Leveraging Cultural Institutions in Community Recovery and Resilience Congress is sorting through how to address the near-term and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Planning for recovery must take place even as we cope with immediate struggles. As the country's leadership consider those steps to a future where all Americans can thrive, cultural institutions can… Continue reading Nonprofit Cultural Institutions Send Message to Congress
Climate Blog
Cultural Institutions Lead on Climate Action
By Sarah Sutton & Jessie Lund Note: This information shared during a joint webinar by Sustainable Museums and America's Pledge on May 12, 2020. If you would like to watch a recording, you can do so here. At a time when good news is hard to find, cultural institutions across the country have been leading by example, coming to the aid of their neighbors and… Continue reading Cultural Institutions Lead on Climate Action
Thinking back to COP25 from this missed year
The Conference of the Parties 26 (COP26) was postponed for a year from now. Thinking of what we could be doing together in a safer time reminds me of what we accomplished in the last year. Cultural institutions made an important showing at COP25 in Madrid a year ago this month. Not only were there… Continue reading Thinking back to COP25 from this missed year
Life Cycle Assessment in Collections Care and Display
Since 2017, The Foundation for Advancement for Conservation and the American Institute for Conservation have been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in two research grants (one to plan, one to implement) pursuing life cycle assessments of the things we in the cultural heritage sector use to care for, ship and display objects.… Continue reading Life Cycle Assessment in Collections Care and Display
Book Review: Museum Activism
Robert R. Janes & Richard Sandell, Eds. , Museum Meanings Series from Routledge. 2019 Museum Activism is a genuine treasure trove of courageous thinkers and inspiring activist museums fostering change in communities worldwide. The research and examples will reinforce your commitment and build your bank of resources if you’re already an activist; and provide the… Continue reading Book Review: Museum Activism
Book Review: Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment
By Karl Kusserow and Alan C. Braddock. Princeton University Art Museum, 2018 When is a landscape painting not a landscape painting? When viewed from the present vantage point in the Anthropocene. As we all who have read this stunning work report, Karl Kusserow and Alan Braddock have rewritten American art history, doing so deeply, broadly,… Continue reading Book Review: Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment
Guidance by Values over Expectations
When you're deep in the woods, unsure of which way is forward, what guides you: the direction of the sun, the needle on the compass, the sounds of civilization (or silence). These are reference points that help you choose where to direct your steps based on your goal. When you're deep in disruption, as we… Continue reading Guidance by Values over Expectations
Lost in the Maelstrom? Reclaiming the Narrative as an Engaged Citizen
If the headlines appear to us as a maelstrom of disparate troubles, then we are missing the broader narrative: our efforts to control the present are distractions from the need to work with the future. As we complain about others, we are failing to acknowledge a powerful protagonist: we as a engaged citizens. We complain… Continue reading Lost in the Maelstrom? Reclaiming the Narrative as an Engaged Citizen
The Culture over Carbon Project
The theme for 2020 is evident in a series of carbon-related projects for the United States cultural sector. The four projects bubbled up independently, one from me and the rest from others. Regardless of ownership or parentage, they address our growing understanding that the sector cannot ignore its carbon footprint any longer. The components of… Continue reading The Culture over Carbon Project
What if we thought of museums as “contact zones” for climate research, education and activism?
Such a fertile idea. About ten years ago I came across the idea of “innovation [happening] in the spaces between domains.” It explained so much about why curiosity, creativity and courage are necessary for creating change, how settings without answers inspire new thinking, and why edges are so important for contact with new people, places… Continue reading What if we thought of museums as “contact zones” for climate research, education and activism?
