Funding will advance the museum’s planning for more sustainable collection care and building operations

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University has received a $25,000 grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation through the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, established in association with Environment & Culture Partners to catalyze climate action in the visual arts. Awarded through a highly competitive national grant cycle, the funding will support The Block Museum Energy Facilities Study.

The study will examine opportunities to reduce the museum’s environmental impact while supporting the specialized conditions required to care for its growing collection. Working with Northwestern University Facilities Management and an energy infrastructure consultant, The Block will assess its energy needs and develop recommendations to guide future planning.

“The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine for questioning, experimentation, and collaboration, with visual art at the center. Everything we do is in service of that mission, including how we care for the works of art in our growing collection and how we steward the building that makes that work possible. As an academic art museum embedded in a major research university, The Block has both the opportunity and the responsibility to lead by example in sustainable collection stewardship,” said Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director of The Block Museum of Art.

The project reflects a central challenge for collecting institutions: how to maintain carefully controlled environments for works of art while adopting more sustainable approaches to energy use. The resulting study will help The Block evaluate its options and establish priorities for future improvements.

As a central academic resource for Northwestern’s students, faculty, and researchers, and a vital cultural institution for the broader public, The Block will use the grant to conduct the critical scoping work needed to plan more sustainable energy systems for its building.

The Block is one of 83 visual arts organizations across the United States and Puerto Rico awarded a combined $4.5 million in the initiative’s sixth grant cycle, the largest cohort in the program’s history. Since launching in 2021, the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative has awarded more than $21.8 million through 401 grants to 295 institutions in 42 states and Puerto Rico.

About the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative 

The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is the first nationwide program to support energy efficiency and clean energy use for the visual arts and the largest private national grantmaking program to address climate action through cultural institutions. The ongoing initiative provides critical support to visual arts organizations in the United States seeking to assess their impact on the environment and to lower ongoing energy costs. The Foundation has conferred more than $21.8 million since its launch in 2021, with 401 unique grants given for energy efficiency and clean energy projects at 295 institutions across 42 states and Puerto Rico. 

Building on the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s commitment to social impact philanthropy and to catalyzing positive change on critical issues in the arts, the Foundation leads FCI in association with Environment & Culture Partners, a nonprofit that creates relationships and leads collaborations that engage the cultural sector in broader climate action; and Green Design Collaborative (GDC), an environmental design consultancy that optimizes building projects through expert collaboration to create a cost-effective, low-carbon future.