Five years ago, a small group of Canadian museum specialists came together to form the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice. At the time, we felt that we were isolated voices in the museum world, despite growing awareness of the need for climate action in many other sectors. Only a handful of museums and museum organizations worldwide were beginning to consider their tremendous potential to influence climate action through their programs, research and advocacy.
Today, with almost 1000 subscribers, the Coalition has many allies across Canada and beyond. Indeed, one of the most challenging aspects of convening this special issue of Museum Management and Curatorship was choosing among a growing number of brave, innovative and fascinating authors and initiatives focussed on climate in the museum sector.
This special issue of Museum Management and Curatorship focuses on museums and climate action and features invited papers from contributors from many parts of the world. The voices that come together bring perspectives from large museums and small – and from agencies that work alongside museums – as they confront the many challenges inherent in new, more activist roles. Despite varied backgrounds and specializations, contributors express the common conviction that museums have important roles to play in this crisis; that to do so, we need to be more strategic about deploying our unique strengths; that collaboration within and across museums and out into communities is essential; and that all this change requires new knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking.
The initial paper in this special issue is prepared by one of the first museum professionals to call for climate action. Robert Janes’ passionate voice has been heard at museum conferences worldwide (though almost always online) and his writing is recognized as seminal in the museum climate action discourse. His commentary ‘Museums in Perilous Times’ continues his call to action, while highlighting organizational factors that create obstacles to meaningful programing.
In the second paper, ‘Climate Museums: Powering Action’, Jenny Newell of the Australian Museum explores the experience of four museums that are stepping up to the climate challenge. And she points out that there are many more ways to respond. As Newell says,
There is an urgent need for more leadership from entities skilled in engaging the public, providing reliable, relevant, empowering information from a source that people trust. And there is an urgent need for safe spaces for questions and dialogue. There are few ways to declare “this matters” quite as loudly as setting up a dedicated museum.
Sarah Sutton offers an even more granular analysis of how museum functions are positioned to engage in climate action in her paper ‘The Evolving Responsibility of Museum Work In the Time of Climate Change’. As Sutton observes, ‘climate action practices can be woven into any aspect of museum work’ from operations to collections, to exhibitions, to public programing and advocacy.
The fourth paper, ‘Climate Of Change’ by Julie Decker, focuses on the profound ways in which museum professionals – and their museums – must shift how they think about roles and practices to tackle truly meaningful climate action. This is a complex process that involves hard and difficult work. ‘To address climate change, we have to talk about environmental justice; to talk about environmental justice, we have to talk about race and racism; to address racism, we have to decolonize’.
The balance of this special issue is devoted to briefs that focus on real-life initiatives that are making a difference. In the first, ‘Evolving Climate Policy and Museums’, Henry McGhie traces museums’ engagement with international initiatives, noting that adherence to the principles expressed therein can ‘accelerate their contributions to climate action’. Another perspective on building museums’ capacity for climate action is expressed in a thoughtful conversation between Diane Drubay of We Are Museums and Asha Singhal of Biomimicry Frontiers. In ‘Dialogue as a Framework for Systemic Change’ they discuss a number of initiatives that demonstrate the value of new paradigms for communciations that ‘work towards deeper transformations and have an impact at systemic level’.
Three briefs explore museums’ approaches to climate action. In ‘Climate Museum UK: a Contemporary Response to the Earth Crisis’, Bridget McKenzie traces the formation of this innovative ‘holocratic’ museum and notes the ways in which its flexible model allows it to respond as ‘the complex of crises increases the challenges we face’. This new approach to museum work is light on the ground and quick to embrace innovative thinking.
In ‘Connectedness, Consumption and Climate Change – the Exhibition Human Nature’ Ann Follin and Helen Arfvidsson of the National Museum of World Culture in Sweden demonstrate the thoughtful ways in which exhibitions can deepen visitors’ understanding of both issues and possible responses. As they note, finding balance along a continuum stretching from despair to hope poses challenges for all involved.
The final brief, ‘Documenting Australia’s 2019/2020 bushfires’, by members of the Bushfire Response Team of the National Museum of Australia, provides a compelling description of responses to climate-caused devastation. It is notable that, given the long-standing impacts of fire across Australia, the NMA has been collecting and reflecting on fire’s ecological consequences for over forty years. But the vast fires that swept across the continent in 2019/2020 were unprecedented – and in many ways, too close to the NMA for comfort. The Bushfire Project ‘began in part as an avenue for staff to express their emotions, thoughts and ideas about what was happening, as well as to discuss how the museum community could support each other and people and places further away’.
This special issue ends with a review of The Future We Choose, prepared by Glenn Sutter. By looking outside the museum sector for writing that explores climate action, Sutter contextualizes the complex, cross-cutting nature of climate crises. At the same time he notes that, while the power of museums to contribute to climate action is not acknowledged, this book ‘makes it clear that there are many access points for museums that want to get involved’.
I want to express my thanks to all contributors to this special issue of Museum Management and Curatorship. Their innovative thinking, their willingness to share experiences, and their leadership in animating change are inspiring. Even as they make powerful cases for museums to mobilize their special strengths for climate action, they are thoughtful about implications for practice. And they all effectively demonstrate the critical role of personal agency in making a difference. I also want to thank Robert Janes for his insight and valued advice and Jennifer Carter and James Bradburne for their support n preparing this special issue.
And to all the people across this sector who have undertaken – or who are planning – initiatives that build understanding and resilience in the face of climate change, thank you. You are making a difference in your communities and well beyond.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Note on contributor
Joy Davis is a cultural heritage specialist who directed the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria for many years. She focused on knowledge adaptation and transfer in the museum sector in her doctoral studies and serves on the Advisory Group of the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice.