museums AS climate ACTION
introduction
Glasgow Science Centre
(exhibition venue)
How can museums evolve to address the challenges of a warming world? In the lead-up to COP26, we launched an international design and ideas competition to reimagine museums as a radical form of climate action. The competition aimed to explore how rethinking the design, purpose and experience of museums can help society make the deep, transformative changes needed to achieve a net-zero or zero-carbon world.
The competition attracted 264 entries from 48 countries around the world. Eight competition winners are now developing their ideas for an exhibition to be hosted at Glasgow Science Centre ahead of and during the UN Climate Change Conference.
This site will be updated as the project develops.
what can museums be?
design challenge
Museums come in many different shapes and sizes. Rather than focus on a specific location or type of museum, the competition invited proposals that aimed to unsettle and subvert the very foundations of museological thinking to support and encourage meaningful climate action. We specifically asked for design and concept proposals that were radically different from the ‘traditional’ museum, or that explored new ways for traditional museums to operate. The responses, which could address any aspect of museum design and activity, ranged from the fantastical to the highly practical. A curated selection of shortlisted proposals will be added to this site soon.
In line with the core aims of Glasgow Science Centre, we particularly welcomed proposals that addressed the following two priority themes:
climate justice
Those who have contributed least to the problem of climate change will suffer most from its impacts, both within and between countries. This is simply unfair. Climate change multiplies a range of social issues, driving up inequality and misery. Climate justice calls for a recognition of the principle of sustainability, that future generations’ abilities to meet their needs and live their lives should not be compromised by the activities of the present generation. Climate justice is about rights – yours, ours, everyone’s, and the rights of nature and other species. How can museums build, enhance and strengthen climate justice, in their own places, in broader society, and across the world?
green futures
How can the relationship between society, the environment and the economy be rebalanced so that human wealth is not created at the cost of the destruction of nature and the environment on which we all depend? How can museums help society decouple economic growth from environmental destruction? How can they help reverse the trends of extinctions, habitat destruction and resource depletion, and become net producers of positive environmental value as well as social value? How can museums help redefine ‘wealth’ or prosperity to include Planetary Health and One Health perspectives, which acknowledge that healthy humans require a healthy planet? How can they empower people to imagine and work towards a healthier and more just future by demonstrating the positive impact that living more sustainably can bring to individual lives?
CLIMATE CONTEXT
the UNFCCC & the Paris agreement
▼In 1992, the world’s governments committed to address the rapidly growing threat of global climate change by adopting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Convention came into force in 1994.[1] The Paris Agreement of 2015 saw its signatories agree “to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”[2]
[1] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-convention/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change [2] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreementsustainable development goals
▲The year 2015 also saw the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, the most ambitious programme ever to secure a sustainable future. The Sustainable Development Goals are strongly linked to activity for the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement.[1]
[1] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300COP26
▲Since the UNFCCC came into force in 1994, governments and their representatives have met twice a year to monitor progress, evaluate what further action is needed, and agree programmes of activity to combat climate change. The main meeting is usually held in November or December. This meeting is often referred to as the ‘COP’, which means the ‘Conference of the Parties’ (Parties are the countries that are signed up to the Framework Convention). As the first COP was held in 1994, the next COP will be COP26, and it will be held in Glasgow in 2021.
action for climate empowerment
▲The Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement both recognise the crucial importance of involving the public in climate action. They both specify the importance of public education, training of key groups of staff, public awareness campaigns, public participation in climate change decision making, public access to information relating to science and policy regarding climate change, and international co-operation. These six areas are known informally as Action for Climate Empowerment, or ACE.[1]
[1] https://unfccc.int/topics/education-youth/the-big-picture/what-is-action-for-climate-empowerment
museums and climate change
Museums have been defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) as follows: “A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.” For the purposes of this project, we considered a museum to include all forms of natural, cultural and biosocial collections and associated institutions, including, but not limited to, social, historical and cultural museums, biobanks, zoos, art galleries, botanical gardens, herbaria, outdoor museums, and so on.
We believe that every museum can play a vital part in the shift to a low-carbon future. Recent years have seen an increasing number of initiatives focused on climate change across science, art, natural history and ethnographic museums, with exhibitions, events, festivals, and national and international partnerships aimed at raising awareness and shifting narratives. New forms of activist-led museum have emerged to confront the causes and consequences of climate change. Some museums have made public declarations of their intentions to reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to climate action, while others have been forced to confront the problems associated with sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.
