Museums & UN Sustainable Development Goals: III #11 & #17 Strawbery Banke Museum and Sea Level Rise

I've invited a guest post by Rodney D. Rowland at Strawbery Banke Museum. His story of how the museum works with City of Portsmouth, NH, to address Sea Level Rise impact is an important example of the vulnerability assessment process, and the special value of museums in that process for advancing the science of understanding, and the special role of museums in community engagement for planning. 

The museum sits at the lowest point in the City.

Strawbery Banke Museum is located 400 feet from the banks of the Piscataqua River, in downtown Portsmouth NH. It is a nine-acre living history museum that maintains 37 historic houses, most on their original foundations. In keeping with its commitment for Strawbery Banke to be “a place to learn, a place to gather and a sustainable resource for the community,” the museum has adopted specific “green” initiatives in its most recent Strategic and Long-Range Plans. From adopting ‘zero waste’ practices at signature events to selecting a higher-efficiency chiller for the seasonal ice rink, Strawbery Banke considers environmentally-friendly practices good for the health of the planet and the museum.

Toward that end, Strawbery Banke is now collaborating with the City of Portsmouth as a case study in identifying and mitigating the impact of sea level rise on the waterfront and on ground water. One house, the Shapley Drisco House (yellow building in the photo), was built in 1795 along what was a tidal inlet called Puddle Dock.  The inlet was filled in in circa 1905. This building serves an important interpretive “Change Over Time” message for the museum, showing two time periods (1795 and 1955) in furnished spaces on the first floor. The building is also an important income-producing site for the museum for its rented commercial space on the second floor.

For over a decade the house and contents have experienced accelerated deterioration due to salt water infiltration during, originally, storm surge and, now, astronomically high tide or King Tides. The increased rate of infiltration is due to a rise in overall sea level.  During tidal events from December 2017 through March 2018, 16 to 27 inches of salt water was observed in the basement. [Sarah's note: see the fantastic time lapse video here.]

Mechanic Street, one block from the museum,  during a King Tide.

Seeking a solution to this increasing threat to Strawbery Banke and other low-lying properties in the neighborhood, the City of Portsmouth invited the museum to join in its Local Advisory Committee (LAC) for the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment on Historic Portsmouth. Using data and maps created during the Coastal Resilience Initiative, the LAC undertook the process of evaluating parts of the City most vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge with the objective of selecting test sites to model mitigation strategies. Every property in the high risk area was given am historic value, a cultural value, and a monetary value. Strawbery Banke, with some of the most historic and well-preserved houses, and 90,000 annual visitors, and assessed property value, achieved a score in the top tier for all three. All of the evaluated at-risk areas were included on the City’s storyboard. As mitigation strategies are fully-vetted they will be include at this site for the community to follow. 

As this partnership continues to grow, other organizations are coming forward to talk about what they are doing in the area of climate change. In March 2018, the museum hosted a summit with 12 other state organizations to share ideas and research, alongside Strawbery Banke and the City. It is these community wide partnerships that will help create the best solutions. Spread the word, share your stories, and make sure you are at your Climate Change Assessment table!

Rodney Rowland, Director of Special Projects and Facilities, volunteered for Strawbery Banke first in 1976. He is currently responsible for the historic properties on the site, overseeing the properties and restoration department and is project manager for various projects.  After graduating from Lake Forest College with a B.A. in history, Rodney interned with the museum, then joined the museum staff in 1990, as curatorial assistant working with the Curator on new exhibits and processing the decorative arts collection.  He later became Collections Manager and was lead objects conservator for the 1943 Little Corner Store project.  In 2004, Rodney was promoted to manage the construction of the TYCO Visitors Center (2005) and the Carter Collections Center (2008).  603-422-7525, rrowland@strawberybanke.org

AAM 2011 Session: Climate Change & Collective Action

I have a tendency to attend any presentation on any topic by either Wayne LaBar or Emlyn Koster, both of Liberty Science Center, NJ, but this time they were really speaking my language - museums and their role in increasing human practices of environmental sustainability.

Wayne and Emlyn are part of a mostly-Australian dialogue on how museums can collaborate to address climate change...how museums can help humans navigate the Anthropocene (see Wikipedia...new, unofficial term for the geologic age where climate is changed by human activity...see also Curt Stager with Tom Ashbrook and Bill McKibben March 24, 2011 interview. The project is Hot Science Global Citizens and it's an Australian Research Council Linkages Project. Wayne and Emlyn's presentation was sort of  'news from the field' as they reviewed the project's early-stage exploration of museum interventions, intersection of science and humanities, and responsibilities of citizens and the media. 

