Reimagining Museums for Climate Action: Resources
Watch the event on Youtube here.
“Reimagining Museums for Climate Action” asks: What is a museum’s purpose? How can museums and the cultural sector transform to meet the demands of the climate emergency? What broader pathways does this open for considering the relationship between institutions and activism, for our current moment and for the future?
This event concludes our Climate Week programming, which has included our Climate Art For Congress Training, Climate Ambassador Card Training, Virtual Volunteer Program, and “COVID’s Lessons for Climate and Inequality: From Sacrifice Zones to Justice” Panel Discussion.
This conversation will start with a filmed dialogue between Mark Chambers, Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and Miranda Massie, Director of the Climate Museum, that will open out into a Q&A with attendees on the themes raised by a major international design competition, Reimagining Museums for Climate Action, for which Massie serves as a juror. Information regarding the competition can be found below.
This resource page is designed to complement the conversation between Mark Chambers and Miranda Massie. It highlights the work of institutions, coalitions, and initiatives that are reimagining museums for taking action on the climate crisis. This list is in no way exhaustive, but it manifests the exciting changes happening across the museum sector around the world.
The Design Competition
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action Design Competition
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action has attracted hundreds of entries from dozens of countries; winning work will be displayed at an exhibition leading up to and during next year’s COP26--the United Nations’ meeting on the climate crisis--at the Glasgow Science Centre.
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action: Asher Minns and Tempa Gyaltsen in Conversation
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action: Conversation with Jenny Newell
Museums, Activism, and the Climate Crisis
“Climate Museums: powering action” by Jennifer Newell (special issue of Museum Management & Curatorship, forthcoming)
“What Is a Museum? A Dispute Erupts Over a New Definition” by Alex Marshall (The New York Times, August 2020)
Can Exhibitions Save the Planet? Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Threats in exhibition: A Journal for Exhibition Theory and Practice for Museum Professionals (National Association for Museum Exhibition, Spring 2020)
This issue featured a review of our 2019 Governors Island Taking Action exhibition by Leah Golubchick.
“How to help your neighbors when a pandemic hits? Exhibit A: Museums” by Kate Yoder (Grist, April 2020)
“The museum world will be ‘forever shaken to the core’ by COVID-19, said Micah Parzen, the CEO of the San Diego Museum of Man, a cultural anthropology museum. “All of this pain and suffering will force us all to ask very difficult questions about who we are as museums and what role we are really playing in the community, and for whom,” he said.
Coming to the aid of their neighbors — whether it’s during the current coronavirus crisis or a future climate disaster — is, in fact, central to museums’ missions. The American Alliance of Museums Code of Ethics, after all, states that ‘public service is paramount.’”
“Curating the Future: Museums, Communities, and Climate Change” edited by Jennifer Newell, Libby Robin, Kirsten Wehner (Routledge Environmental Humanities, 2016)
“The authors draw a conclusion that we museum practitioners must keep searching for the new approaches our publics require. ‘To strengthen connections between science, culture and policy to understand changing climate and oceans, cultural narratives beyond scientific ones need to be part of the picture, from the beginning and everywhere, to show that these are social and cultural challenges, not only problems ‘in nature,’ not even in the farthest corner of the deep sea.’” from Sarah Sutton’s review of Curating the Future
“Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial to tackle climate change ‘emergency’” Interview of Caroline Baumann by Dan Howarth (Dezeen, February 2019)"
“We're taking over nearly the entire museum, with 62 projects – many of them dedicated to climate change. The whole place will be vibrating with the message of the importance of nature and design weaving together, as well as collaboration. These aren't just designers' projects, as you can imagine. Biologists, scientists, all sorts of people coming together in teams to reimagine our approach to the natural world.”
Institutions, Exhibitions, and Initiatives Emphasizing Climate Action
Climate change exhibitions at the Australian Museum
“Through their collections and deep time knowledge, museums around the world are uniquely placed to empower public engagement. The AM [Australian Museum] is taking an active leadership position with other global leaders, placing community and the public at the centre of these discussions. The AM is committed to developing impactful initiatives, supporting the upscaling of education and engaging the public in the way that intergovernmental, professional and aid organisations are seeking.”
Nature Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial with Cube Design Museum
Deep Time at the Hall of Fossils at the National Museum of Natural History
Milano XXII Triennial “Broken Nature”
“In exploring architecture and design objects and concepts at all scales and in all materials, Broken Nature celebrates design’s ability to offer powerful insight into the key issues of our age, moving beyond pious deference and inconclusive anxiety.”
Causes of Climate and Climate Change Permanent Installation in the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, American Museum of Natural History
International Council of Museums Working Group on Sustainability
“[Museums] are uniquely placed to facilitate collective action by building networks, raising public awareness, and supporting research and knowledge creation. They can enhance sustainability and climate change education by working with and empowering communities to bring about change to ensure an habitable planet, social justice and equitable economic exchanges for the long term.”
Natural History Museum, London, UK
The Museum’s Anthropocene Engagement Manager Camilla Tham has convened an international coalition For People and Planet. More information forthcoming.
The Futurium in Berlin, Germany
The Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Klima Arena in Sinsheim, Germany
Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost in Bremerhaven, Germany
Klimahuset (The Climate House) in Oslo, Norway
Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sarah Sutton's We Are Still In
Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice