Courtesy NM True
Say goodbye to the atrium roof at the Museum of International Folk Art—a new climate grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation will help fund its $750,000 replacement.
Santa Fe marks more sunny days than not, which can—or should—have a major impact on how we harness energy. Yet, sometimes the difference between creating solar energy or not comes down to money. Three Santa Fe institutions will expand their uses of renewable energy thanks to sizable grants from New York City’s Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Climate Initiative.
The Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe Art Institute and SITE Santa Fe are among 48 arts museums and schools nationwide to receive grants from the foundation’s third round of climate funding, which totals more than $2.7 million. The foundation, esestablished by postwar American abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler, reports it has awarded more than $10.8 million since its inception in 2013, affecting 175 projects across 150 organizations. The Climate Initiative began awarding funds in 2021.
At $100,000, MoIFA will receive the largest sum among Santa Fe musuems, which it has earmarked to make updates to the 3,511-square-foot space that houses its central atrium on Museum Hill. A well-used and much-loved facility, the atrium most often hosts workshops, special events, visiting and local artists and private rentals. According to Michelle Gallagher Roberts, the deputy secretary of the state’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the atrium roof, which was built in 1987, has been a bit of an energy leak due to its advanced age. DCA used a grant from Frankenthaler in 2021 to study the project. The new money will go a long way, she says, toward the roof’s estimated $750,000 overall pricetag.
“That’s to completely remove the atrium roof and replace it with new insulated skylights and redo the supports if necessary, as well as a lot of reworking of that space,” Gallagher Roberts explains. “The skylight will still be in that pyramid shape, but will be insulated and use a translucent material—we won’t have that direct sun.”
Gallagher Roberts notes the renovations should reduce the museum’s annual natural gas costs by 10%, and its electric bill by 3%.
“Of course, those are significant savings,” she says, “but it will also be able to reduce about 32.1 carbon tons of emissions. We’re anticipating a significant impact.”
For newly minted MoIFA Executive Director Charlie Lockwood, the benefits are myriad beyond savings, even if the updates will close off the atrium for a limited time.
“MoIFA’s atrium serves as the vital hub of our highly popular community programs, is used daily by school groups and visitors and serves as a focal point for both public and private events,” he tells SFR by email. “Support from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Climate Initiative will allow us to move ahead with much-needed replacement of the single-pane glass and steel sheeting atrium roof with skylight thermal panels made from recyclable materials that will improve energy efficiency and reduce our building’s carbon footprint. We believe this project is an important step toward becoming a more sustainable organization and an opportunity for MoIFA to play important leadership role as model for other institutions worldwide.”
The galleries that house the museum’s exhibits will remain accessible during any future construction.
Meanwhile, downtown, contemporary art museum SITE Santa Fe has had quite a year when it comes to grants. In addition to the $50,000 from this round of Frankenthaler Foundation bucks, it recently picked up $250,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a website overhaul and another $45,000 from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts in the form of the Ellsworth Kelly Prize, which will go toward a future solo exhibit of more than 2,000 chemigrams (images made with light-sensitive paper) by Diné artist Dakota Mace. As for the Frankenthaler money, SITE’s Phillips Executive Director Louis Grachos tells SFR it will pay for 134 solar panels, which will be installed on the museum’s roof on Paseo de Peralta alongside existing equipment.
“We are thrilled to be a grantee for the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative,” Grachos says. “The grant funds will support our plans to install an additional array of solar panels and will reduce SITE Santa Fe’s carbon emissions by 140,455 pounds annually and by almost 3 million pounds over the next 25 years.”
For those keeping track, Grachos says the array will cut energy costs by 36% at SITE’s 36,000-square-foot building while increasing the museum’s existing solar production by 50%—which will bring SITE’s renewable energy usage up to 32% overall.
In Midtown, Santa Fe Art Institute Executive Director Jamie Blosser tells SFR the $25,000 in Frankenthaler funding will play a vital role in longterm energy goals. SFAI will use the money to kick off a preliminary study for the installation of solar panels at its 17,000 square foot facility, and the long game hope is to reduce utility costs by as much as 80%, if not more.
“[We are] excited for the Helen Frankenthaler Climate Initiative grant, which will help us to look at the viability of going all-electric and renewable,” Blosser explains. “This will not only serve as a model for the adjacent Midtown redevelopment, but it is aligned with the Midtown Master Plan’s sustainability and infrastructure goals.”
For now, SFAI remains one of the last organizations still operating on the in-flux Midtown Campus development on St. Michael’s Drive. The institute has a long-term lease on its building, but earlier this month, it emerged with a group of other nonprofits called Midtown Arts and Design Alliance as a prospective developer of a visual arts center on the campus.
All told, the Frankenthaler money comes at a time when the state is taking the future of climate change into account in a more aggressive way.
“Absolutely this has been a priority for DCA,” adds Gallagher Roberts, pointing to a 2021 $100,000 Frankenthaler Foundation Climate Initiative grant awarded to the soon-to-open Vladem Contemporary wing of the New Mexico Museum of Art. “We were able to leverage that money to implement solar panels that will be installed at Vladem. [The state has been] looking to increase efficiency at museums as applicable.”
MoIFA’s a good start, but with numerous sites across the state operating under the DCA purview beholden to demolition and renovation rules based in historic significance, Gallagher Roberts tells SFR, that could prove a challenging prospect.
