November at the Climate Museum Pop-up
By Samira Siddique, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate and Inequality
Looking back on the second full month of the Climate Museum’s first Pop-up in Manhattan, I can’t help but reflect on all that’s been accomplished so far in this space. November at the pop-up proved the breadth and depth of our programming, through Geoff Dembicki’s Petroleum Papers book launch, a NASA career lab, a youth poetry writing workshop, Olúfémi O. Táíwò’s talk on climate reparations, and more. Evening events were followed by wine and cheese receptions, where visitors could connect with each other and check out the exhibition, including David Opdyke’s Someday, all this. All of our programming and museum admission is free. As a New Yorker, I still cannot believe how good our own deal is (as a ‘climate person,’ I know that I’m biased!).
Ship-to-Shore Tour: Climate Science in Action
One of our first events this month was a livestream with scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution (JR), one of the scientific drilling ships used by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), an international, multi-drilling platform research program. The researchers use wireline coring and logging techniques to recover sequences of core and geophysical data from beneath the seafloor, collecting 20 million years old samples through several meters of mud collected from the earth’s deep crust layer. One of the goals of the mission is to mitigate environmental hazards by understanding when the next volcanic eruption, earthquake, or tsunami might happen. Dr. Gisela Winckler, a physicist and isotope geochemist at Columbia University, and a past Co-Chief Scientist of a JR expedition, moderated the discussion between the audience and the researchers aboard the ship, who were off the coast of Portugal at the time.
The livestream included a tour of the ship and a show-and-tell of how the scientists spend their time – anything from their research process involving the collection, processing, and analyzing of the core samples, to what they eat aboard the ship (surprisingly good pastries courtesy of a talented pastry chef aboard), and what they do when they get bored (our JR liaison reported that she likes to workout and listen to electronic music with fellow ship crew). I appreciated the significant focus on science communication of this expedition – it’s not everyday that you get insight into one of the longest running earth science research programs in the world.
Climate Justice from Principles to Policy: A Conversation with Kizzy Charles-Guzman
The following day’s program brought us a perspective from City Hall. We heard from Kizzy Charles-Guzman, the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice in conversation with Climate Museum director Miranda Massie. It was a privilege to hear from one of New York City’s top climate change leaders on how to implement climate justice-focused policies and the current climate work in the mayor’s office. The event was a week after Mayor Eric Adams announced a new program — Climate Strong Communities — as part of the city’s strategic climate strategy. This new program is focused on rebuilding neighborhoods that do not benefit from existing or planned Hurricane Sandy recovery projects, as part of a new pipeline of climate resiliency projects around the city.
Charles-Guzman spoke about New York City’s ability to have a multiplier effect on other cities’ climate action plans globally, and emphasized the importance of investing in climate resilient systems as opposed to individual consumption initiatives. She ended on a call to action: “We need everybody [to act on climate change]…activism is not something ‘those people over there’ do.”
Youth Programs
One of the most inspiring parts of working at the Climate Museum is seeing the impact our programs have on young people. This fall, we’ve had a group of 21 wonderful high school interns (from all five boroughs and New Jersey) who volunteer at the pop-up as docents. It’s been a pleasure to chat with them during their shifts about their interests in the climate field, as well as the busyness of their school and extracurricular schedules. As a part of the internship, they are each constructing a “Climate Action Plan” to create a climate change intervention in their schools or immediate communities. The ambitious plans I’ve heard about and the positive energy behind them – from campaigning against a new coal plant in New Jersey, to building a hydroponics system at school – give me tremendous optimism.
We’ve also had numerous school tours come through the pop-up, ranging from elementary schools to college and graduate schools. One tour that I was lucky to witness was with Dance Adventure, a multi-grade, afterschool dance academy on the Lower East Side. After a tour of the pop-up space led by Youth and Public Programs Coordinator Prisca Dognon and Senior Exhibitions Associate Anais Reyes, the group choreographed and performed a dance for staff and visitors based on what they just learned about climate change. The resulting dance, called Climate Change Changes, saw the dancers rearranging the benches and cushions to use for their twirls and pirouettes, performing a moody sequence with spurts of joyful jumps. To see the pop-up space used for this impromptu, dynamic performance was magical on its own and just one way in which the creative possibilities of the Climate Museum feels limitless.
The Reviews Are In
The embodied experience of the pop-up space has made me reflect on the visitor experience and the work of climate change communication. A few of my friends have expressed their incredulity about the pop-up’s location in the Soho neighborhood. I understand where they’re coming from. Nothing makes me feel more like a curmudgeonly Brooklynite than when I get off the train at Prince Street and walk through the hordes of fashion tourists who have come to Soho to get their perfect Instagram shot. The path to the pop-up, no matter where you are coming from, means that you pass by some of the highest end designer stores in the world. This isn’t where you expect to find an activist museum centered around collective climate action and climate justice. And yet, I wonder if the Soho location of the pop-up actually allows it to be a profound intervention within someone’s day. Although visitors come to the area specifically to visit the pop-up, many more wander in as they are randomly passing by. I’d like to think that for the people who are compelled to walk in, their experience within the pop-up is a memorable piece of their day when they had an unexpected conversation, thought, or feeling about climate change. While these intangible moments are hard to measure, I am hopeful that seeds of change are planted through these kinds of experiences.
Based on the feedback we have received so far, the pop-up does in fact make an impact on our visitors. I highlight here a few Google reviews:
The Climate Museum is such a special place, and they are doing incredible work—I highly recommend visiting! The staff is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. I hope to see this pop-up get its own permanent space one day—run to see it while it’s in Soho!
Don’t miss this! Spend just 30 minutes here and your life will be changed. You will learn about the climate crisis and emerge, knowing you have made a difference because of their unique call to action exhibit.
We need more spaces like the climate museum, where we can come together as [a] community to have conversations around some of the most important topics of our time. Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters for making this space a possibility. Catch a talk, along with other interesting events to educate yourself of how we can be a part of the solution!
This place is such a slay!!
Incredible exhibition. Absolutely recommend stopping by here on a date—a great way to see how a potential partner feels about one of the most important issues of the current day and how they want to respond to seemingly impossible (yet feasible) challenges!
The most significant aspect of the Climate Museum’s Manhattan pop-up is the ability for people to come together in community to take meaningful climate actions and learn that they are in fact a part of a supermajority of people who care about climate change and justice. Some of the measurable impacts of our pop-up programming have included postcards written to politicians about climate action, as part of our postcard writing station, and a fuller-every-day sticker wall of where thousands of visitors have pledged to take different climate actions – including calling their banks to divest from fossil fuels, voting for climate issues, joining a climate march, and pushing for more climate content in the media.
The Climate Museum was recently named one of the top places to visit in December by Rockefeller Center, home to probably the most visited (Christmas) tree in the world, listed a Top 5 pick by WNET/Channel 13’s NYC Arts, and featured on Yahoo and Scripps TV stations across the country Our December program calendar has been packed too; stay tuned for more details. With shoppers and tourists filling the streets of Soho, we are looking forward to, in the words of one of our team members, “the possibility of a five inch thick climate action sticker wall!”
