Curating the Future

I applaud the contributors to this book for their courage, conviction and actions in confronting the reality of climate change. In so doing, this book chronicles a new standard of mindfulness in museum practice, grounded in a commitment to the durability and well-being of individuals, communities and the planet. Robert R. Janes, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Museum Management and Curatorship This book documents and advocates for the significance of material storytelling as a resource for addressing the most significant challenges of the Anthropocene how to acknowledge and manage the impact of climate change on our planet and its people. I cannot imagine a stronger argument for the importance of museums. Professor Andrea Witcomb, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia Curating the Future is far more than a book about how to exhibit the vitally important, if sometimes contentious, topic of climate change. Instead, it sheds new light by bringing together a myriad of examples and perspectives that show how museums and their relationships with collections, Indigenous peoples, and others are being transformed as they find ways to reflect upon and mobilise in relation to the environmental changes that threaten our collective future. Professor Sharon Macdonald, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMaH), Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, Germany This collection is a provocative, exciting and pioneering contribution to museum studies scholarship, the environmental humanities and beyond. It offers fundamental, first principles thinking about how museums and communities through their collections and exhibition activities might engage global climate change. It is beautifully written, rich with practical case studies and new theoretical insights a must read for heritage and museum professionals and scholars. Dr Fiona Cameron, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Australia This innovative collection celebrates the reanimated life of objects in many contemporary museums and argues that museums are great places for promoting conversations and actions on the pressing realities of climate change. Through a creative congregation of scholarly analyses, cameo essays, poems and pictures, it reflects on community collaborations, visitor experiences and curatorial practices in mounting exhibitions and performances. It will excite readers' hearts as well as their minds. Professor Margaret Jolly, Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow 2010-2015, Australian National University, Australia I strongly recommend this volume to any scholar interested in climate change and other environmental issues, but more broadly it is relevant to anyone seeking to engage the public about complex and challenging topics. I agree wholeheartedly that museums are often safe places (4) to start these conversations. Torben Rick, Museum Anthropology Review

Jennifer Newell is the curator of Pacific Ethnography at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. She teaches Museum Anthropology at Columbia University, USA, and convenes the Museums and Climate Change Network. She has partnerships with museums in the Pacific, including in Samoa and Fiji, and is a former curator at the British Museum. Libby Robin works across the university and museum sectors in Australia, Sweden and Germany. She is Professor of Environment and Society at the Australian National University, research affiliate at the National Museum of Australia, affiliated professor at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, and Board Member, Rachel Carson Center, LMU, Munich, Germany. Kirsten Wehner is Head Curator of the People and the Environment program at the National Museum of Australia. She is a member of the Humanities for the Environment Australia-Pacific Observatory and a professional associate of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra, Australia.

Foreword 1. Curating Connections in a Climate Changed World 2. Poem: "Tell Them" Part 1: Welcoming New Voices: Opening museums 3. Rob Nixon, The Anthropocene and Social Justice 4. Cameo: Museums Connecting 5. Talking Around Objects: Stories for a Climate Changed world 6. Object in view: Jaki-ed mat, Marshall Islands 7. The Pacific in New York: Managing Objects and Cultural Heritage Partnerships in Times of Global Change 8. Cameo: Connie Harts Basket 9. Peoples who Still Live: The Role of Museums in addressing Climate Change in the Pacific 10. Object in view: Taking a Bite Out of Lost Knowledge: Sharks Teeth, Extinction, and the Value of Preemptive Collections Part 2: Reuniting Nature and Culture 11. Towards an Ecological Museology: Responding to the animal-objects of the Australian Institute of Anatomy collection 12. Object in view: Harry Clarkes high wheeler bicycle 13. Food and Water Exhibitions: Lenses on Climate Change 14. Object in view: The Stump-Jump Plough: Reframing a National Icon 15. Telling Torres Strait History through Turtle 16. Four Seasons in One Day: Weather, Culture and the Museum 17. Object in view: Nelson the Newfoundlands Dog Collar 18. The Last Snail: Loss, hope and care for the future 19. Object in view: Hiding in plain sight: Lessons from the Olinguito Part 3: Focusing on the Future 20. The Reef in Time: The prophecy of Charlie Verons living collections 21. Food Stories for the Future 22. Shaping Garden Collections for Future Climates 23. Object in view: A Past Future for the Cucumber 24. The Art of the Anthropocene 25. Object in view: The Canary Project: Photographs and Fossils Part 4: Representing Change and Uncertainty 26. Cameo: The Vulnerable Volvo 27. Museum Awakenings: Responses to Environmental Change at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, 19652005 28. Rising Seas: Facts, Fictions and Aquaria 29. Object in view: The Model of Flooded New York 30. When the Ice Breaks: The Arctic in the Media 31. Displaying the Anthropocene in and beyond Museums 32. Poem: Dear Matafele Peinem