Reimagining Museums for Climate Action

Museum of Open Windows Concept.  Museum of Open Windows is accompanied by an audio Field Guide that you can use to explore your own surroundings, wherever you are.

What if museum buildings themselves contributed to real climate action, through their material fabric?

Weathering With Us is a speculative project by Isabella Ong and Tan Wen Jun. It imagines a new kind of museum building that marks its environment in a therapeutic way, and simultaneously absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

Weathering With Us exhibit consists of a mechanical arm that draws climate data in olivine sand, a material that absorbs carbon dioxide as it weathers. The rotating arm produces a mandala of climate data in the sand, as a symbol of hope, recovery and restoration.

How can museums support the move to climate-friendly technology and lifestyles?

What if museums supported people in the transformation to a climate-friendly future? Dundee Museum of Transport is supporting Dundee’s shift to electric cars through education and awareness activities. It is also developing a carbon-neutral museum to ‘walk the talk’.

The ‘Wee Scamp’, from Dundee Museum of Transport, was one of the first electric cars. 

Visitors to the exhibition at Glasgow Science Centre can also explore the emissions from different types of car.

What if museums and society were forced to confront their role in climate change?

Museum collections can be a powerful source of information and inspiration, but they are limited if they can only be experienced directly, in museums themselves. What happens if we think of museum collections as sources of big data instead?

The Story:Web idea was developed by a museum, a sound artist and a team of researchers. By using Story:Web, people, museums and even AI systems can explore, create and share stories as co-authors and co-curators.

What if people gathered their own collections and information to support dialogue and climate action?

Climate policies and data can seem a long way from the lives of most people. Jakarta-based design studio pppooolll imagine a new kind of museum, where communities generate and gather climate information to inspire collective solidarity and support climate justice.

The exhibit at Glasgow Science Centre includes objects similar to those collected by pppooolll in Jakarta that can also be found in Glasgow, highlighting global connections in climate impacts and action. 

Reimagining Museums for Climate Action aims to show how museums can support the Paris Agreement and provide better services for society.
The website is a rich source of inspiration for museums and those interested in the cultural dimensions of climate action.