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Impact on cultural organizations
Preparing for Climate Impacts
In addition, cultural organizations can educate the public about climate change and mitigation, adaptation, and resilience activities and inspire action. This can be done through exhibitions, education and programming, communications, and strategic planning.
The 2022 Annual Museum-Goers Survey conducted by the American Alliance of Museums and Susie Wilkening found that “The public wants us to talk about climate change…and be more sustainable ourselves”. Sharing what climate work an organization is doing, whether in the basement or public facing can both educate and inspire action by visitors. Sharing regular updates on a public website and newsletters can also increase transparency to visitors and the field, and signal to the public that the museum is concerned about community.
As central parts of many communities, cultural organizations can also function as conveners to make sure they and their neighbors are part of local and state resilience plans. Establishing relationships with neighbors and other cultural institutions, “friends from before,” can allow cultural organizations to collaborate with their community to plan for and respond to disasters. Cultural organizations can also take on more “alternative” roles related to climate action. This could be acting as a site of refuge, collection site for food and supplies, or coordination point during an emergency.
The impacts of climate change on cultural organizations are significant. They include physical, economic, and people-related risks. There are more and more examples of organizations preparing for these changes, and excellent resources available to help others do the same. For example, the Climate Resilience Resources for Cultural Heritage is a free place to begin thinking about and building a resilience strategy.
Sites, collections, and objects themselves are vulnerable: those in low-lying areas could be susceptible to sea level rise and flooding, some, in arid and dry climates, to wildfire and extremely hot temperatures. Some sites or monuments may be continuously damaged, and decisions need to be made on how to preserve sites. Many are making 3D scans and models and making detailed building reports. Building envelopes can also be tightened and sites made more resilient in order to not only survive climate-related disasters but thrive through them. Moreover, the more severe storms occur, the less visitors may travel to the organization which could impact an organization’s revenue.
The mental health of staff also needs to be considered. Staff are people and while many are usually responsible for preparing for and responding when a site has been impacted by a climate-related event, they also have personal lives and responsibilities at home. Even without an emergency, many people are experiencing climate grief and climate anxiety. Providing support and resources for staff must be thought through along with the site itself.
Cultural organizations have the opportunity to inspire change and shift from “business as usual” to creative, circular, and regenerative solutions that benefit organizations and their communities.
