Climate of change

Climate change has become a key narrative of our time and prompts us to look forward, to imagine tomorrow. Museums, with their strong community connections and their focus on stories of place and people, are influential settings for that narrative to play out. They gather a rich community of thinkers, creative practitioners and changemakers and bring Indigenous and other non-Western forms of knowledge to the center of a climate conversation. For museums and their collections to be visible and viable, they are best when they are connected to and relevant to audiences and participants. They have the capacity to addressing relevant civic issues and imagine possible futures. This means adapting our practice, our professional development and our human resource management. This paper highlights the range of changes, from decolonizing approaches to strengthening relevance that will position museums to better respond to the change that confronts the communities we serve.