Two parts stood out - Emlyn's discussion about why tackling climate change is so difficult for the field (with me loving that we agreed on many points, but I also learned a good bit); and Wayne's discussion about how museums must work to address the realities of public response to climate change understanding.
Emlyn listed museums' structural disinclination to address climate change meaningfully. For the most part, museums still tend to:

• focus on collections
• rely on exhibits primarily
• are slow to collaborate deeply and meaningfully
• are poor at integrating past, present and future
• their funders are cautious
• museums tend to avoid the risk of controversy
• museum schools, which might have tackled this topic mightily, have not been a widespread success
• grants tend to support the status quo, not innovation
• and museums are rarely visionary and do not take global leadership positions

Wayne pointed out that "Climate change is no longer a science event, but a cultural change and it won't be solved by science policy." And he tackled the question of "why are people slow to change in response to climate change?"  The collaborative project discussions have articulated two critical disconnects - one of time and risk, and one of science and emotion. 

First:  Education about climate change is scientific; response to climate change (perception of personal risk exposure followed by changes in behavior) is emotional.  Water and oil. 

Second:  Since the risk of loss or injury due to climate change has an uneven and unpredictable timeline for each human perceiving it (will rising sea level affect me anytime soon or in a way I can see? Did a hurricane just him my house?), the debate about when and how much change there will be becomes a distraction that leads to a stalemate.

So Liberty Science Center, instead of doing an exhibit on climate change, much they way they might do an exhibit on skyscrapers or on human health, has chosen to educate about sustainability across all exhibit platforms. It's not a science fact to be learned in a few discrete lessons, but a cultural issue that must seep into human processes from many, many sources.

As a field I believe we should work hard to address the science/emotion and time/risk factors, but let's also use our position as educators, collaborators, and authorities to emphasize positive aspects of environmental sustainability: cost savings, resource conservation, and livable communities, so that we don't lose our audience.     

I'm delighted to be introduced to the Hot Science Global Citizens Project and will follow their further adventures.

Headed to AAM's Annual Meeting - High Green Expectations

Each year I wait to see how many others are presenting green topics - I'm conflicted over hoping for many and hoping for few -

Many means we're getting the word out on this important topic, and enough practitioners have enough to say to support multiple presentations.

Few could mean there's too little work going on, too little interest, OR it's too 'normal' for special sessions.

So the truth is that I hope for that last definition of few.  Sadly we are nowhere near that yet.

But I am heartened by what I see on the schedule  - I can't even get to them all!  I"ll report on those I can attend; then post-conference I'll get the CD's of those I miss.  Remember - you too can buy CD's of all these presentations in case you're carbon-reduction plans are keeping you at home!

 Here's what I get to attend:

• Sunday - Climate Change and Collective Action
• Monday - Changing Environmental Standards (on collections care conditions)
• Monday - Green 101 Workshop (presenting)
• Tuesday - Going Green at the Museum
• Wednesday - The Long View - Leadership Decisions for Environmentally-Sustainable Museeum Projects (chair)

Here's hoping there's green magic in the air at AAM this year.

Green Energy for Hancock Shaker Village

Shaker innovation is alive and well at Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. For a few years now the staff and board at the museum have really embraced green opportunities. In a visit last summer I had a short course in bio-fuel research and their Switchgrass (and others)-growing project with UMass Amherst.

But today's news is about a 'bundle' of seven businesses and nonprofits and their new solar panels. The seven groups are installing solar arrays as I type, and they aren't paying for it. Instead, the green energy and financing company is funding the build, with a little help from the State, and the seven members of the 'bundle' have committed to long-term purchase at a good and stable rate.

The Village is installing its array on and next to the modern Visitor's Center, but the energy company will own and maintain the system. The Village benefits from price reductions and protection on a third of the energy it uses. Its staff, members, and community (meaning all of us) benefit from the Village's carbon reduction. And the project builds on the Village's role as a place to think about a more principled life in the 21st century, demonstrating sustainable practice at this site from the 19th into our times.

Renewable energy projects are complex: tackling them as a team is the best and fastest way to make an important difference. Ah yes, yet another example of museums making positive differences in their communities.