Climate Museum’s Climate Week Programs Focus on Dialogue, Education, and Action: Launch of Virtual Volunteer Week, Panels, and Trainings
New York, NY, (September 22, 2020) — The Climate Museum is presenting a suite of free programs as official Climate Week affiliate events designed to spark dialogue and build a culture for action on the climate crisis.
The Climate Museum has launched its Virtual Volunteer Week, during which over 400 volunteers — from teenagers to retirees, representing 38 countries — can choose from a range of online activities aimed at breaking the climate silence, exploring climate arts, and taking civic action on climate. Climate Week volunteer options include: creating posters for a climate strike, suggesting questions for an “Ask a Scientist Day'' education event, exploring climate voting issues, participating in focus groups that will help shape future museum programming, and more.
The Climate Museum is also presenting the following public education programs:
Covid’s Lessons for Climate and Inequality: from Sacrifice Zones to Justice on September 24 at 12:30PM EST. Experts will discuss the ways that the coronavirus crisis carries essential lessons as we confront the climate emergency, America’s profound inequality and its disastrous consequences for the physical and economic well-being of communities of color, and the necessary transformations ahead. Panelists include:
Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
Cheryl Holder, President, Florida State Medical Association; Co-chair, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action
Brentin Mock, Writer and Editor, CityLab
Jacqueline Patterson, Director of the NAACP Climate and Environmental Justice Program
The event will begin with two short readings by the celebrated poet Ross Gay, and will be moderated by Miranda Massie, Director of the Climate Museum.
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action: Mark Chambers and Miranda Massie on October 1 at 1PM EST, a discussion that envisions how museums and other institutions can advance a major cultural shift on climate. Followed by a Q&A.
Mark Chambers, the Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, will open a conversation with attendees on the themes raised by a major international design competition, which has attracted hundreds of entries from dozens of countries and for which Massie serves as a juror. Winning work from Reimagining Museums for Climate Action will be displayed at an exhibition leading up to and during next year’s COP26 at the Glasgow Science Centre.
Climate Art for Congress is a project that encourages young people to create illustrated notes for Members of Congress. Through this program, K-12 students can raise their voices by creating letters and art that urge officials to center equitable climate solutions in economic recovery legislation. More than 500 letters have already been sent. Students, their parents, teachers, and youth engagement professionals can learn more about the program and participate online.
The Climate Museum’s Climate Ambassador Card is a tool that explores effective climate communications and offers strategies for breaking the climate silence. It encourages people to speak up as a climate ambassador to inspire further civic action, empowered by research from Dr. Ed Maibach of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication and Dr. Tony Leiserowitz of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. A live training session held on September 18 introduced participants to Bernadette Woods Placky’s work at Climate Central through the Climate Matters program and outlined ways to initiate more climate dialogues with individuals who are worried but silent about the crisis.
Recordings of the Climate Art for Congress and Climate Ambassador Card training sessions will be available soon on the Climate Museum’s YouTube channel.
For further information or to express interest in ongoing volunteer opportunities, please visit climatemuseum.org or email info@climatemuseum.org.
Climate Week NYC, hosted by the Climate Group, runs September 21-27, 2020.
About the Climate Museum — The Climate Museum’s mission is to inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts and sciences that deepens understanding, builds connections, and advances just solutions. Most people in the US are worried about the climate crisis, but silent and inactive. The museum has been offering public programming since 2017 to meet the rising demand for multiple pathways into civic engagement and climate action. Through exhibitions, panels, workshops, educational initiatives, and youth programs, it builds community around just solutions, mobilizing people to join the fight for a brighter future. Programs are presented at the museum’s exhibition hub on Governors Island, in parks, galleries, and other venues citywide and, in 2020, through virtual events. Additional information is available at climatemuseum.org.
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