Museums & UN Sustainable Development Goals: IV #1, #13, #15, #17 on Oahu

This post is a call to action for Honolulu's museums to work together on community resilience to climate impacts, and to provide an example for peers in other cities, especially in the 100 Resilient Cities. 

When the world around us changes profoundly, culture and community are our best resources as we work to adapt and thrive. The recent flooding in the islands has brought as many stories of generous assistance and sacrifice as they have of tragedy. This is common in a disaster: the most prevalent summary of the disaster experience is how community came together in unanticipated ways.

We need not wait for a crisis to connect more deeply with community; there are ways to prepare our communities so that they experience less damage, and the people feel their common strength and more agency in creating the safe future they deserve. Resilience planning, particularly with the support of cultural institutions, is a valuable way to do that. If we leave it to government alone, then we will not be able to shape the result as much as we desire. Certainly, the work is too wide-ranging, too detailed, too important to leave to one authority. We must share the authority and responsibility.

I urge Hawaii’s charitable institutions, particularly those with an emphasis on arts and humanities, and science and technology, to take the lead in hosting resilience discussions around the state. Our institutions are more trusted than government, other nonprofits, and even credible news outlets (Dillenschneider, 2017). Our sites are familiar and welcoming locations for important, potentially challenging discussions. Our staff and collections have many of the intellectual resources and professional connections to inform these discussions and to educate participants on the science and history that can guide us in finding new solutions. Museums and similar institutions can take the lead in bringing together emergency and public office planners, and residents so we can co-create a stronger, thriving future.

(c) Sarah Sutton 2018

We find culture in our family and neighborly traditions and habits, in our community history and present-day efforts, and in the histories and stories of the land, sea, and people. We find community wherever we look on our islands. I commend the Bishop Museum for its resilience planning session during March, and the Resilient Oahu staff for its willingness to work with cultural institutions to contribute to the island’s resilience plan. Let’s expand that work.

Strawbery Banke Museum is facilitating community discussion on response to nuisance tides and sea level rise in Portsmouth, NH, where its neighbors also own and worry about historic structures. The Annapolis Historical Commission, MD, is leading the country in addressing nuisance tides and sea level rise in historic economic districts.

What conversations does your community need around resilience? How can your institution make these happen? Use the materials provided, for free, on the websites of the National Institution Standards and Technology (complex), and the National Park Service (much more accessible) to plan your resilience study and response. Ask your local cultural institution to host and help design those talks with government and emergency planners, college and university staff, business owners, architects and landscape designers, scientists and heritage practitioners. Work with the City & County of Honolulu Office on Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability.

This is our home; if we wish it to shelter and nurture us, we must help it to do so.   

Sarah Sutton is principal of Sustainable Museums, a Waialua-based consultancy helping museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens, and historic sites become more environmentally sustainable and work with their communities to become more resilient to the changing climate. She spoke at the Hawaii Museums Association’s conference May 4^th and will be speaking on July 11^th  in ‘Iolani Palace’s Nā Mo'olelo Lecture Series , both in Honolulu. 

Museums & UN Sustainable Development Goals: II #MuseumsforParis and We Are Still In, #17 a partnership for the UNSDGs

(C) Sarah Sutton 2017

On Earth Day, April 22nd, the World Wildlife Fund and its many partners making up We Are Still In will announce a new sector of contributing non-state actors in support of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Cultural Institutions.

Last June, on the day President Trump announced the planned withdrawal of the United States from that critical agreement, I created #MuseumsforParis to align the individual efforts of museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens, and historic sites in support of public education and engagement around sustainability and climate change action, and to promote and expand operational efforts to reduce negative impacts and even become climate positive.

Recognizing that added value and power would come through its collective abilities and performance in partnership with other sectors, I looked for a way to leverage our field's public engagement impacts and our operational commitments for the good of the planet and all its living beings. We Are Still In is that opportunity.

Early signatories in the Cultural Institution sector include open air history museums, children's museums, science centers, aquariums, and gardens. They agree that regardless of political alignment or federal government practice, as part of this sector they have a responsibility to their mission and communities to contribute to the upholding of the US agreement.

