Climate Action

St. Louis exists at the intersection of multiple interrelated climate crises. The region is at high risk for extreme weather, including tornadoes, flooding, and excessive heat waves, which will increase as carbon pollution continues to build up greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Like many issues facing the region, St. Louis’s position at the center of the continent brings the effects of the crisis into particularly sharp focus. When combined with the racial and economic inequalities that exacerbate these risks, climate change poses perhaps the most pressing challenge of our time.

Counterpublic has already grappled with the direct impacts of a warming planet. The opening weekends of its first two editions, in spring 2019 and 2023, were both marked by significant tornado damage, followed by extreme heat waves—regularly occurring weather patterns in the region that are becoming more frequent and severe. In response, the exhibition calendar has shifted from spring and summer to fall. Yet, in May 2025, as preparations for Coyote Time were underway, the region’s most destructive tornado in decades struck North St. Louis, including some of our primary partners in The Ville neighborhood, resulting in damage that will take years to rebuild, with long-term devastating impacts.

Planning at the scale of Counterpublic, in collaboration with our community partners, is a multi-year endeavor that increasingly requires us to plan for unplannable crises, as well as predictable ones, that we will face along the way. Climate is an urgent area of action now, demanding both adaptation and mitigation efforts to ensure resiliency.

Aligned with our overall mission and our specific 2026 curatorial focus areas, Counterpublic is actively pursuing a climate impact strategy for this edition and beyond, with a long-term vision toward mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. Art exhibitions, particularly biennials and triennials, present unique challenges when it comes to waste due to the temporary nature of many projects. Greenhouse gas emissions result from producing new artworks and from the travel needed to bring people to and from the city and between the project sites. Counterpublic is no exception.

At the same time, Counterpublic has unique opportunities to connect with partners and visitors and to model new practices. By emphasizing environmentally responsible production practices, supporting visitors in imagining low-carbon futures, and promoting transparent accountability for exhibition impacts, we aim to build a roadmap for more sustainable approaches to triennial production. In the process, we hope to reimagine the role of art and exhibitions to promote the lasting health and safety of our communities and ecosystems in the context of a changing climate.

Working with LHL Consulting, with the support of a Frankenthaler Climate Initiative grant, we have identified climate impact focus areas and key initiatives for the 2026 edition.

• Artwork and Site Production
• Communications, Storytelling, and Visitor Experience
• Tracking, Reporting, and Accounting

• Climate-Related Artist Commissions
  • Artworks with long-term remediation and net carbon impacts
  • Stories and themes within artworks that educate and inspire the public
• Sustainable Exhibition Sites
  • Responsible waste management at exhibition hubs
  • Zero-waste and low-waste installations and buildouts
  • Efficient travel and shipping choices
• Zero-Carbon Visitor Options
  • Walkable exhibition locations 
  • Digital exhibition guide through Bloomberg Connects, reducing paper printing
  • Bike rentals and electric vehicle shuttles for carbon-friendly transportation
• Climate Action Publications 
  • Climate Impact Report for Counterpublic 2026
  • Climate Action Guide for Exhibitions that includes tools for the field, guidelines for exhibitions, artists and curators, and a reflection on the process and implementation of a climate action plan

To promote sustainable artwork production, Counterpublic developed a set of climate guidelines for artwork production and invited artists and curators to incorporate these into project designs. Guidelines include decision-making maps for four key impact areas:

• Travel
• Shipping
• Material management
• Visitor engagement

To establish data-backed performance metrics, Counterpublic will track greenhouse gas emissions from organizational functions, travel, and shipping, as well as material management strategies from each artist project and exhibition site. Individual projects fulfilling the criteria from the Climate Guidelines for Artwork Production will receive special recognition.

The 2026 edition will be a benchmark year, representing the first time carbon performance metrics are tracked. Data collected from this edition will allow us to set future targets and prioritize reduction strategies. Target areas include:

• Connecting artist commissions with climate action
• Reducing buildout waste 
• Ensuring efficient travel
• Ensuring efficient shipping
• Improving staff and visitor transit emissions to get to and from project sites
• Increasing visitor engagement around climate
• Supporting partner sites and organizations to take long-term climate action
• Contributing to thought leadership around climate mitigation, resiliency, and adaptation for biennials and triennials

At the close of the exhibition, a full report will be presented with a greenhouse gas inventory, an overview of mitigation and adaptation actions and their results, opportunities for setting future targets and reductions, and carbon accountability plans.

Through this process, Counterpublic hopes to better prepare itself to adapt to the challenges ahead. We aim to do what we can to mitigate the effects of a heating planet on our own community and model the future of exhibitions for biennials and triennials worldwide in the face of a changing planet.