The museum sector’s growing focus on environmental sustainability has, since 2021, led to the development of increasingly sophisticated measurement tools - carbon calculators, LCA audits, reporting protocols - that have shed light on a previously opaque reality: the transportation of exhibition objects is the dominant component of the carbon footprint of temporary exhibitions, and it increases in direct proportion to the distance and frequency of transport. Yet the sector’s response remains predominantly technical and logistical, leaving the root cause of the problem unexplored: the design choices that make that transport necessary. This paper argues that environmental sustainability in the exhibition system is primarily a matter of design and must therefore begin with curation. The dominant model - the exhibition format built on international loans and replicated across multiple venues - generates structural mobility where it is unnecessary, while sy- stematically leaving the vast majority of permanent collections in storage (Stone, 2002). On-site curation - exhibition design grounded in the permanent collection, the institutional context, and the specific characteristics of the local area - is proposed as a structural lever: it does not reduce transportation costs, but eliminates the need for them at the source. The paper further argues that this practice does not constitute cultural impoverishment; on the contrary, it requires deeper, more situated curatorial work, demanding planning and ideas. A curatorial approach, therefore, that starts from what institutions are in order to enhance them, examining loans as a system for narrating and understanding who we are and how we arrived here. Through an examination of three parallel literary strands and the analysis of concrete case studies, the paper identifies the gap separating research on environmental impact from curatorial theory, and pinpoints the institutional, sectoral, and educational conditions that could foster structural change.
Is the cost of carbon really worth it? Curatorial Practices, Environmental Responsibility, and Exhibition Design Policies
Davide Crippa;Tania Cerquiglini
2026-01-01
Abstract
The museum sector’s growing focus on environmental sustainability has, since 2021, led to the development of increasingly sophisticated measurement tools - carbon calculators, LCA audits, reporting protocols - that have shed light on a previously opaque reality: the transportation of exhibition objects is the dominant component of the carbon footprint of temporary exhibitions, and it increases in direct proportion to the distance and frequency of transport. Yet the sector’s response remains predominantly technical and logistical, leaving the root cause of the problem unexplored: the design choices that make that transport necessary. This paper argues that environmental sustainability in the exhibition system is primarily a matter of design and must therefore begin with curation. The dominant model - the exhibition format built on international loans and replicated across multiple venues - generates structural mobility where it is unnecessary, while sy- stematically leaving the vast majority of permanent collections in storage (Stone, 2002). On-site curation - exhibition design grounded in the permanent collection, the institutional context, and the specific characteristics of the local area - is proposed as a structural lever: it does not reduce transportation costs, but eliminates the need for them at the source. The paper further argues that this practice does not constitute cultural impoverishment; on the contrary, it requires deeper, more situated curatorial work, demanding planning and ideas. A curatorial approach, therefore, that starts from what institutions are in order to enhance them, examining loans as a system for narrating and understanding who we are and how we arrived here. Through an examination of three parallel literary strands and the analysis of concrete case studies, the paper identifies the gap separating research on environmental impact from curatorial theory, and pinpoints the institutional, sectoral, and educational conditions that could foster structural change.
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