Announcing Successful NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Proposal

I am delighted to share that last week, when the National Endowment for the Humanities announced $43.1 million in funding for 214 humanities projects nationwide, Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City was awarded $350,000 as one of 14 grants under the Endowment's Sustaining Cultural Heritage program. Nevelson Chapel, From Entry to Cross of the Good Shepherd To prepare the proposal I worked with the Church staff members Jennifer Eberhart Powell, facilities manager Sam Hutcheson, and Pastor Jared Stahler. I also worked with the project art conservator Sarah Nunberg who is my co-PI on an NEH Research Grant on Life Cycle Assessment in sustainable collections care through the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. We developed an holistic approach to improved climate conditions and room construction to find a safer way to present, preserve, and protect the Nevelson Chapel and its artwork as it is restored. I will join that planning team for implementation for 2018-2019. When announcing the award, Pastor Amadus J. Derr wrote this to his parishioners and supporters:

Thanks is due in particular to our Project Managers: Debra Inwald with Christine Wahba and Jigme Pokwal of Works-in-Progress Associates. Debra, Christine and Jigme not only kept design of the project moving along, but were instrumental in ensuring and multidisciplinary environmental upgrade team submitted materials required by the grant application on time. The NEH's award is high praise for the work of Sarah Nunberg, our conservator, and this remarkable team:  Jane Greenwood with Jamie Downie and Marian Prado of Kostow Greenwood Architects; Michael Ambrosino of ADS Engineers;  Michael Henry of Watson & Henry Associates;  Ryoko Nakamura of LOOP Lighting;  Dominick Pilla and Elise Martos of Dominick R. Pilla Structural Engineer Associates;  Stephen Short of Lite-Trol Lighting Control Service;  Sarah Sutton of Sustainable Museums He gave particular thanks to the champion for the project, a man whose passion for the history and setting of this cultural icon made all the difference: Pastor Jared R. Stahler, whose organizing and administrative skills and unwavering passion for this project have played the major role in the success of these grant applications. [The project has also received significant support from the Henry Luce Foundation.] What a pleasure it is to work with an inspired team of passionate cultural professionals: climate and culture on the same team.  If you are on Lexington Street in New York City, in the vicinity of the old Citicorp Tower before work begins in mid-October, please stop in to the church, and sit and visit with the sculptural installation that is this remarkable gem of chapel in the hidden in the heart of the City. Press Release: Nevelson Chapel is the artist’s only remaining complete environment always open to the public. Restoration of this New York City treasure hidden in plain sight will conserve an important piece of cultural heritage for the future and secure Nevelson’s legacy as one of the most influential and celebrated sculptors of the 20th century.

Draft Characteristics of Excellence for Environmental Sustainability in US Museums

For over a year now, PIC Green (our facebook page), has been gathering comments on how the field should proceed on incorporate performance related to environmental sustainability into its professional expectations. PIC Green (AAM website page) is the professional network, formerly Professional Interest Committee, on environmental sustainability for the American Alliance of Museums.

Last year we hosted the Tides of March online discussions about how to move ahead (note - this link has even more links to other professional association with developed standards). As a result of those talks, and the three years' previous Green Summits at the AAM conferences, we drafted a set of Characteristics of Excellence.

While AAM is reviewing its overall process for establishing characteristics and standards of excellence, and we wait to hear about IMLS support for that effort, PIC Green continues to move its project forward. This year at the AAM conference we held a flash session to discuss the draft and made some valuable changes.

We would appreciate your comments on what we have developed so far:

The museum states its role in stewardship of the environment, demonstrates how its choices align with that role, and actively addresses related environmental concerns within the community.

The museum measures and makes public its environmental impacts; sets goals for continuous improvement; and evaluates progress and effectiveness.

The museum demonstrates leadership by exceeding environmental codes, regulations, and professional standards as appropriate, e.g. higher efficiency, or more effective practices. 

The museum has reviewed its investments and set a time frame investing in a socially responsible portfolio.

The museum has a plan and time frame for becoming climate neutral, then climate positive.

The museum identifies risks resulting from climate change, and takes steps to anticipate and mitigate risks and damage for itself and, in collaboration, on behalf of the community.

