Art Museum Announces Grant Award As Part Of Major Climate Initiative

TAMPA, FL — The USF Contemporary Art Museum, part of the Institute for Research in Art in the USF College of The Arts, announced a $50,000 grant award to support energy efficiency from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

CAM will use the funds for improvements to its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation has presented $3 million to 49 institutions across the United States, from visual art museums to art schools, to advance energy efficiency and clean energy projects through its Frankenthaler Climate Initiative.

Developed in partnership with RMI and Environment & Culture Partners, the $10 million, multi-year initiative is the largest private national grant-making program of its kind addressing climate change through cultural institutions.

With $8.1 million awarded to date, the grant-making program expanded its applicant pool in its second cycle to include non-collecting visual arts organizations and art schools, widening the range of grantees and energy projects supported.

“We appreciate being included in this important initiative,” said CAM Director Margaret Miller. “This technical assistance grant will allow us to update our HVAC system to conserve energy and provide the ideal environment to protect the university’s art collection and artworks on loan for temporary exhibitions.”

The 49 recipients from the 2022 cycle represent a broad cross-section of visual arts institutions in 19 states, ranging from art schools and university museums such as the USF Contemporary Art Museum, Pittsburgh Glass Center and Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York; to institutions with national and international reach, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston Texas and MASS MoCA in Massachusetts.

Awarded projects were divided between scoping and technical assistance grants, which help institutions assess opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint and energy costs of their facilities and support the specification and budgeting for procurement and financing, and implementation grants, which provide partial and seed funding for fully specified projects.

The full listing of grantees is available at frankenthalerclimateinitiative.org.

“The first round of FCI’s funding helped museums actualize climate neutrality commitments, prepare for and respond to climate-driven disasters, and create avenues to achieve long-term operational sustainability, among other key goals. This second phase expands our reach and impact by advancing current projects in development and providing a new roster of visual art institutions with the support needed to meet their climate goals,” said Lise Motherwell, chairwoman of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

“The arts can be a powerful force in advancing global efforts against climate change," said Fred Iseman, president of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. "Our goal with this second grant-making cycle of the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is to motivate individuals across the arts sector—art students to curators to museum goers—to be change-makers, actively working to counter the most imminent and palpable threat facing our planet and existence. They say ars longa - vita brevis but vita is getting shorter.”

“The global climate catastrophe has never been more urgent,” said Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of RMI. "Cultural institutions have proven that change is possible by improving their energy efficiency and generating clean energy, setting an example for other charitable organizations.”

The USF Contemporary Art Museum, 4202 E. Fowler Ave.m CAM101, is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m., and is closed Sundays. All events are free and open to the public.