Spotlight On: Pulitzer Arts Foundation

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Located in the heart of St. Louis for more than 20 years, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation is an art museum devoted to presenting the art of today and works from the past within a global context. A place where ideas are freely explored, new art exhibited, and historic work reimagined, the Pulitzer’s expansive light-filled galleries host world-class art exhibitions and anchor an array of free programs, ranging from talks to concerts, literary readings, dance, performances, wellness workshops and more. The Clean Air Partnership is pleased to acknowledge the museum’s ongoing commitment to sustainability that helped earn them recognition at the Leader Level in the 2023 St. Louis Green Business Challenge.

“With our work, we want to consider environmental impact, whether through exhibitions and programs or via our building operations, properties, and day-to-day habits,” said Cara Starke, executive director of The Pulitzer Arts Foundation. “Joining the Green Business Challenge encourages us to improve our working methods while also making space for conversations about the ecological impact of our efforts.”

During the Challenge, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation hosted a Biodiversity Happy Hour for Green Business Challenge members, featuring a twilight experience of their living installation, Park-Like, which is designed to absorb rainfall from storms and reduce the impact on urban sewer systems while creating a site for both wildlife and people. Additionally, the museum featured spring exhibitions that explored how artmaking impacts the natural world and how human-environment relationships shape art, as well as led tours of their exhibitions and property with the Missouri Prairie Foundation and Missouri Department of Conservation to discuss the impact of prairies and native plants.

Other impressive accomplishments from their time participating in the Challenge include the implementation of rainscaping techniques to eliminate the need for irrigation and a system-wide HVAC evaluation to improve the museum’s environmental impact, which resulted in substantial reductions in energy use and CO2, all of which have helped benefit the region’s air quality.

Furthermore, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation instituted energy-saving and recycling initiatives, including converting all lighting systems to energy-efficient LEDs; weekly recycling of paper, paperboard and other recyclables; electronic waste collection; direct recycling of metals; increased donations of reusable building materials; and the reuse of materials from previous exhibitions to cut down on waste and reduce emissions.

For more information on the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and how your company can get involved in the St. Louis Green Business Challenge, subscribe to their bi-monthly E-Newsletter or visit stlouisgreenchallenge.com. For more on the link between sustainability and air quality, explore our website, like us on Facebook or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, @gatewaycleanair.