The profound challenge of the climate crisis poses urgent questions of museums: What can they be? How can they liberate and leverage their fullest potential to create the future we want? How do they impede climate action? How can they collaborate more effectively with one another, with other sectors, and with wider society to realise positive climate action? How might new forms of museum architecture, interpretation and experience bridge the divide between nature and culture? How will existing and future natural, cultural and biocultural collections resource future worlds? What would a non-anthropocentric museum look like?
The brief for the competition asked designers, architects, academics, artists, poets, philosophers, indigenous groups, museum professionals and the public at large to respond to these questions, and in the process help museums globally to bring about a more just and sustainable future.
264 ENTRIES — 48 COUNTRIES — 8 FINALISTS
finalists
A brief introduction to the eight winners of the competition. Further information on each of their projects will be added here soon…
Weathering With Us
(Isabella Ong & Tan Wen Jun; Singapore)
Weathering With Us imagines a new kind of contemplative museum space where climate action is materialised in the very structure and experience of the building.
Existances
(Jairza Fernandes Rocha da Silva, Luciana Menezes de Carvalho, Nayhara J. A. Pereira Thiers Vieira, João Francisco Vitório Rodrigues, Natalino Neves da Silva & Walter Francisco Figueiredo Lowande; Brazil)
Existances shows the power of collective knowledge in the fight against climate change, imagining a network of micro-museums embedded in and responding to the diverse cosmologies of Afro-Brasilian, Amerindian and rural communities.
Elephant in the Room
(Design Earth: Rania Ghosn, El Hadi Jazairy, Monica Hutton & Anhong Li; USA)
Elephant in the Room by Design Earth offers a fantastical story in which a stuffed elephant comes to life and forces museums and wider society to confront their role in climate change.
Museum of Open Windows
(Livia Wang; Nico Alexandroff; RESOLVE Collective: Akil Scafe-Smith, Seth Scafe-Smith, Melissa Haniff; and Studio MASH: Max Martin, Angus Smith, Conor Sheehan)
Museum of Open Windows repurposes the existing global infrastructure of museums to support inter-community collaboration and citizen research on climate change and climate action.
Dundee Museum of Transport
(Dundee Museum of Transport: Alexander Goodger, Peter Webber & Katherine Southern; UK)
The redevelopment of Dundee Museum of Transport asks how a traditional museum might evolve to address the contemporary challenge of sustainable travel in an inclusive way.
Story:Web
(The Great North Museum:Hancock (GNM:H), Open Lab: Simon Bowen, Sarah Mander & David de la Haye; UK)
The Story:Web project mobilises existing museum collections to empower people to curate their own climate stories, experiences and networks on a global scale.
A Series of Collective, Non-Statistical Evidence
(pppooolll: Kamil Muhammad, Haidar El Haq, Amelia M Djaja, Gregorius Jasson & Ken Fernanda; Indonesia)
A Series of Collective, Non-Statistical Evidence applies familiar museum practices of collecting, display and participation to imagine spaces of dialogue, where different communities come together to share and articulate their personal experiences of climate change.
Natural Future Museums
(Takumã Kuikuro & Thiago Jesus; Brazil/UK)
Natural Future Museums asks what it would mean to confer museum status on existing Indigenous lands in forests and other places that play a key role in climate action.
meet the jury
Asher Minns
Executive Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the University of East Anglia
Asher Minns is a science communicator who specialises in engagement with climate change and other global change research to audiences outside of academia. He has over two decades in practice, and is also the Executive Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Janene Natasha Yazzie
International Indian Treaty Council
Janene Yazzie is the Sustainable Development Program Coordinator for IITC and represents the organisation as the Co-Convenor of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development. She coordinates the development of rights-based approaches for Climate Action.
Dr Jenny Newell
Manager, Climate Change Projects, Australian Museum, Sydney
Jenny works on increasing public engagement in climate solutions, locally and internationally, through the medium of museums. She runs the Museums & Climate Change Network.
Kavita SiNgh
Professor of Art History, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Kavita Singh’s teaching and research focus on the history of Indian painting and the history and politics of museums.
Kristine Zaidi
Strategic Lead for Literature, Languages and Area Studies, AHRC
Kristine Zaidi is Associate Director of Programmes at the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) COP26 working group. She has particular responsibilities for: Strategy, Impact and Evaluation; Research in the areas of Heritage, History, Literature and Languages; and Research in the areas of Health and Environmental Humanities.
Lucia PietroiustI
Curator of General Ecology, Serpentine Galleries
Lucia Pietroiusti is Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Her work focuses on art, complexity, plants, animism and the environment.
