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SUSTAINABILITY

Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts (ESA) is an ongoing initiative that aims to explore sustainable alternatives to vinyl exhibition signage, along with perspectives on sustainability across the arts.

Project mission

According to Western University’s Centre for Sustainable Curating, vinyl PVC lettering is commonly used for exhibition signage for its affordability and professional look. However, PVC is a highly toxic plastic that does not biodegrade and has a lifespan of at least 1000 years, and as a result this plastic becomes toxic waste. 

Through a series of hands-on workshops, in-gallery experiments, collaborations with artists and conversations with others working on similar ideas, the FOFA Gallery is developping and documenting alternative materials and techniques for creating gallery signage.

We compiled our findings from the past year into a free bilingual (French/English) toolkit that showcases sustainable signage options that can be applied to a variety of arts and cultural programming contexts. Additionnaly, we offer a publication highlighting a few emerging perspectives on sustainability across the arts. 

Publications

Sustainable Signage Menu

Download menu

Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts: Signage Toolkit

Download toolkit

Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts: Emerging Perspectives

Download publication

Discarded Paint Pigment: Research Experimentations and Observations

Download zine

Egg-Shell Biocomposite

Download zine

Apple Fruit Leather: Recipe and Variations

Download zine

Making Natural Screenprinting Inks

Download zine

Workshops

Our hands-on workshops are skill-sharing events where artists, researchers, technicians, and makers offer alternatives to PVC vinyl lettering as well as diverse techniques and practices to incorporate sustainability in the arts.

Co-Curators in Sustainability and Engagement

Joé Côté-Rancourt is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working across sculpture, scenography, installation, and performance. As Co-Curator of Sustainability at FOFA Gallery in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, he develops approaches to exhibition-making that foreground material responsibility and adaptive reuse. His technical experience in Concordia University’s woodshop, foundry, and digital fabrication lab informs both his artistic and curatorial work, shaping sustainable methods of production and display. His practice examines material histories and the systems that support—or destabilize—them, attending to how structures are built, maintained, and transformed, and who is implicated in these processes. Côté-Rancourt has participated in international residency programs and holds a BFA in Sculpture from Concordia University.

Josh Jensen is a queer artist and emerging curator born in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Treaty 6 Territory, Edmonton), whose work engages sustainability through material experimentation and process. He is Co-Curator of Sustainability at FOFA Gallery in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. Working across analogue photography and installation, his practice incorporates bio-based materials—including kombucha leather and natural dyes—as well as methods of reuse and repair, foregrounding approaches to circularity in artmaking. His work has been presented at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Winnipeg), Belfast Exposed (Northern Ireland), and Casa (Lethbridge, Alberta). Recent projects include CORED(2026), a two-person exhibition with Lucy Gill at Produit Rien. Jensen holds a BFA in Photography from Concordia University.

You can contact them at eco.fofagallery@concordia.ca

The project was initiated in 2021 by former Gallery Director Nicole Burisch, with support from team members Geneviève Wallen, María Andreína Escalona De Abreu, and Pierina Corzo-Valero. The first year of the project was led by Jasmine Sihra. Since September 2024, Josh Jensen and Joé Côté-Rancourt have been leading this initiave as Co-Curators in Sustainability and Engagement. 

This project receives the ongoing support from: the Canada Council for the Arts; Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR); the Centre for Sustainable Curating at Western University; and the Sustainability Action Fund.

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