COAL, the Coalition for Art and Sustainable Development, was founded in 2008 by a group of French professionals working in the fields of contemporary art, sustainable development and research in order to promote the emergence of a culture of ecology.
In a multidisciplinary and innovative way, COAL mobilises artists and cultural actors on societal and environnemental problematics, in collaboration with institutions, NGOs, scientists and enterprises and supports the important role of creation and culture in raising awareness and the implementation of concrete solutions.
COAL organizes and curates contemporary art exhibitions and cultural events on the issues of sustainable development (UNESCO, La Villette, la Gaîté lyrique, FIAC,
Domaine départemental de Chamarande, the Natural History Museum, the Museum of Hunting and Nature, Berges de Seine…). COAL organizes an annual Art and Environment Prize, supports artists through artistic accompaniment and production support (public commissions, 1% artistique …) and contributes to the transformation of territories with its Laboratory of Sustainable Culture.
COAL actively participates in the implementation of the national action strategy on the topic, through its cooperation with the French ministries of Environment and of Culture, through European cooperation (as the French representative of Imagine2020 and Creative Climate Leadership networks), through its consultancy services, public lectures, publications and the daily update of Ressource0, the primary online resource platform dedicated to both national and international initiatives that link art and ecology.
Over a decade COAL has become the leading French actor in the expanding crossover between culture and sustainable development. COAL took its place on the forefront of this emerging field when, in 2015 COAL implemented ArtCOP21, the cultural festival surrounding the COP21. With more than 550 events registered, 54 countries represented, numerous public art installations and almost 250 international artists and professionals gathered at Gaîté lyrique in Paris for the Conference of Creative Parties, COAL managed to secure a place for art and culture on the agenda of ecological transition.
TEAM
Lauranne Germond, is an art curator and director of the association COAL, art and sustainable development which she co-founded in 2008. After graduating from the prestigious École du Louvre with a degree in Art History and Museology, she quickly specialized in contemporary art in relation to nature and ecology. Most notably, she directs, since 2009, the artistic direction of the Art and Environment COAL Prize and from 2012 to 2017, the curation of exhibitions and residencies at the Domain of Chamarande. Formerly, she was associated and co-director if the magazine NUKE, autoportrait of a polluted generation and has collaborated to the conception and the organisation of the symposium “Artists as stakeholders” at the UNESCO in 2004.
Phoebe-Lin Elnan, is a project officer and art curator at COAL. As a National Academy of Art of Oslo and University of the Arts of London graduate, her main interests are the scenographies of theatre arts and exhibition spaces. Her plastic work takes mainly the shape of installations and performances underlining her interest for spatial installation and the ways bodies and artworks evolve in it.
Joan Pronnier, is a project officer at COAL and project leader of VIVANT. After graduating from Sciences po Lille in “Sustainable Development” and “Ethic, ecology and sustainable development” from the Lyon 3 university, she works on creating links between disciplines, between a theoretical philosophy and a practical ecology. Her research aims to think the artistic approach, aesthetics and the creative language as channels of awareness and citizen mobilization on environmental issues.
Jessica Leclercq, is a project officer at COAL. A graduate from University of the Arts in London in Fashion Journalism, a Master in Digital Communication from Paris II University and a Master in Cultural Projects in Public Spaces at Paris I University, she is interested in the place of art in social struggles, and especially in the role of creation in current environmental issues.
Loïc Fel, is co-founder of the agency influence for good, the program Contremarques and COAL. Doctor in Philosophy, his thesis in epistemology of sciences, published by Champ Vallon (2008) under the title L’esthete verte, focused on ecology and environmental aesthetics. Convinced that philosophy can not be summed up in research, it is in the implementation of the ecological transition that it puts its convictions on the ground. With influence for good, by assisting the project management, it supports the promoters in the implementation of the sustainable city, by campaigns of influence it promotes actors of finance, luxury and foundations to more virtuous practices to converge the interests of the economic world, those of the planet and of society. With the Contremarques program, he defends artisanal and responsible consumption.
Agathe Utard, environmental consultant, sustainable development and social innovation, has been landscaper planning consultant and head of strategic projects at the Federation of National Botanical Conservatories. Co-founder of COAL, she obtained a Master of Philosophy at Paris1-Sorbonne, a Master of Landscape in Geneva and a Master of Geopolitics at HEI-Paris.
Clément Willemin, co-founder of COAL, is a visual artist, landscaper and urban planner. In 2000, with his associates Franck Poirier and Bertrand Vignal, he founded the BASE agency (Bien Aménager Son Environnement), which in 2014 had around forty employees in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux, and of which he is the chairman. He is responsible for the management of artistic projects, urban, landscape, public spaces, playgrounds for children, and the development of urban and territorial projects in France and Europe.
The COAL association is accredited by the National Agency for Civic Service. Through this, it welcomes volunteers to enable them to gain a real experience.