In the coming months each will learn how to name a set of institutional goals and approaches to supporting that work.

• This may be energy use reduction in operations and transportation to cut Greenhouse Gas contributions. 
• It may be participating in a community risk assessment to understand and manage climate vulnerabilities in partnership with residents, emergency planners, and government. 
• Or they may wish to learn how to shift to socially-responsible investing in the next few years. 

Every institution and every commitment is welcome and so very important to creating the change needed for a healthy planet and healthy communities.

In the next three months Sustainable Museums will provide a series of webinars introducing new and potential signatories to this work, and helping them develop the goals and pathways needed to move forward. I hope you will join us in this work and encourage your peers to do so as well.

It's your mission; what will you do with it?

You can reach me at sarah@sustainablemuseums.net and 978-505-4515 to discuss this further. All questions welcome.You can sign up now via the www.wearestillin.org website.

I look forward to meeting you there.

Tweetchat Invitation: Building on Museum 2040

Courtesy, Sarah Sutton 2017

Would you like to follow a discussion on Museums 2040, and a scenario "A New Equilibrium"? How about specifically the exploration of museums' response to climate change effects? Then please join a Tweetchat On March 29th, 3pm EST.

The event is hosted by the Center for the Future of Museums' Elizabeth Merritt, with a few of the authors from the Museum 2040 issue chiming in on their topics.

I'll be there, and this is the stream you can explore, and work off of, for Climate:

Q4: @sarahsutton’s article in Museum 2040 sees a future in which museums are major influencers when it comes to climate resilient. What real-life museums are already helping their communities plan how they will adapt to climate change?

Example A4: The @museumofnaz devoted several of their Future of the Colorado Plateau Forums to community discussions of climate change, including water needs and impact on tourism and recreation.

The focus is museums in 2040, so the chat is not just about Climate, but also museums' roles in addressing truth and reconciliation, new governance approaches, and potential hybrid designs of institutional formats. 

Bring your ideas, questions, and open mind as we chat about the future. 

The link above provides a format for the discussion, some background, and, if you haven't participated in a Tweetchat before, or used Twitter, instructions for joining the conversation.

See you in 2040!

The Kresge Foundation and Adaptation - What it Says for Museums

Earlier this year The Kresge Foundation published Rising to the Challenge, Together: A Review and Critical Assessment of the US Climate Adaptation Field.

It is incredibly valuable. It is a snapshot of the field of climate adaptation as a developing practice, and provides a description of what it must become to effect change.

It is so well-written and researched that anything other than sharing it directly would diminish it considerably. The material in blue, below, is taken directly from the report - but I have selected the pieces that align most specifically with the mission of museums in their communities. These are excerpts I believe reflect the current state of adaptation in the museum field, and a vision of what we can aspire to – in practice and in professional expectations.

Current Conditions

Profession

• Despite some progress, practice is not yet advanced to implementation except in limited circumstances.

• Incremental progress in adaptation does not match the accelerating pace of climate change.

• Awareness, understanding, and acceptance of the need for transformative change is present among some, but extremely limited across the field as a whole.

Practice

• Tools supporting adaptation are increasingly available, but remain difficult to select and use.

• The field is experimenting widely, but not yet discerning best practices.

• Practice is advancing, but barriers stymie progress from planning to action.

Vision

Profession

• It understands its mission as preventing, minimizing, and alleviating climate change threats to human well-being and to the natural and built systems on which humans depend.

• It works to create new opportunities by addressing the causes and consequences of climate change in ways that solve related social, environmental, and economic problems.

Practice

• Rigorous professional standards and certification are established, based on guiding principles that can be applied to diverse contexts.

• The field facilitates social networking, trust building, and collaboration at scale.

• Actors help communities envision—and achieve—desirable futures

The museum field continuously assesses and decides how to respond to changes in the professions that interact with our work, and changes in the public’s interests. Climate change – how to mitigate it and how to adapt to it – is something we can no longer avoid and still feel we are serving our communities well. 

