About AEP
The Birth of AEP – A Message From the Founders:
Dear Artists and Cultural Venues:
Founding Sponsors
Official Endorsements
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Have you ever thought about what it means to “go green” either in your personal life, your art or as a venue? To make some sort of effort toward creating a sustainable environment but been overwhelmed by the notion of where to start or how much it will cost or just exactly what you have to do to be “green”? And who decides if you’re green or not green? And just how green is green enough?
To us, “green” has always been a mind-set, the simple consciousness that whatever we buy, produce or throw away has a profound impact on our environment. We built our Performing Arts Center in Venice with that consciousness, choosing to add solar panels and buying all necessary power as wind power from LA DWP, through their excellent and affordable “Green Power” program. We changed all of our non-exhibition light bulbs to compact fluorescent, started a facility-wide recycling program and pledged to use recycled products and non-toxic solutions because we cared and because it connected us to the one and only Earth that sustains US and that we all celebrate ritually, through our art. We did all of these things, years ago, in a relatively short period of time, most at very little cost and found it to have a profound effect on our bottom line, organizational attitude and impact. We share our greening efforts with our audiences through short curtain speeches and on our website and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, often receiving enthusiastic ovations from audiences and visitors who are eager to learn more.
And this is when it hit us… the power of a collective of cultural institutions joining forces, doing what we are doing… The Electric Lodge sees 25,000 people a year. Imagine if other venues, 10, 20, 100 began taking the same steps we have toward sustainability? We would reach millions of people every year, setting an example for our audiences and visitors to follow while at the same time making a measurable and profoundly positive impact on the Earth.
We documented our grassroots program. We investigated some of the existing, government sponsored greening programs to get some ideas on what more we could do and we were very quickly overwhelmed by the difficult to understand language and sheer length and breadth of some of these applications and processes. We also found a great deal of the detail did not apply to us, and seemed to be developed for a different business sector and not smaller, publicly supported arts organizations and non-profits like us. Not to mention the costs involved. We found one such program had an application over 80 pages long and was very expensive to initiate. As an arts org, struggling to meet our bottom lines, we and our creative colleagues wouldn’t have the time or money to even begin these processes.
Thus, the idea of forming a partnership between artists, cultural facilities and the Earth we all share – an Arts:Earth Partnership (AEP) - was born.
Since then we’ve worked closely with the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, and organizations such as Sustainable Works, LA DWP and the LA Stage Alliance gaining their support and assistance in making the requirements easier to understand, more affordable and yet deeper reaching. We also developed a materials exchange program, an annual member convergence and other exciting aspects while always keeping in mind the unique stresses that face the largely cash and time strapped creative sector.
The long-term goal of the AEP is to expand throughout Southern California and perhaps beyond to other cities and communities across the country. We expect the charter members will have a substantial role in shaping this effort as it begins to grow. We will create annual impact reports that document the savings and environmental benefit of the movement and share that with the collective and our audiences. We will also hold annual gatherings at member venues to celebrate our partnership with the Earth and recognize organizations that expand our mission in ways as yet unforeseen.
We are therefore very excited to offer you this opportunity to join us by attaining AEP Certification. By doing so you’ll be committing to sustainable practices within your facility, and by extension, within our arts industry as a whole.
It was D.H. Lawrence who said, “It is the business of art to reveal the relation between man and his environment.” Clearly, relations between man and his environment have never been more strained. As artists in every medium incorporate environmental concerns into their work, we believe that it is time for those of us in the “business of art” to align ourselves with sustainable and ecological practices.
If you would like to join us and help position the arts world as a leader in an effort toward achieving sustainability, fill out the attached form and send it in. Our first gathering of charter participants will be held in the Spring of 2010 at the Electric Lodge. We, and the Earth, welcome you with open arms.
Let art change the world!
Sincerely,
Joel Shapiro, MD
Artistic Director & Founder
Electric Lodge
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Justin Yoffe
President
Electric Lodge |
Electric Lodge Visual & Performing Arts Center
Venice, CA. 90291
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