Tides of March: Consensus Webinars on Environmental Sustainability in Museums

The Wild Center. Photo by Barrier Free Travel

All around, and sometimes within, the museum field there are thinkers, worriers, and the hopeful who create tools and expectations to strengthen the pursuit of environmentally-sustainable action and thinking.

But it appears there is no field-wide opinion on how to extend and expand this work that is so critical to our missions and to our planet.

The first Tides of March discussion took place yesterday. Four directors stepped up to share their experiences and thoughts on best practices and standards, and how good green work might affect the field.

Ron Kagan of the Detroit Zoological Society, Julie K. Stein of the Burke Museum, Bill Eiland of the Georgia Museum of Art, and Nina Zannieri of the Paul Revere Memorial Association have led the way in encouraging organized, deliberate discussion with national leadership decisions to move this discussion off its current mark of "interesting, but not vital."

What do you think? What do you hope?  What change do you want to see?

Please join us for the next two conversations, online or by phone using the AAM WebEx access:

March 8, 2016, 3 pm EST with association leaders:

·  Bob Beatty and Cherie Cook, American Association for State and Local History

·  Sarah Beck, American Public Garden Association

·  Tim Carter, Second Nature

·  Shelly Grow, Association of Zoos and Aquariums

·  Tim McNeil, California Association of Museums

·  Dan Yaeger, New England Museum Association

March 24th, 2016, 3 pm EST with observers of the field

·  James Elder, Campaign for Environmental Literacy

·  John Fraser, New Knowledge

·  Greg Johnson, Perkins+Will

·  Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors

·  Douglas Worts, World Views Consulting

You can find us here:  Tides of March: Consensus Webinars on Environmental Sustainability

Book Review: An Introduction to Heritage Breeds: Saving and Raising Rare-Breed Livestock and Poultry

Think what living history farms and historic properties could do for the genetic pool of livestock and poultry if even a quarter of the 19,500+ historic sites or houses, historical societies, historic preservation groups and history museums in the country participated in some way in conserving Heritage Breeds.

But don't think this view and this practice is just about history. It's about environmental sustainability.

"Agriculture has changed more in the past century than in the last 10,000 years. In both developed and undeveloped countries diversified farming based on adaptation to local conditions", the authors write, and is being replace by standardization most often including adaptations for confinement, standardized feeds, and selection for very specific traits (meat or egg production, for example). The more multi-purpose, versatile, and lower-maintenance animals of the past have begun to die out for lack of interest  - - often based on perceptions of reduced value. Well, in a time of changing climate and decreasing genetic diversity, it's clear that local adaptability and a broad gene pool predisposed for adaptability are a good idea.

The Livestock Conservancy and Storey Publishing have given us An Introduction to Heritage Breeds: Saving and Raising Rare-Breed Livestock and Poultry, an excellent and much-needed how-to for those of us who haven't thought enough about this aspect of our work. It's a safe starting place for beginners, and a great promotional and educational tool for the more experienced among us who could use support educating our peers and funders. The writing makes no assumptions about prior knowledge yet speaks to the reader respectfully. (The book is only $19.95: buy it for your bookshelf and then stock it in your gift shop for all your homesteading visitors.)

The term 'Heritage Breed' focuses on unique adaptations in an animal based on local conditions. Think about it - if you wanted to have livestock on your site, wouldn't the stock best-suited for your region and your mission make the most sense?  The cattle, goats, sheep, swine and poultry that have adapted to the landscape and living conditions of your area are the ones who will have the best survivability, physical comfort, and resource productivity for the least effort. We're talking Spanish Black Turkeys, Navajo-Churro sheep, Red Wattle pigs, and Cleveland Bay horses.

These are not static breeds. Their value is their adaption to local conditions, so continued adaptation is appropriate. It's the animal's role in human-managed agriculture that we're preserving, not the exact traits of a time long ago. That might be hard for some purists to accept, but it reflects the times we live in. Your weather and climate conditions are changing; isn't it important to be working with the breeds most likely to be able to adapt to changes with less intervention on your part?

Caring for, protecting and supporting Heritage Breeds is not just for specialists or history museums, it's also for small-scale farmers interested in livestock raising. So, if you're interested in promoting sustainable living among your members and community supporters, this topic is a perfect opportunity for public engagement. If you're getting questions about "what kind of chicken should I keep", does your answer consider an appropriate heritage breed? Well consider that the bulk of the conservation work is already being done by individuals in our communities. These private champions have taken responsibility for rescuing, stabilizing and promoting rare breeds. Don't let them go it alone.