This report can help our profession embrace the profession of climate adaptation as our ally. What these professionals know and are learning can help us protect our collections and our buildings, while helping to keep our staff and our public safe at the same time. And it will save us money in the long term, and save more than a few of our institutions as well.

Note: The Kresge Foundation funded the report. The work was prepared by Suzanne Moser Research and Consulting (susannemoser.com),  Climate Resilience Consulting (climateresilience.com), and FourTwentySeven Climate Solutions (427mt.com). 

Ransom Note for a Future: XXVII

Museums, Zoos, Sites: Join Your City in Signing the Paris Agreement

 The New York Times is reporting on mayors, governors, universities, and businesses bidding to be allowed to sign the Paris Agreement. Let's add museums, zoos, gardens, historic sites, and aquariums to the list.

Please contact your mayor and governor to let them know two things:

1) How you are contributing to the goals of the Paris Agreement

• Have you reduced energy consumption to run your museum through efficiencies and more thoughtful processes? 
• Do you generate clean renewable energy?
• Have you made your building more efficient, or have you downsized your space?
• Do you use less fuel to move employees or collections?
• Have you reduced material consumption and waste production?

2) How you can help them engage the community in making change happen

• Are you a forum for sharing information and facilitating discussions on how to contribute to reaching the Climate Goals?
• Do you raise awareness on environmental impacts while providing actionable ideas for personal or collective participation in change? 
• Do you work with peers or other organizations to improve green infrastructure and educate the public on the benefits?
• Do you publish your practice to encourage other accountable organizations to do the same?

There are many more examples, but this is a good start.

I understand that you may not have realized that you are contributing, or that you may feel it is too small to count. You ARE contributing if you're reducing your carbon footprint, increasing open space, keeping water clean and the ocean healthier, and helping others to do the same.

And ALL the change matters because it leads others to change, too.

Thank you.

In Pursuit of Museums' Data Visualization Work on Climate Change

During this past week I attended the EYEO Festival (pronounce Eye - oh) here in Minneapolis, ably hosted by The Walker Art Center.

The conference can generally be described as "where art, code, and activism collide". I went in search of ideas for encouraging more data visualization work in museums, particularly around climate change communication and calls to action.

I attended presentations on Tech-Driven Activism, examining interpersonal commitments with data (not at all what I thought I'd hear about), and Designing Consent into Conversational Spaces, among others. I was looking for was some hints that something like this, an animation of sea level rise in Newport, RI, is common. Nope.  

Of course, this was not really a museum crowd: more of a facebook/Google/Tableau crowd. There were lots of hoodies and sneakers, and black. My in-conference-app request of others to self-identify as museum geeks returned only six "yes" replies from about 500 potentials. Yet I wasn't discouraged: between sessions, four of the seven strangers I sat with professed to be museum-lovers and immediately understood how DataVis makes sense for communicating in museums and to museum audiences.

The talk was fast, and the jargon quite difficult to follow; but the excitement was infections. It was all strange to me, and overwhelming, but fascinating:  I learned that

• DataVis is really information visualization (sometimes data bytes, sometimes data on images, sometimes data on maps)
• it's really visualization of slices of history or slices of the present based on interpretation
• that coders, too, worry about provenance (though they don't use the word): if the reason for a research question is detached from the data, the data is now open for misinterpretation
• that coders research and run data for fun after their day jobs (like we visit museums)
• that museums could use this approach to understanding visitor, donor, or member activities and perhaps motivations
• and that climate change wasn't an expressed particular or widespread interest among these Millennials

I did meet the DataVis team from the Climate Policy Initiative who clearly get the value of DataVis in museums concerning climate change.


I met a young woman from BlueCadet in Philadelphia. The firm has had a number of museum clients, and offers DataVis work as part of its fleet of services, but no work yet for museums on climate information.

And I met a cool guy doing great archival research and digital mapping - I hope to connect him to great history museum - more on that when he's ready.

There's a great deal of untapped talent here for the museum field. The creative folks who code can be valuable co-creators if we give them the opportunity.