Miranda K.S. Massie
Director, Climate Museum
Our work at the Climate Museum is dedicated to inspiring climate progress by inviting visitors to build community, make meaning, and take action together.
Peg Rawes
Professor of Architecture and Philosophy, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Peg Rawes’s teaching and research focuses on architectural and artistic practices which engage with ecological, social, political and wellbeing issues. Her publications include: Architectural Relational Ecologies (2013), Equal By Design (2016) and Poetic Biopolitics (2016).
EXHIBITION VENUE & INFORMATION
The eight competition winners are now developing their proposals for display at Glasgow Science Centre in 2021, in an exhibition to be held ahead of and during COP26. The exhibition will provide resources, ideas and inspiration for museum professionals, policy makers and the wider public to think differently about the purpose of museums in times of change and uncertainty.
The finalists are working with the competition team and exhibition designers to showcase their ideas and contribute to public events through talks and workshops, whether virtually or in person.
THE TEAM BEHIND THE COMPETITION
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area team – led by Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology – works with the AHRC/ UKRI, the heritage research community, and national and international heritage partner organisations, to draw together and stimulate the development of a wide range of research across the arts and humanities that makes an important contribution to understanding heritage. We take an expansive view of this field, and aim to encourage work that highlights intersections between natural and cultural heritage, and key global challenges.
rodney-harrison.com
heritage-research.org
The AHRC Heritage Priority Area’s work on the design competition is undertaken in partnership with Colin Sterling as part of his own AHRC-funded leadership fellowship project New Trajectories in Curatorial Experience Design, and Henry McGhie, founder of Curating Tomorrow, a consultancy which aims to help maximise the contribution that museums, the heritage sector and other organisations and sectors make to support a thriving society, economy and environment.
experience-design.co.uk
curatingtomorrow.co.uk
Glasgow Science Centre is one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions. It is an educational charity that inspires and motivates people to engage with science. Its vision is a Scotland where all people feel empowered through learning and engagement with science to make positive differences in their lives, their communities and to society as a whole. Glasgow Science Centre’s values are to strive for excellence, to be inclusive, innovative and collaborative. Glasgow Science Centre is for all ages, genders, abilities and backgrounds. Its role is not to teach science, but to change the way that people feel and engage with science to build their social, cultural and science capital.
contact us
© 2020 Reimagining Museums for Climate Action
museums AS climate ACTION
introduction
How can museums evolve to address the challenges of a warming world? In the lead-up to COP26, we launched an international design and ideas competition to reimagine museums as a radical form of climate action. The competition aimed to explore how rethinking the design, purpose and experience of museums can help society make the deep, transformative changes needed to achieve a net-zero or zero-carbon world.
The competition attracted 264 entries from 48 countries around the world. Eight competition winners are now developing their ideas for an exhibition to be hosted at Glasgow Science Centre ahead of and during the UN Climate Change Conference.
This site will be updated as the project develops.
Glasgow Science Centre
(exhibition venue)
what can museums be?
design challenge
Museums come in many different shapes and sizes. Rather than focus on a specific location or type of museum, the competition invited proposals that aimed to unsettle and subvert the very foundations of museological thinking to support and encourage meaningful climate action. We specifically asked for design and concept proposals that were radically different from the ‘traditional’ museum, or that explored new ways for traditional museums to operate. The responses, which could address any aspect of museum design and activity, ranged from the fantastical to the highly practical. A curated selection of shortlisted proposals will be added to this site soon.
In line with the core aims of Glasgow Science Centre, we particularly welcomed proposals that addressed the following two priority themes:
climate justice
Those who have contributed least to the problem of climate change will suffer most from its impacts, both within and between countries. This is simply unfair. Climate change multiplies a range of social issues, driving up inequality and misery. Climate justice calls for a recognition of the principle of sustainability, that future generations’ abilities to meet their needs and live their lives should not be compromised by the activities of the present generation. Climate justice is about rights – yours, ours, everyone’s, and the rights of nature and other species. How can museums build, enhance and strengthen climate justice, in their own places, in broader society, and across the world?
green futures
How can the relationship between society, the environment and the economy be rebalanced so that human wealth is not created at the cost of the destruction of nature and the environment on which we all depend? How can museums help society decouple economic growth from environmental destruction? How can they help reverse the trends of extinctions, habitat destruction and resource depletion, and become net producers of positive environmental value as well as social value? How can museums help redefine ‘wealth’ or prosperity to include Planetary Health and One Health perspectives, which acknowledge that healthy humans require a healthy planet? How can they empower people to imagine and work towards a healthier and more just future by demonstrating the positive impact that living more sustainably can bring to individual lives?