Certainly some museum leaders are pulling their portion of the weight on this: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Plimoth Plantation, Accokeek Foundations, and The Farmer's Museum, but isn't it time historic sites and museums stepped up their conservation work in the manner of zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens in their areas of mission and expertise? If you can safely and responsibly care for these animals in alignment with your mission while increasing public engagement, then it's an opportunity to be taken seriously.

What's in your barnyard?


 

Book Review: Ecoliterate

Ecoliterate: How Educators are Cultivating Emotional, Social and Ecological Intelligence Goleman, Daniel, Lisa Bennett and Zenobia Barlow with professional development sections by Carolie Sly.  (Jossey-Bass, 2012.) 

The museum field is actively exploring how to be better at communicating environmental messages. It’s good, new, hard work and I’m very excited about it. This is the third book in my journey through the related literature.

I was struck by this early sentence as an apt description of why we’re in this state of environmental misunderstanding: The complexity of the web of connections that characterize our global society has created a vast collective blind spot about the effects of human behavior on natural systems.

I am continuously concerned that I don’t know what I don’t know, that is, I don’t realize what I’m not understanding or discovering. I am sure this is what has led me to systems thinking and environmental impact. I want to know what to expect and what I’ve missed. To understand the system at least helps me in that. It’s the key to improving understanding our environmental impact.

 

I was greatly helped in my conundrum by the discussion about the intelligences it focuses on: emotional, social and ecological. Their words are far better than mine, so I quote many here: Social and emotional learning was embraced by many schools on the promise that helping children develop the capacities for self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management would increase their likelihood of success in school and life. Now, extensive research shows, that these do lead to important student gains and reduced risks for failure....Research studies examining the influence of an environment-based context have revealed similar encouraging findings...the Center for Ecoliteracy ...has found that socially and emotionally engaged ecoliteracy advances both teacher and student involvement and achievement through hands-on, experiential, contextualized learning in the natural world and the community.

 

There is a valuable summary of what the Center for Ecoliteracy has identified as "The Five Practices of Emotionally and Socially Engaged Ecoliteracy":

• Developing Empathy for All Forms of Life
• Emracing Sustainability as a Community Practice
• Making the Invisible Visible
• Anticipating Uninntended Consequences
• Understanding How Nature Sustains Life

All of that helps me with my own worries about not knowing what I don't know, and it surely is a recipe for helping individuals, institutions and communities "strengthen and extend their capacity to live sustainably".

The essays in this book are memorable examples of someone not knowing and someone else discovering; they are encouragement that none of us needs to know it all, but that reduce our negative impact on the planet and on each other we must be willing to seek and to adapt and improve -- and that wonderfully astonishing things happen as a result. Even good things you didn't know would happen. 

This approach goes against our training of learn, then do, and move on. This approach is more similar to learn, test, learn more, keep testing, and change course as we constantly improve in new directions. That means you’re never done, you’re never “there”. That of course is why this green stuff is called a journey. 

Ecoliterate's stories highlight people who worked for incremental change and achieved much larger goals; individuals who stood up against companies and governments for change; a woman who simply told nature’s story wherever she could, and created significant change. The stories are about native shrimp, school children, coal and big oil, local farms, and classroom curriculum. And they all relate to so many other challenges we face.

 

This book is very valuable to those who:

• can benefit from reassurance that they have to know it all, that they have to get green right, or that there is a right way to go about this,
• those who have been working at environmental sustainability awhile and are in need of next-level ideas for community engagement,
• and those who have been pursuing changes and could use encouragement to push on.

What you will learn, if you’re an educator, outreach coordinator, institutional leader, and/or individual practitioner, is that the personal and systems relationships really, really matter. Send your attention and energy to understanding those, and then use your educator or manager training to transfer that knowledge to the opportunities in your museum, zoo, garden, park or nature center. You will have discovered what you know and what you don’t know, and will have the relationships to discover how to make change work for you and the planet.

 

Reading List

This is the third book in my reading journey, after The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy, and Ecological Literacy: – please join me by sharing books for me to review; reading along with me and commenting. 

Various Related Uncertain Parameters

What? Say that again! "Various Related Uncertain Parameters".

