Beyond Bizot: Practical Steps Towards More Sustainable Art Museums
Museums are beginning to address issues of environmental impact and sustainability in their work and new Bizot guidelines are intended to show us the way, from re-thinking courier protocols and loan agreements, to evaluating storage and conservation standards. How are institutions, big and small, addressing these questions and implementing solutions? What challenges and stumbling blocks are emerging, and how can curators play an active role in this work?
| Moderator | | |  | | Jessica Bright, Chief of Exhibitions, Collections & Conservation and Program Director, Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery As Chief of Exhibitions, Collections & Conservation Jessica is responsible for leading all exhibition planning and project management; conservation; collection installation, care and management; registration, scheduling and logistical management of the AGO's installations and art movement. Jessica was previously the AGO’s Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives from 2020-2021; Director, Exhibitions from 2013-2019 and before that held positions in the AGO’s Curatorial, Education and Exhibitions departments. She worked on the Transformation AGO Project from 2006-2008 and was previously the Curator/Registrar at the Maclaren Art Centre. A focus for Jessica is making the work of art museums more environmentally sustainable. In the past year she has led numerous sessions on the Bizot Green Protocol for AAMD Directors and their staff and is leading the program for the AGO's expansion project which is set to open in 2027 and will operate without burning fossil fuel. Jessica holds a Master of Literature degree in Art History from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and a BA in Art History from Queen’s University, Kingston. | | Speaker | | |  | | Francesca Du Brock, Chief Curator, Anchorage Museum Francesca’s curatorial practice is informed by her background as an artist and educator and is grounded in social engagement, place-based storytelling, environmental justice, and experimental museum practice. Recent projects including Dog Show (2025), How to Survive (2023), Black Lives in Alaska: Journey, Justice Joy (2021), and Extra Tough: Women of the North (2020), focus on topics of care and climate, interdependence, representation, Northern feminisms, and immigration. In 2020, she established the Museum’s Virtual Artist Residency program, which continues to provide unrestricted support to artists, sharing process and behind-the-scenes insights into their lives and practices. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska on Dena'ina Ełnena, she holds a BA in Art History from Bowdoin College, an MFA from the San Francisco Arts Institute, and an M.Ed from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She is a current fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership and was awarded the 2025 Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History for her community-centered approach to curation. She is the editor of the recently published anthology, How to Survive: Practicing Care in a Changing Climate. |  | | John Kenneth Paranada, Curator of Art and Climate Change, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia John Kenneth Paranada is a British-Filipino curator, writer, and researcher whose curatorial practice explores the role of art and culture in climate discourse. His work bridges art, activism, and climate action, shaping global conversations on sustainability, resilience strategies, and regenerative practices in response to one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century—environmental collapse driven by human-induced climate change. His recent curatorial projects include Tesfaye Urgessa: Roots of Resilience (2025), A World of Water (2025), Ivan Morison: Towards the Weird Heart of Things (2024), Sediment Spirit: The Activation of Art in the Anthropocene (2023), and Claudia Martinez Garay: Artist Residency (2023). His latest publications include “Caught Between Worlds: Painting Across Boundaries” in How Can We Stop Killing Each Other? (Sainsbury Centre, 2025), “A Path Forward: Curating Art and Climate Change” in Museum International (Taylor & Francis / Routledge, 2024), and “Collisions: Art & Climate Change” in Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth (Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, 2023). He is the co-editor of Planet for Our Future: How Do We Adapt to a Transforming World? (2023) and Can the Seas Survive Us? (2025). Paranada has led groundbreaking collaborations with significant academic, cultural, and heritage institutions worldwide, including the British Museum (London), Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), the Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), RAW Material Company (Senegal), and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York), amongst others. He served as an inaugural jury member for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Art and Environment Prize at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2024), a board advisor for East Gallery at Norwich University of the Arts, Norfolk, and a member of the climate change working group for the Association for Art History, London. |  | | James Merle Thomas, Deputy Director, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation James Merle Thomas is a scholar, curator, and executive with two decades of experience in cultural, academic, and creative arts sectors. He is currently the Inaugural Deputy Director at the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, where he shapes strategic partnerships with a wide range of universities, museums, and cultural institutions, including the Foundation's Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI).
Prior to joining the Frankenthaler Foundation, Thomas served as the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies at the Aspen Institute, and as Assistant Professor of Art History at Temple University.
A prolific scholar and curator, Thomas served as part of the core curatorial and editorial team responsible for the 2nd Seville Biennial (2006), the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008), and the Third Paris Triennale (2012). His creative projects encompass large-scale exhibitions and creative projects, academic anthologies, and scholarly and general writing about art, technology, and media of the 20th and 21st centuries. His collaborations include the production of books with visual artist Walead Beshty; albums and media environments with musicians Mikael Jorgensen and William Tyler; and a feature-length documentary with filmmaker Meghan O'Hara.
Thomas's research has been supported through major funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Gallery of Art. Thomas holds a doctorate in Art History from Stanford University. |
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