CLIMATE CONTEXT
the UNFCCC & the Paris agreement
▼In 1992, the world’s governments committed to address the rapidly growing threat of global climate change by adopting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Convention came into force in 1994.[1] The Paris Agreement of 2015 saw its signatories agree “to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”[2]
[1] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-convention/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change [2] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreementsustainable development goals
▲The year 2015 also saw the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, the most ambitious programme ever to secure a sustainable future. The Sustainable Development Goals are strongly linked to activity for the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement.[1]
[1] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300COP26
▲Since the UNFCCC came into force in 1994, governments and their representatives have met twice a year to monitor progress, evaluate what further action is needed, and agree programmes of activity to combat climate change. The main meeting is usually held in November or December. This meeting is often referred to as the ‘COP’, which means the ‘Conference of the Parties’ (Parties are the countries that are signed up to the Framework Convention). As the first COP was held in 1994, the next COP will be COP26, and it will be held in Glasgow in 2021.
action for climate empowerment
▲The Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement both recognise the crucial importance of involving the public in climate action. They both specify the importance of public education, training of key groups of staff, public awareness campaigns, public participation in climate change decision making, public access to information relating to science and policy regarding climate change, and international co-operation. These six areas are known informally as Action for Climate Empowerment, or ACE.[1]
[1] https://unfccc.int/topics/education-youth/the-big-picture/what-is-action-for-climate-empowerment
museums and climate change
Museums have been defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) as follows: “A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.” For the purposes of this project, we considered a museum to include all forms of natural, cultural and biosocial collections and associated institutions, including, but not limited to, social, historical and cultural museums, biobanks, zoos, art galleries, botanical gardens, herbaria, outdoor museums, and so on.
We believe that every museum can play a vital part in the shift to a low-carbon future. Recent years have seen an increasing number of initiatives focused on climate change across science, art, natural history and ethnographic museums, with exhibitions, events, festivals, and national and international partnerships aimed at raising awareness and shifting narratives. New forms of activist-led museum have emerged to confront the causes and consequences of climate change. Some museums have made public declarations of their intentions to reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to climate action, while others have been forced to confront the problems associated with sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.
The profound challenge of the climate crisis poses urgent questions of museums: What can they be? How can they liberate and leverage their fullest potential to create the future we want? How do they impede climate action? How can they collaborate more effectively with one another, with other sectors, and with wider society to realise positive climate action? How might new forms of museum architecture, interpretation and experience bridge the divide between nature and culture? How will existing and future natural, cultural and biocultural collections resource future worlds? What would a non-anthropocentric museum look like?
The brief for the competition asked designers, architects, academics, artists, poets, philosophers, indigenous groups, museum professionals and the public at large to respond to these questions, and in the process help museums globally to bring about a more just and sustainable future.
264 ENTRIES — 48 COUNTRIES — 8 FINALISTS
finalists
A brief introduction to the eight winners of the competition. Further information on each of their projects will be added here soon…
Weathering With Us
(Isabella Ong & Tan Wen Jun; Singapore)
Weathering With Us imagines a new kind of contemplative museum space where climate action is materialised in the very structure and experience of the building.
More to follow
Existances
(Jairza Fernandes Rocha da Silva, Luciana Menezes de Carvalho, Nayhara J. A. Pereira Thiers Vieira, João Francisco Vitório Rodrigues, Natalino Neves da Silva & Walter Francisco Figueiredo Lowande; Brazil)
Existances shows the power of collective knowledge in the fight against climate change, imagining a network of micro-museums embedded in and responding to the diverse cosmologies of Afro-Brasilian, Amerindian and rural communities.
More to follow
Elephant in the Room
(Design Earth: Rania Ghosn, El Hadi Jazairy, Monica Hutton & Anhong Li; USA)
Elephant in the Room by Design Earth offers a fantastical story in which a stuffed elephant comes to life and forces museums and wider society to confront their role in climate change.
More to follow
Dundee Museum of Transport
(Dundee Museum of Transport: Alexander Goodger, Peter Webber & Katherine Southern; UK)
The redevelopment of Dundee Museum of Transport asks how a traditional museum might evolve to address the contemporary challenge of sustainable travel in an inclusive way.
