EPISODE 3: SYSTEMATIC DESIGNS TO TACKLE WASTE AND MAXIMIZE BUILDING EFFICIENCY
The Circular Museum, a collaboration between MoMA’s Ambasz Institute and ART 2030, is a virtual panel discussion series inviting artists, museum directors, curators, exhibition designers, and other museum practitioners from around the world to talk about their efforts to address the climate crisis through their work. In six episodes, the series explores how incorporating sustainability and circularity into various levels of museum practice is not only urgent but desirable.
The third episode brings us to The Museum of Modern Art to discuss the topic of developing systematic designs to be more sustainable across the Museum. Hear from MoMA’s director of exhibition design and production, Lana Hum, about her approach to waste reduction during the exhibition design process, and from Jason Smith and Eliana Glicklich-Cohn, senior managers of sustainability, about how they have implemented strategies and measurements to minimize the museum’s operational waste, energy usage, and carbon footprint.
Opening remarks
Carson Chan, Director, Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment
Panel discussion
Lana Hum has been serving as MoMA’s director of exhibition design and production since 2013. She joined the institution in 2003 as an exhibition designer and production manager. Before that, she was the manager of design and construction at the Whitney Museum and an exhibition designer at several creative organizations, including M & Co., the Jewish Museum, and the Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia. With a background in architecture from leading firms like Pei Cobb Freed & Associates and Gluckman Mayner Associates, Hum leads a talented team of designers, production managers, and builders in producing MoMA’s exhibition program. From 2015 to 2019 she worked closely with the Museum’s curators, conservators, and the exhibitions and collections teams in the planning and implementation of the Museum’s renovation and expansion project, opening 175,000 square feet of newly reimagined gallery spaces. Boosting environmental sustainability in the exhibition design and construction fields has been a longstanding pursuit for her and the Exhibition Design and Production team she leads. She earned a BA in fine art from Wesleyan University.
Jason K. Smith, the senior project manager for real estate and sustainability at MoMA, brings 30 years of private- and public-sector experience in the engineering, construction, and real estate industries. Smith is responsible for executing MoMA’s multiyear infrastructure capital planning and project-management strategy, guided by the Museum’s sustainability mission. Smith is a professional engineer and has a BSME from the University of Alaska and an MS from the University of Sussex, England.
Eliana Glicklich-Cohn is the senior manager of real estate and sustainability at MoMA. Prior to this position, she was the project manager of real estate expansion at MoMA, where one of her top priorities was obtaining LEED Platinum certification for the Museum’s expansion project. Glicklich-Cohn has over 18 years of experience in the museum and visual-arts nonprofit sectors, having also held positions in financial management, copyright licensing, fundraising, and audience development. Glicklich-Cohn has a BA in art history from Vassar College and an MA in arts administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Moderators
Carson Chan
Luise Faurschou, Founder and CEO, ART 2030
Accessibility
Automated captioning is available for all online programs. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and live captioning are available for public programs upon request with two weeks’ advance notice. MoMA will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made with less than two weeks’ notice. For accessibility questions or accommodation requests please email [email protected] or call (212) 708-9781
This session will be led virtually through Zoom, a free video-conferencing software. Participants are encouraged to use a computer, smartphone, or tablet with a camera and Internet access, if possible. Participants may also dial in using a phone line. Participants will receive a Zoom link upon registering.
The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment is a platform for fostering dialogue, promoting conversation, and facilitating research about the relationship between the built and natural environment, with the aim of making the interaction between architecture and ecology visible and accessible to the wider public while highlighting the urgent need for an ecological recalibration.
This event was made possible through a generous gift from Emilio Ambasz. The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment is a platform for fostering dialogue, promoting conversation, and facilitating research about the relationship between the built and natural environment, with the aim of making the interaction between architecture and ecology visible and accessible to the wider public while highlighting the urgent need for an ecological recalibration.