The New York City-based Helen Frankenthaler Foundation has announced grants totaling $2.7 million in support of efforts to accelerate climate action at visual arts institutions across the United States.

Grants were awarded to 48 arts organizations across the country through the third cycle of the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, which was launched in 2021 in partnership with RMI and Environment & Culture Partners to support nonprofit visual arts and arts education organizations of varying sizes undertaking energy efficiency and clean energy generation projects. Originally launched as a $10 million effort, the initiative has been expanded to $15 million and extended to include additional cycles in 2024 and 2025.

The latest recipients include the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which will purchase and install a renewable energy generator alternative; the Detroit-based Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, which will install an on-site steam humidification system to help ensure ongoing collection preservation and reduce the institution’s carbon footprint; California Institute of the Arts, which will upgrade the windows in student-utilized visual art and gallery spaces across campus; and the Pittsburgh-based Miller Institute of Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon University, which will develop energy efficiency and carbon reduction strategies for its forthcoming new building.

“We are thrilled by the continued interest the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative has received from visual arts institutions who want to fight climate change but often don’t have the means,” said Frankenthaler Foundation director and board chair Lise Motherwell. “These organizations have inspired us with their ingenuity and commitment to lower their carbon footprints. We decided to extend our funding and FCI’s grantmaking cycle, so that others can participate in this clean energy initiative.”

(Photo credit: Wright Museum of African American History via Frankenthaler Foundation)