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Neue Nationalgalerie Hosted a Constituting Gathering of GCC (Gallery Climate Coalition) Berlin

09.06.2023
Neue Nationalgalerie

On Thursday, 8 June 2023, the Neue Nationalgalerie and its resident artist Haley Mellin hosted a constituting gathering of GCC Berlin as an independent non-profit in Germany.

GCC Berlin e. V. is a newly established Berlin-based non-profit dedicated to offering environmental information and resources for local art organisations and professionals. This is the first independent non-profit hub in Germany set up by GCC (Gallery Climate Coalition), an international coalition of arts organisations working to reduce the visual art sector’s environmental impacts. GCC’s primary goal is to facilitate a reduction of the sector’s CO₂ emissions by a minimum of 50 percent by 2030, as well as promoting zero waste practices. The coalition develops and shares Berlin-specific best practices, provides leadership on sector-specific environmental issues, and works to leverage the collective power of its membership to achieve systemic changes. GCC started in London in 2020. Most recently GGC New York was initiated in April 2023.

It is an honor for us to acknowledge the founding of the important initiative GCC Berlin at Neue Nationalgalerie. My special thanks go to our Max Beckmann artist in residence Haley Mellin for being instrumental in initiating such urgent innovations.

Klaus Biesenbach, Director Neue Nationalgalerie

This creation of the formal GCC Berlin non-profit developed from meetings and actions by local members of the Berlin arts community, over the past two years, most recently at Kunstraum Callie’s in May 2022. As part of GCC Berlin's campaign to move the Berlin art and cultural sector toward zero waste by implementing a circular economy, the timing of this non-profit declaration will align with the launch of Barder in Berlin. Located at www.barder.art, Barder is a material exchange platform for the arts. Items such as pedestals, crates, or other art-related materials can be given freely, sold, or lent. Individuals, art businesses and institutions can then source these items, and in doing so, reduce waste, free up storage space, and invest in a circular economy.

This event was organized with artist and conservationist Haley Mellin, the 2023 Max Beckman Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy, in residence with the Neue Nationalgalerie. On the occasion of her residence, Mellin hosted a sustainability workshop at Neue Nationalgalerie with Dirk Messner, president of the German environment agency, artists including Tino Sehgal, Katharina Grosse, Olafur Eliasson, Simon Denny and staff of Neue Nationalgalerie in May 2023. Mellin is known for her on-site, observation-based paintings that focus on dialogues of biodiversity and environmental justice. In 2017, Mellin founded the nonprofit Art to Acres to support land conservation in collaboration with art communities. In 2020, she and Klaus Biesenbach co-founded the MOCA Environmental Council, the inaugural environmental council for a museum in the United States.