Conservation is a familiar concept at art museums. We’re serious about caring for the art entrusted to us, and we spend a lot of effort conserving it. But when it comes to sustainability in the larger sense, of our shared resources, we have some tough choices to make. Part of caring for the art means keeping it in tightly controlled environments, so it ages as gracefully as possible. Luckily, conserving art and conserving the planet are not mutually exclusive.
Replacing 6,000 bulbs in the galleries with LED lights will save the museum about $100,000 a year in electricity costs—and makes the art look better, too.
Recently, we posted a sustainability statement on the MIA website, where we’ve also recounted recent successes initiated by our Green Team. In fact, last fall the museum was awarded a leadership award from the Minnesota Waste Wise Foundation for its conservation efforts.
Among the largest projects was relighting all of the galleries with LED instead of halogen light. LED lights don’t create as much heat, much less infrared light, and no ultraviolet light, sparing the art. And they’re much more energy efficient—the 90-watt halogen bulbs were replaced with 18-watt LEDs. We’re expecting to save more than $100,000 a year on electricity.
The bees on the MIA roof seem to like it up there—they produced 200 pounds of honey their first year.
The bees on the roof aren’t saving us any money. But they might just be saving the planet. Bees are essential pollinators for city gardens and trees, and lately their colonies have mysteriously collapsed around the world. So last spring, the University of Minnesota Bee Squad helped us put four beehives on the museum roof, and the bees seemed to like it up there: our beekeepers harvested more than 200 pounds of honey in the fall. We bottled some for the store at the museum and it sold out very quickly.
The museum’s rain garden filters parking lot runoff instead of it dumping directly into the Mississippi River.
In 2014, we may have a special midsummer honey harvest, thanks in part to the linden trees in MIA’s Target Park. Also in 2014, we’ll focus on putting more bee-friendly native plants in the MIA’s small rain garden, which filters stormwater runoff from an MIA parking lot and the roof of an MIA-owned building.
Have more ideas for greening the museum? Let us know at greenteam@artsmia.org.