That sentence characterizes the operating environment of a new environmentally sustainable technology, practice or product.

It describes all the aspects one tries to consider when making sustainable choices in unfamiliar territory.

It hints at the unintended results - consequences or benefits - discovered after you've tried a new green technology, practice or product and found that one practice affects so many others in unanticipated ways. 

It really means: you're going where no one has gone before.

For me, my community, my profession and the planet I believe it means "Go Green and Prosper".

Green Bling II - Another from Green Museum's Cartoon Collection

Another example of more bling than thoughtfulness when it comes to environmental sustainability.

Now don't get me wrong - I AM a sustainability champion, but sustainability is about thoughtfulness, not gadgetry.

STEM, Environmental Sustainability, and Museum Work

The President's Advisory Council on Science and Technology  published a report last week called "Engage to Excel". It was all about what's missing and what's required in US efforts to engage students in Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning so that the country can graduate an additional million 21st Century-ready students from college.
No job is isolated from STEM learning, its says. STEM skills are called for in so many actions, and often without us realizing it.

Sounds like a description of sustainability skills to me. No job is isolated from sustainability skills, and they are called for in so many actions and often without us realizing it. And we'd be better at our jobs if we were conscious of, and continuously cultivating sustainability skills.
In five years, sustainability skills will be critical to all museum workers. You'll need it to make environmental control decisions, manage the garbage, choose and manage your utilities, design and select resources for exhibits and special events, and of course understand it if you are rehabilitating, expanding or building a museum.

Will you have sustainability skills?

Here's a quote from the report with "sustainability" replacing 'STEM" in every instance: In general, no job is completely isolated from the influence of new technologies and new ideas. All Americans regularly encounter the products of [sustainability] in their jobs and in their daily lives, though they may not recognize the connection with [sustainability] subjects. The decisions individuals make in supermarkets, doctors’ offices, and voting booths often depend at least in part on ideas drawn from [sustainability] fields. To the extent that people are comfortable and familiar with [sustainability] concepts, they are better able to take advantage of new opportunities and make good decisions on [sustainability]-related issues. In doing so, they help create a cultural environment that is conducive to [sustainability] endeavors and to the benefits those endeavors can produce. p. 122

Environmental sustainability isn't the local dialect yet, but when it is, will you be fluent enough to do your job?

Article Review: Sustainability in Conservation Practice

in the Journal of the Institute of Conservation   

by Megan de Silva and Jane Henderson

For those of you in conservation practice, undoubtedly you’ve seen this valuable article in The Journal of the Institute of Conservation; for the rest of us, the authors Megan de Silva and Jane Henderson, both in the Conservation Section of the Department of Archaeology and Conservation at Cardiff University in the UK, have prepared a valuable review of recommended sustainability practices active in the UK, recommendations specifically in the conservation sphere, and an example of benchmarking practices to encourage adoption of sustainability practices.

The first third of the article provides a valuable overview of sustainability work to date in the UK - one that will encourage US museums to get a hustle on; the balance of the article includes practical ideas for getting that hustle on.

The eight tables illustrating benchmark levels are excellent resources.

Green and Gaming: Citizen Sustainability Goes Viral

I've been following @erodely (Ed Rodely of the Museum of Science, Boston) on Twitter and his excellent blogposts on Gaming the Museum and so I'm exploring how museums can engage the public through gaming (NOT gamification (ack)), but also through any type of true engagement that stimulates action by the visitor...action that means they make a difference for the environment after they leave the museum and because they experienced the museum and its messages about sustainability.

Ed's exploration is definitely worth a read - four posts. The end one reminds me of Dan Pink's great book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and how creating "autonomy", enabling "mastery", and fostering "flow" is what will truly engage our visitors and call them to action when they leave the museum.

I'm interested in developing tours, activities, online and in-person programs, promotional materials - ANYTHING - that will get visitors to make individual choices about the differences they can make for the environment, and then actually making that difference. 

But wait, there's more: a wise woman once reminded me of the visceral importance of feedback ...and that's what I'm really, really after.

Where are the museum programs that don't stop at asking the public to change their behavior at home, but ask them to tell the museum, and everyone else, about that change.  It's Citizen Science turned into Citizen Sustainability.

Can you imagine how valuable it would be if we knew how many visitors made how much difference just by experiencing our museums? 

Can you say "leverage"?