The Reimagining Museums for Climate Action exhibition first opened at the Glasgow Science Centre in June 2021, running through until mid-October 2021 and being seen by around 60,000 visitors. It re-opened on the 31st October 2021 as part of the 

 Green Zone over the two weeks of the UN Climate Change Conference from 31st October to 12th November, during which time it was seen by another c.60,000 visitors. 

The exhibition was also featured as one of “Five incredible ideas from the COP26 Green Zone” as part of the 

COP26 Virtual Green Zone, hosted by Google Arts and Culture

, which will remain live as a virtual artefact of the exhibits and the activities which took place there. RMCA team members participated in a number of events in the COP26 Blue and Green Zones, presenting a 

virtual plenary panel from COP26 for the Museums Association Conference

 on the 9th of November and co-organising the panel “

Powering climate action through heritage policies, organisations, research and public programmes

” which took place in the EU Pavilion on the 11th of November.

During the two weeks of COP26, volunteers from a number of different organisations helped the RMCA team to engage with visitors by asking “What if museums…?”, collecting their ideas about how museums might change to empower them to take the form of climate action they, and the groups they represented, would like to take. The slide carousel above presents a range of ideas which we collected from visitors to the Green Zone during the time of COP26, providing an additional set of concepts and ideas for museums to consider in taking radical action for climate.

Networks

Laboratories

Citizen Action

What if museums became centres for community-led climate research and action?                  

Decolonisation

Indigenous Worlds

Climate Justice

What if museums were small places that supported communities in addressing local climate challenges and actions?

Activism

What if Indigenous lands were thought of as a kind of museum for climate action?   

Water

Experience

Green Futures

What if museum buildings themselves contributed to real climate action, through their material fabric?

Future Cities

How can museums support the move to climate-friendly technology and lifestyles?

What if museums and society were forced to confront their role in climate change?

Stories

How can people curate their own climate information, to support climate action?

Dialogue

Community

What if people gathered their own collections and information to support dialogue and climate action?

Explore further concepts submitted to the Reimagining Museums for Climate Action design and ideas competition. 

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What would it take for museums to become catalysts for radical climate action? In the run up to COP26, eight teams from around the world were invited to develop their submissions to the Reimagining Museums for Climate Action competition for an exhibition at Glasgow Science Centre. 

The exhibition opened to the public on 25 June, but you can view the eight ideas below, and explore further concepts submitted to the competition in the 'Concepts' tab above. Further details on the exhibits will be added to this site before and during COP.  

The diverse proposals gathered here suggest that museums have a vital role to play in shaping a more just and sustainable future for people and the planet.

Museums come in many different shapes and sizes. They can be found in every corner of the world, reaching millions of people each year through exhibitions, educational programmes and online activities. More than simply spaces of collection and display, museums support research and debate across a range of subjects, from local history to space exploration. They are so much part of society that we rarely stop to ask why they function the way they do, and how they might change in the future. 

This exhibition presents eight proposals for how museums could support meaningful climate action. Distributed across the ‘Powering the Future’ gallery at Glasgow Science Centre you will find new ideas about the things museums collect, the stories they tell, the materials they are built of and the communities they serve. Some of these ideas are fantastical, others are already being implemented. The global scope of the proposals – from Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, the United States and the UK – shows that museums have an important role to play in addressing climate change at an international level, tailored to their local context. 

Climate action is usually thought of in two ways: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen nature’s ability to absorb these gases. Adaptation means adjusting to live with a changing climate. Reimagining museums for climate action covers both these points and more. The exhibition does not claim to have all the answers, but invites you to join in this collective process of reimagining, which is a vital tool in the fight against climate change.

possible futures