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

Book Review: Cultural Heritage and the Challenge of Sustainability

Opening to p. 79 of this 2013 book one reads: "In January 2010, Paris marked the centennial of its Great Flood of 1910." (Exhibits showed photographs of the devastation.) "Along with the photographs came the warning that it could happen again." A week ago, in 2016, we watched it happen again. 

 

Plastic boxes containing artworks are placed for safe-keeping between sculptures in an exhibition hall at the Musee de Louvre which is closed and tourists being turned away, due to the unusually high water level of the nearby river Seine in Paris, Friday, June 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

For all the historians still questioning the relevance of environmental sustainability, please consider Diane Barthel-Bouchier's important work. In her first chapter, "Culture: Our Second Nature", she makes it quite clear with a quote from historian David Lowenthal: "History 'explores and explains pasts grown ever more opaque over time,' whereas heritage 'clarifies pasts so as to infuse them with present purposes.'"

I believe the ultimate "present purpose" of our field is to reverse the damaging effects of climate change so that together we can protect and celebrate cultural heritage, worldwide, and far, far into an harmonious future with this planet. There are so many ways to do that, and each of us has important ways to protect so much more than even the collections at The Louvre.

Routledge, 2013

Barthel-Bouchier's extensive research and hard-earned perspective provides a far-reaching reference work to challenge and inspire us to get a move on! Her narrative of the development of cultural heritage conservation into a "global organizational field" will make you feel like you've missed more than a few boats if your focus is limited to the U.S. That is not her point, though. She is anxious that the field's growth has stretched beyond communities' and nations' abilities to financially support all the conservation work we've identified; and that to make our case we have begun to forsake humanities for science, and make ourselves appear as expert outsiders. That is changing a bit these days.

As climate events and threats become more obvious to more of the world, the sustainability movement within cultural heritage has gained leverage for attracting support, found security in its reliance on science, and reasserted the moral imperative Barthel-Bouchier believes conservationists have as a driver common in their work.

She warns of the continuing tension between the traditionalists committed to "tasks such as documentation, maintenance, risk assessment, rehabilitation, and restoration," and those interested in "fighting against climate change and working toward sustainability, while engaging in efforts to change..." including to promote tourism and to take more flexible approaches to current preservation regulations (see Unwanted Water" at the Center for the Future of Museums' blog).

So, what do you want the profession to look like?

Barthel-Bouchier writes "Exactly how far out front should cultural heritage conservationists be on this issue? How should they define the tasks of mitigation and adaptation as they apply to both built structures and communities? The choice of scope involves risks for the organizational field....Such risk also represents opportunity for the whole field to make sense of where it has been and to help determine the direction in which it is heading."

For those of us involved in sustainability in cultural heritage, we have these joys in our future:
- "the commitment and activism of" locals (whether in an urban setting, a countryside struggling with desertification, or an island nation watching sea levels rise),  Barthel-Bouchier says is our greatest resource - and she's right; and that the
-  "monuments and rituals" that we work to protect can create or reinforce "social solidarity that allows people to live and work together on common goals" - and that solidarity we need in abundance.

Stretch your view of your self, your work, and your responsibility; let Diane Barthel-Bouchier help you.