Art and Sustainability, Part 4: The Institution

The next stop in the Virginia Tech XMNR curriculum that caught my attention is a term called scaling deep. I heard about scaling up and even scaling out, but scaling deep was new to me. It turns out, especially as a practicing artist, that my attraction to this terminology was not unfounded. Scaling deep is about changing culture. It requires us to create changes in policy by scaling up, it develops behavior and mindsets by scaling out, and pulls all of those levers in order to scale deep and find updated elements of cultural practice. Scaling deep, however, requires us to discover and define the core elements of a practice that can be taken from one community to another, and have each community own it from within their own cultural context.

Senior Manager of Government Affairs and Civic Practice at OPERA America, Megan Carpenter, embodies scaling deep naturally, and I was delighted to make their acquaintance at the OPERA America discussions during the World Opera Forum in Los Angeles in June, 2024, where Megan led one of the first ever panel discussions about sustainability in opera

We Can’t Do This Anymore

“I used to be a vocalist and I minored in college in costume design. It was there where I saw how much was being bought and how much was being thrown away. As a vocalist, we’re not really aware of how things get built onstage. When I started working in production backstage, I saw how much waste accumulated from materials - lighting, costume, makeup, props, and set - and I didn't understand what it meant or how to solve it. I just knew that it wasn't the right thing to do. 

Then I moved to New York City and started producing shows. I was working at a festival that was outside in nature and it was the first year back from COVID. I think the innovative idea was just feeling the success of restarting and that being in fresh air, outside, was an act of being “green”. In the end, we simply brought the same extractive over-consumptive practices to the outside workspace as we did to our work inside of a theater. And now, just a few years later, our relationship to all of that is different. I started educating myself more on sustainability and social justice because we have to find a solution. We can't do this anymore.” 

OPERA America

When Megan got their job at OPERA America, they started getting to know the Broadway Green Alliance where they are now deeply involved. “They have a ton of free resources, not just the Sustainable Production Toolkit, but during the pandemic, they created a ton of videos and webinars. 

I was asked to curate the 10th anniversary exhibit of the OPERA America National Opera Center and was able to do an entire exhibition on sustainable practices in opera across the globe. I interviewed companies such as La Maonnaie in Brussels, who have done extensive sustainability research, as well as Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, who built an entire regenerative water system for their season because all of their shows featured water. I came to know the Sustainability Network at Opera Europa which provides a ton of information and also holds forums. I was working to showcase multiple perspectives in congruence with the World Opera Forum about sustainability advancements in opera. I also displayed a ton of resources that have been built to help theater companies. That was the main exhibit.  It was very cool.”

Collective Action

“The panel discussion in L.A. was focused on environmental sustainability at OPERA America. I invited panelists in the entertainment industry outside of opera, while also having opera represented by a company based in Maine called Hogfish. I think in this instance and many others, this work needs collective action by being able to point to other industries who are doing very similar initiatives. At least in my mind, this is helpful to sort of make the case that all entertainment industries face similar challenges. Opera is a part of arts and culture, and, therefore, part of the community, so we need to play our part. 

Audience participants came up and told me that it was so nice to feel like we're having this conversation, and that trying to talk about sustainability in their places of work or communities made them feel alone in the fight. I think first, we have to have to show leadership in order for people to buy in. We have to demonstrate why this is important and why other people are getting involved.” 

Community

With the goal of a more sustainable future, the arts sector must leverage the passion and commitment of its members. As Megan Carpenter eloquently puts it, “I think it starts with the people who are already passionate about the climate, the planet, or even just their own community.” The challenge often lies in scaling deep to understand and define specific practices and dynamics within different departments. 

“Companies should hold space for their heads of departments to see where changes could be made. Taking La Monnaie as an example again, they have lunchtime meetings where people, who are passionate or curious about sustainability, can talk about how to implement change from their corner of the company. There are people from across departments who are passionate about sustainability, but they feel like they're the only one. The most important is that community members are given space to bring this topic up, and that there is a formal, yet approachable, process in which people can safely question how decisions are made, how resources are found and used, and what information we have available to us. The other suggestion I would have for arts organizations more broadly is to actually invest the time and energy to take stock in your emissions and your consumption. But the question remains, how do you invest the same sort of time and energy you put in at the office, into taking care of the planet as well?”  

Practices of Scaling Deep

Megan and I go on to discuss how the opera industry must move fast to meet its own demands and compete to be seen in the world of art. We, therefore, often find the easiest, convenient, and cheapest solution to just get through to the next rehearsal, the next production, and through a whole season. It requires a choice in leadership to really take stock on the decision making processes and hold practitioners accountable for their consumption. 

“If I were programming a new show or working with a new director, part of that contract as a company might state that their concepts have to use 75% of the stock that already exists, and the performance should be designed around what the company already has. Opera tends to do their own thing and build everything themselves. We can look within the community and start having conversations about sharing space, sharing materials, and sharing costumes, for example. We can start to integrate that practice of sharing into our season planning. Yes, it takes more time and energy, but it also starts creating a circular economy, in a sense.” 

Megan goes on to explain that New York City has a website specifically for nonprofits called Materials for the Arts run by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. TV shows, for example, can post their used materials and other nonprofits can make an appointment to pick up what they need, which creates a library of materials for the theater community.

Conclusion

While not everyone may be deeply invested in areas like water mitigation or agriculture, the collective responsibility to foster social and environmental stewardship remains crucial. Embracing the concept of scaling deep might help define our skills and talents from within performance communities, in order to offer them out into the world and inspire change.

Megan concludes that “artists are a significant demographic according to the U.S. Census, so we’re a huge collective body when it comes to civic action. They are a huge collective power in terms of voting, energy, and lobbying. I heard this phrase, that “we need artfully aware activists and actively aware artists.” I take this to mean that we have to break out of this individualistic mindset, which I think opera incentivizes - that even American culture incentivizes! The artistic community needs to embed the idea that social responsibility uplifts as much as artistic output. We need to realize that we are all part of bigger and broader topics, and integrate the notion that every job is a climate job.”