Sustainability: The carbon economy of Artists Rooms

This project in based on understanding how the carbon footprint of a touring collection compares to a stationary collection. The assumption is that moving a large collection round the UK is a more energy intensive process than public visits to local galleries.

Dr Andrea Hamilton, Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde

The aim of the study is to be able to describe quantitatively the relationship between the placement of a touring collection and the carbon costs and to compare with standard visits to local galleries. The end result will be a model capable of predicting the lowest energy location for a collection. Similar analysis has been applied in the tourism industry and can be applied for this first time to art tourism.

This is a complex project requiring statistical and actuarial processing of multiple social and economic variables, involving colleagues at Heriot-Watt University, as well as the International Centre of Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle, whose contribution is under ‘Engagement and Learning’ but whose founding director, Prof Peter Davis, has made a substantial contribution to research on sustainability and green thinking in relation to museum buildings.