatives/manos-a-la-obra/ 5th Regional Conference: https://apoyonline.org/programs/apoyonline-regional-conferences/2025-panama-city-panama/ Donations: https://apoyonline.org/donate/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apoyonline Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apoyonline_association/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/apoyonline Threads: https://www.threads.net/@apoyonline_association TikTok: Link: www.tiktok.com/@apoyonline_association YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/apoyonline Contact: info@apoyonline.org
S3 · E1
Jan 26, 2026
46:00
Season 2
The Changing Landscape of Glacial Archaeology Conservation
In this episode, Roxy speaks with three archaeological conservators who regularly conserve archaeological finds lifted from glacial areas in the Northern Hemisphere. In ice patches, areas that are stationary, frozen, and often obscured by snowfall, organic heritage such as plant or animal-based materials can survive with minimal degradation or loss even over multiple millennia. However, the escalating warming of the planet is having a significant impact on these high altitude areas leading to more frequent melting events and exposing more finds. Francis, Margrethe, and Johanna each describe some of the unique finds that have been uncovered due to the glacial melting in their local areas. They also highlight how the stability of these finds can be significantly hindered if left out in the elements due to our changing climate and how important regular surveying is to maintaining an accurate understanding of the area. Additionally Johanna describes her research into how low energy air drying techniques for birch bark materials can be a better alternative to more energy-intensive methods like vacuum drying. If you are also working with glacial archaeological materials from the Southern Hemisphere, or other parts of the Northern Hemisphere such as, Canada or Russian, please reach out to aicsustainability@gmail.com. We would like to connect you with this ICOM-CC cohort who are hoping to expand the field’s collective awareness of this unique intersection of cultural heritage conservation and ecological conservation. Resources: UNESCO - Year of Glacial Preservation 2025 International UN General Assembly Year of Glacial preservation Secrets of the Ice NPS: US Glacial Archaeology Glacier archaeology in Switzerland Short film about the history and conservation history of the bow case Information about the Bronze Age wooden box containing cereals Explore the Mountain Center: Norway's largest exhibition of glacial archaeological finds The Ski from Reinheimen, NO European Heritage Award for Glacier Archaeology Preservation Program, Secrets of the Ice, KHM.
S2 · E13
Nov 24, 2025
34:55
Climate Joy with the Climate Toolkit from the Phipps Conservatory
The Climate Toolkit from the Phipps Conservatory aims to create and sustain momentum in and between cultural heritage institutions through free resources and building connections. Lindsey speaks with Andrew Lampl and Jennifer Torrance from the Phipps about their roles in developing the Toolkit’s framework and resources and facilitating connections between institutions to create catalytic change. Using themes from the SDGs, each institution has free rein to build the goals and agenda’s they want to work towards and join working groups built by the Phipps or internally to make sustainable changes. Jennifer highlights her joy in working with youth climate groups to empower the next generation as they navigate growing up in a world that they know needs active change. Andrew reminds us how pivotal it is for the cultural heritage sector to take the lead towards sustainable action. We can have such an impact on our future planet and communities when we work together. Jennifer and Andrew are ready to share how Climate Joy together can help us avoid the inaction that comes from feeling alone in Climate Anxiety. Resources: Phipps Conservatory Climate Toolkit LEED Certification Phipps Production Greenhouse LEED Platinum One Earth Climate Resilience Resources Green Tea episode on the Climate Resilience Resources Regenerative Systems Thinking Roger Hart's Ladder of Participation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Action for Climate Empowerment
S2 · E12
Oct 27, 2025
52:22
Lahaina 2023: National Heritage Responders' Stories
The National Heritage Responders are a unique subset of volunteers from within the American Institute for Conservation who engage in disaster relief. Whether its liaising between institutions, resource building and dissemination, or boots on the ground recovery of cultural heritage in disaster zones, the trained responders are finding their skills regularly called upon as climate change impacts our local communities more each year. Roxy talked with two heritage responders from the Hawaiian Islands, Malia van Heukelem and Liane Naauao, who participated in relief and recovery efforts after the Lahaina wildfires in 2023. They discuss how the scale of the disaster impacted their strategy for relief action and how important it is to be trauma-informed as a responders when victims need to process the loss of their material culture. Mahalo Malia and Liane. We encourage you to donate to the National Heritage Responders through their recent gofundme page since their federal stream of funding which enabled deployments to communities like Lahaina has recently been eliminated. Resources 1. National Heritage Responders 2. National Heritage Responders GoFundMe 3. FEMA Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF) 4. Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative 5. Lahaina Restoration Foundation 6. Maui Recovers 7. Treecovery Hawai'i 8. "Saving Hawai'i History from the Ashes, One Object at a Time", NYTimes 9. Hawai'i Public Radio: Kaiaulu Initiatives
S2 · E11
Sep 29, 2025
39:27
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