Aesthetic Sustainability and STEAM at museums

The aim of this article is to study and illuminate how and if aesthetic sustainability, as a theoretical concept, helps clarify and sharpen the STEAM (science-technology-engineering-arts-mathematics) approach to teaching and learning at museums, advancing it both as an idea and in practice.This approach seeks to unite the traditionally separate humanistic paradigm (focused on ethics, creativity, meaning, and social context) and scientific paradigm (centered on empirical inquiry and technical knowledge). In many ways, this interdisciplinary approach itself is fundamentally about sustainability. It strengthens students’ critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills and en-courages them to evaluate the environmental, social and cultural impact of their actions and decisions. It frequently forms the basis of problem-based learning activities focused on real-world is-sues that often address sustainability challenges. For upper secondary school students doing STEAM work in a museum context, such issues might include studying and proposing solutions for the museum’s challenges regarding e.g. the adverse effects of dimmed lighting on guests’ energy levels and their ability to concentrate. To work with and propose solutions for this issue, students must apply both scientific and humanistic knowledge. Precisely this museum-based activity and many others were carried out by upper secondary school students in the STEAM at Museums de-velopment project in Central Denmark Region (2023-2025). A few of these activities have been selected as sample material for this study. This research article contributes to the body of research dealing with museums coupled with (different types of) sustainability. Our target readers are museum educators, curators and leaders, who would like to know more about aesthetic sustainability and how it elucidates the STEAM approach in relation to museum dissemination practice.