Preparing for climate impacts in the art world

1 May 2026

Preparing for climate impacts in the art world

1 May 2026

Climate adaptation and resilience in the visual arts, part two

This is the second part of an introductory series of blogs about climate adaptation and resilience in the art world. You might want to start by reading part one.

When we think of climate impacts in the art world, we tend to think of direct examples: galleries hit by floods or storms, buildings installing emergency fans during heatwaves. But these are just the tip of the (melting) iceberg.

What about the impacts of more extreme weather on transport and supply chains that your operations rely on? What effect will more hot and humid days have on your visitor numbers? Will a changing climate increase the risk of insect or fungal damage to collections? How much do your art sales rely on a small number of events that could be disrupted by extreme weather?

Every arts organisation will face its own set of risks and potential solutions, based on its specific location, size, infrastructure and practices. That’s why we strongly recommend that every GCC member carry out a proper assessment of its own situation – with external support if necessary – and draw up its own adaptation and resilience plan.

Adaptation as investment in the future

A common theme at the recent 'Climate Resilience in the Cultural Sector’ conference in the British Library was the fact that climate-related measures should be seen not as a cost, but an investment – a way of reducing costs in the long term.

Planning and implementing adaptation measures now should prevent the need for expensive emergency responses in the future, and also support your carbon reduction goals. For example, a planned transition to a heat pump that can both heat and cool your galleries could be cheaper, more effective and lower-carbon in the long run than the rushed addition of energy-intensive air conditioning in response to a series of heatwaves. Or shifting the art market away from over-reliance on a small number of international art fairs, towards a more diversified model of regional sales could reduce emissions, cut travel costs and also lower the financial risk of major fairs being disrupted by extreme weather events.

Some initial questions to ask within your organisation:
  • Who is responsible for this issue? Adaptation is a governance challenge, not just a technical one. Adaptive and resilient thinking should be brought into decision-making processes at different levels. For example, at the British Library, responsibility for action has been explicitly spread across multiple teams, including boards and senior leadership.
  • What are the current and likely future impacts of global heating in our area? This includes changes in day-to-day conditions, such as average temperatures, rainfall, humidity, water shortages, or food prices, but also the latest risk assessment of “shock” events such as floods, storms, wildfires, or other intense weather events. This information should be (at least partially) available via your local government, or through community or charity initiatives working on this issue in your area.
  • Are there increased costs and risks associated with our usual practices? Do we need to upgrade our infrastructure or change the ways we operate? Are our usual ways of doing things becoming less fit for purpose or too exposed to climate risks? Are existing climate control systems becoming too expensive to run? Are our events too reliant on specific weather conditions or uninterrupted long-distance travel? What could be changed to reduce those costs/risks?
  • Is our building and equipment robust enough to cope with the new climate normal?
  • Are staff, visitors and collections safe in these changing conditions? What would happen if different types of climate disasters struck? Do we have response plans and contingencies in place? Are we over-prepared in case the worst-case scenarios happen?
  • Beyond the direct risks, are we ready for the wider impacts or knock-on effects? How will we cope if visitor numbers drop, if an artist’s studio floods just before a show, or if key art fairs we rely on are cancelled or disrupted? What happens if multiple events occur at once, or a series of cascading incidents are triggered?
  • Are our support structures adequate to deal with climate risks? In the words of Vasilis Maroulas from Arup, “Climate impacts are rarely isolated events; they tend to cascade across buildings, people, operations and income in complex and sometimes unexpected ways. That complexity shouldn’t be a barrier to action: small, well‑judged steps taken early can significantly strengthen resilience and reduce future disruption.”
  • Have our financial reserves, insurance policies and banking arrangements been planned with increased climate risk in mind?
  • Are staff, partners and stakeholders aware of these increased risks? What conversations have already happened around this topic, within the organisation, but also with partners, suppliers and audiences? Is the issue incorporated into staff training and induction processes?
  • Are there immediate “no regrets” measures we can put in place that would also deliver other benefits? Measures like passive cooling, building insulation, replacing concrete landscaping with green spaces, introducing natural shade, or carrying out flood resilience planning.
  • How can we make these changes in a way that also reduces our climate impacts? Updates to infrastructure and policies to cope with climate impacts should be integrated with plans to reduce emissions and support nature restoration. If planned carefully, these can be mutually supportive; otherwise, there is a risk that adaptation measures could increase carbon emissions and thus help accelerate the very problem that we’re trying to minimise. When the British Library recently worked with Arup on adaptation measures, they explicitly incorporated and aligned their adaptation plans with their carbon reduction plans and targets.
  • What support already exists – and what should we push for? Look for local, regional and national organisations and agencies that are working on this topic already, and see what funding or other support is available. And if that support doesn’t exist, or is inadequate, then it’s up to all of us to put pressure on decision-makers to make it happen.

Individual vs Community Resilience
There is a limit to the resilience that any of us can build alone. Instead, we need to act as communities and work together to put adaptation measures in place. Arts organisations can play a vital role here, for example by acting as designated community “cool spaces” during heatwaves, or replacing paved-over areas with grass or soil to reduce local flooding risk.

We would strongly recommend arts organisations to connect with local networks working on adaptation and develop collective strategies to build community resilience – and to call for greater support from governments and local authorities.

Adaptation or mitigation?
Adaptation and resilience are not a replacement for taking action to reduce emissions (or to use the jargon, “climate mitigation”). If the world does not urgently reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, we are on track for levels of climate disruption that would radically alter the conditions for life on Earth way beyond the scope of any meaningful adaptation measures. Adaptation, carbon reduction and nature restoration all need to go hand in hand.

In fact, talking about climate adaptation has the potential to be a useful way to start fresh conversations with our colleagues and partners on the need to accelerate climate action, by highlighting the fact that the climate crisis is not an abstract problem but something that is already here, and set to get far worse if we don’t take urgent action.

Resources for resilience
There is a growing pool of resources available to help organisations - including arts organisations - to build climate resilience. See, for example: