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
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?
United States Cultural Institutions Support The Paris Agreement
Courtesy, We Are Still In The New York Times reports that President Trump has just announced the formal process for withdrawing the United States from The Paris Agreement. Those of us who care about the current and future health of the only planet on which we can live are still going to do the critical… Continue reading United States Cultural Institutions Support The Paris Agreement
A Report from Climate Week + Thoughts for Cultural Institutions’ Participation in 2020
What the Heck is Climate Week and Why Should You Care? New York City’s Climate Week is an overlay to a series of high-level (international leader-level) Summits held at the United Nations Headquarters. Thousands of individuals, businesses, associations and countries take advantage of the critical mass of power – brain power and political power –… Continue reading A Report from Climate Week + Thoughts for Cultural Institutions’ Participation in 2020
