Representing climate change in museum space and places

Museums and science centers are emerging as key players in climate change action. They have unique communicative, affective social qualities and promote intergenerational learning outside the classroom. All these characteristics and activities can be purposefully deployed and critically developed to enable them to have agency in climate change governance in many different ways. In contrast, for example, to more politically defined sectors, research indicates that museums hold a unique position in the media and political landscape as trusted information sources, second only to science organizations and way ahead of the mainstream media and government as places to communicate climate science and raise awareness of climate change. Museums are also one of the few civic venues in Western societies where strangers can gather. They are perceived by audiences as impartial, ‘safe’, places that increasingly enable conversations and social interactions. For many, they are powerful places to challenge and change views on social issues, as long as visitors can engage them on their own terms. The ability of museums to provide sensorial or affective experiences though the agency of objects and immersive experiences can also facilitate an active role on the part of audiences in co-creating narratives around climate change. Social media has also opened up new, exciting opportunities for the museum sector to network and dialogue with broader communities and engage diverse interests and points of view across vast distances, beyond the museum’s walls, and become part of new conversations and decision processes on the topic of global warming.