Welcome to the Renewable Studios blog! My name is Daniela Molinari, and I initially decided to start this blog as a way to collect all of my thoughts on this overwhelming topic into one place. As I have moved through my career, I realized that many professionals in private practice are genuinely interested in making their spaces less environmentally damaging, they just don’t know how, and they don’t know where to start with the limited time that they have to commit to such research. So Renewable Studios will hopefully offer resources and a little conversation to make creating sustainable practices a little easier, and friendlier.

I have always had a mind that focusses on minimizing waste and using resources that are immediately accessible, which is a skill most conservators have- being resourceful. While undertaking my Masters degree however, this focus was amplified tenfold when I decided to write my final dissertation on the sustainability of isinglass, a material used in paintings conservation practices mainly as an adhesive. As my research intensified, I began to see the life cycle and the waste of everything I used in the studio. This research was ultimately one of my major motivations to continue my deep dive into cultural heritage sustainability, and what I could possibly do to create positive change.

The further I went into researching the industry of isinglass and sturgeon farming as the result of the caviar industry, the more interconnected all the overwhelming information about climate change and material resources became. Since then, I have dedicated significant time into sustainability research, working with Sustainability in Conservation (SiC), followed by Ki Culture, then Ki Futures.

To guide my need for action, I began volunteering for SiC in 2018, an organization that had been an early pioneer in the cultural heritage field that focusses exclusively on sustainability. I directed their Student Ambassador Program for 3 years, until we discontinued the program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Briefly, my role as Director of this program involved meeting with students globally, and providing them with a handbook of creative ways for them to initiate positive impact on environmental change while studying to become conservators.

Many of the resources and programs that currently exist for cultural heritage sustainability are truly exceptional, but they are designed mainly for museums, galleries, and larger institutions; information which private conservators can only benefit from on a basic, DIY level. Resources for large institutions are of course extremely significant though, given that their impact on the environment is much greater than that of a conservator working from a home studio.

 The organizations that currently exist in this capacity are veritable fonts of information, resources, community, and ideas, and are all worth investigating, as I’m sure I will reference them at least in part in future posts. The following are but a small few:

Gallery Climate Coalition https://galleryclimatecoalition.org/

Sustainability in Conservation https://www.siconserve.org/

AIC Sustainability Committee https://www.culturalheritage.org/membership/committees/sustainability

ICON Sustainability Network https://www.icon.org.uk/groups-and-networks/sustainability-network.html

Having had positive feedback on my research, as well as my contributions to the small communities of which I am a part, I feel encouraged to continue and to provide easy access to resources and information, beyond the limited scope of academia. I want to do the research so that you don’t have to. I understand firsthand that cultural heritage professionals have very few moments to dedicate to this kind of research and all its moving parts, so ideally, this will be a place that you can return to find what you need, whether that is simply a common interest, or a resource to find recycling information for the glassine stuck at the bottom of your scraps drawer.

I am overjoyed to finally start this blog as I have been sitting on the idea for a while, and I will be learning from this endeavour hopefully just as much as you will be too.

Thank you for reading!