Announcement for International Museums Day 2020:
CAlling designers, artists, academics, poets & museum staff: Design competition: CoP26
Reimagining Museums for Climate Action The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area, led by Prof. Rodney Harrison of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, is launching an international design competition on 18th May, International Museum Day. The competition, ‘Reimagining Museums for Climate Action’, asks designers, architects, academics, artists, poets, philosophers, museum professionals and the public at large to radically (re)imagine and (re)design the museum as an institution, to help bring about more equitable and sustainable futures in the climate change era. The competition aims to explore how museums can help society transform to a low carbon future, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and safeguard ecosystems.
Entries will be judged by an international panel of museum, architecture and design, climate change, heritage and sustainability experts. Eight finalists will each receive £2,500 to develop their ideas into exhibits, which will be displayed at Glasgow Science Centre ahead of and during COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference, in 2021. COP26 is due to take place at the Scottish Event Campus. Glasgow Science Centre, which is situated next to the SEC, will be playing a key role in the conference. The exhibition will be accompanied by talks, workshops and other activities encouraging debate around the future role of museums, in times of rapid environmental change.
Emma Woodham, climate change programme manager at Glasgow Science Centre said “the exhibition will make an important contribution to Glasgow Science Centre’s overall climate change programme, which aims to inform, inspire and empower people of all ages and backgrounds to engage with COP26, and take action on climate change in their own lives.” The competition has been developed as part of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area’s contribution to COP 26. Professor Harrison said “the competition draws on academic research on the heritage and museums sector undertaken over the past 5 years by myself, Dr Sterling, and others (including work undertaken as part of the AHRC-funded Heritage Futures research programme www.heritage-futures.org), which suggests the need to develop new approaches to conservation and management of natural and cultural heritage which acknowledge—and begin to work with, rather than against—inevitable forms of (ecological, social and political) change. COP26 provides a significant opportunity for those both inside and outside of the heritage and museums sector to think creatively about these issues, and to present the latest thinking to a wider audience, whilst also highlighting the significant potential for museums to provide a catalyst for climate action to policy makers and others in the international climate action community.”
Competition website (live from 18 May) www.museumsforclimateaction.org
Competition twitter @climatemuseums
Contact Prof Rodney Harrison r.harrison@ucl.ac.uk ; Dr Colin Sterling c.sterling@ucl.ac.uk ; Henry McGhie henrymcghie@curatingtomorrow.co.uk.
