The Curatorial Anthropocene: An Analysis of Canadian Museums’ Engagement with the Climate Crisis - Exploring Perspectives on Precedent and Barriers

Abstract

Museums hold the power to influence and educate the public on accessible levels, using multimedia displays and bite-sized pieces of information for digestible intake of scientific understanding and innovation. The intergenerational, and more accessible manner of museums holds the ability to educate larger sects of the public, outside of academic and professional settings, in where understanding of the world, and fun are intertwined. Education through museum displays and exhibits is a voluntary, willing act of participation, from which individuals of all backgrounds and ages are able to learn, with museum structures considered to be trusted, sound institutions. In an evolving social climate, the Canadian museums sector must look to the unique power it holds, as pedagogical institutions of knowledge, to expand beyond traditionalist methodology, and engage with education, community, advocacy, and the climate crisis. This study thematically analyses the perspectives of Canadian professionals in the field, looking at what has happened, what is happening, what ought to happen, and what barriers stand in the way. In comparison with existing, global literature, we see the Canadian museum sector to be placed in an in-between, in where appropriate dismantling of barriers may alleviate stressors, creating the momentum for urgency with climate to be integrated on a widespread scale, through standardization of institutional frameworks, along with paradigmatic shifts within the sector.