More to follow
Story:Web
(The Great North Museum:Hancock (GNM:H), Open Lab: Simon Bowen, Sarah Mander & David de la Haye; UK)
The Story:Web project mobilises existing museum collections to empower people to curate their own climate stories, experiences and networks on a global scale.
More to follow
A Series of Collective, Non-Statistical Evidence
(pppooolll: Kamil Muhammad, Haidar El Haq, Amelia M Djaja, Gregorius Jasson & Ken Fernanda; Indonesia)
A Series of Collective, Non-Statistical Evidence applies familiar museum practices of collecting, display and participation to imagine spaces of dialogue, where different communities come together to share and articulate their personal experiences of climate change.
More to follow
Natural Future Museums
(Takumã Kuikuro & Thiago Jesus; Brazil/UK)
Natural Future Museums asks what it would mean to confer museum status on existing Indigenous lands in forests and other places that play a key role in climate action.
More to follow
meet the jury
Asher Minns
Executive Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the University of East Anglia
Asher Minns is a science communicator who specialises in engagement with climate change and other global change research to audiences outside of academia. He has over two decades in practice, and is also the Executive Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Janene Natasha Yazzie
International Indian Treaty Council
Janene Yazzie is the Sustainable Development Program Coordinator for IITC and represents the organisation as the Co-Convenor of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development. She coordinates the development of rights-based approaches for Climate Action.
Dr Jenny Newell
Manager, Climate Change Projects, Australian Museum, Sydney
Jenny works on increasing public engagement in climate solutions, locally and internationally, through the medium of museums. She runs the Museums & Climate Change Network.
Kavita SiNgh
Professor of Art History, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Kavita Singh’s teaching and research focus on the history of Indian painting and the history and politics of museums.
Kristine Zaidi
Strategic Lead for Literature, Languages and Area Studies, AHRC
Kristine Zaidi is Associate Director of Programmes at the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) COP26 working group. She has particular responsibilities for: Strategy, Impact and Evaluation; Research in the areas of Heritage, History, Literature and Languages; and Research in the areas of Health and Environmental Humanities.
Lucia PietroiustI
Curator of General Ecology, Serpentine Galleries
Lucia Pietroiusti is Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Her work focuses on art, complexity, plants, animism and the environment.
Miranda K.S. Massie
Director, Climate Museum
Our work at the Climate Museum is dedicated to inspiring climate progress by inviting visitors to build community, make meaning, and take action together.
Peg Rawes
Professor of Architecture and Philosophy, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Peg Rawes’s teaching and research focuses on architectural and artistic practices which engage with ecological, social, political and wellbeing issues. Her publications include: Architectural Relational Ecologies (2013), Equal By Design (2016) and Poetic Biopolitics (2016).
EXHIBITION VENUE & INFORMATION
The eight competition winners are now developing their proposals for display at Glasgow Science Centre in 2021, in an exhibition to be held ahead of and during COP26. The exhibition will provide resources, ideas and inspiration for museum professionals, policy makers and the wider public to think differently about the purpose of museums in times of change and uncertainty.
The finalists are working with the competition team and exhibition designers to showcase their ideas and contribute to public events through talks and workshops, whether virtually or in person.
THE TEAM BEHIND THE COMPETITION
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area team – led by Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology – works with the AHRC/ UKRI, the heritage research community, and national and international heritage partner organisations, to draw together and stimulate the development of a wide range of research across the arts and humanities that makes an important contribution to understanding heritage. We take an expansive view of this field, and aim to encourage work that highlights intersections between natural and cultural heritage, and key global challenges.
rodney-harrison.com
heritage-research.org
The AHRC Heritage Priority Area’s work on the design competition is undertaken in partnership with Colin Sterling as part of his own AHRC-funded leadership fellowship project New Trajectories in Curatorial Experience Design, and Henry McGhie, founder of Curating Tomorrow, a consultancy which aims to help maximise the contribution that museums, the heritage sector and other organisations and sectors make to support a thriving society, economy and environment.
experience-design.co.uk
curatingtomorrow.co.uk
Glasgow Science Centre is one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions. It is an educational charity that inspires and motivates people to engage with science. Its vision is a Scotland where all people feel empowered through learning and engagement with science to make positive differences in their lives, their communities and to society as a whole. Glasgow Science Centre’s values are to strive for excellence, to be inclusive, innovative and collaborative. Glasgow Science Centre is for all ages, genders, abilities and backgrounds. Its role is not to teach science, but to change the way that people feel and engage with science to build their social, cultural and science capital.
contact us
© 2020 Reimagining Museums for Climate Action