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tag: Climate change

Blog Post
August 28, 2023

Archives in the Anthropocene

An Interview with Eira Tansey

Cultural organizations and the government agencies that support them are increasingly devoting serious attention and financial resources to reducing their carbon footprints and climate-proofing their facilities. In a new addition to the growing body of literature on the topic, archivist and founder of the consulting firm Memory Rising, Eira Tansey outlines an ambitious policy agenda for mitigating the threats that climate change poses to archival collections and archivists. The agenda she proposes in A Green New Deal for…
Blog Post
March 16, 2023

How Art Museums Are Responding to and Preparing for Climate Change

Art museums, like other organizations that maintain collections for public access, face complex challenges from the threat of climate change. Leaders are challenged to assess their collecting practices to both adapt to new variations in temperature and humidity and reduce their practices’ carbon footprints. Facilities, which in some cases are inseparable from their collections (such as gardens or historic houses), face increasing frequency and severity of damage from storms, fires, and rising tides. At the same time, museum directors must…
Issue Brief
March 16, 2023

How Have Art Museums Been Impacted by Climate Change?

With climate change increasingly destabilizing environments, art museums find themselves in a highly precarious position, as they serve as a physical site for visitors, maintain their collections in perpetuity for future generations, and adapt their own practices to environmental sustainability standards. Ithaka S+R’s 2022 Art Museum Director Survey report, funded by the Kress Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, documents art museum leaders’ perspectives and strategies across a range of issues, including how museums are impacted by and planning for climate…
Past Event
May 21, 2023

Climate and Community: New Directions from the Art Museum Director Survey

Session at the 2023 American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting

In a session at the 2023 American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting, Liam Sweeney and Joanna Dressel will discuss new directions on climate change and community from the Art Museum Director Survey, published in October 2022, which included a new line of questions on how museums have experienced and are preparing for climate related damage. The session is scheduled to take place on May 21 at 10:50 – 11:15 am MDT.