Last month I gave a lecture at the University of the Arts in London as part of its Museum Of... project. Groups of students on various courses have been charged with creating a Museum Of... whatever they like and I was asked to talk about the issues that museums and galleries will have to address over the next few years.
Sustainability was high on the list. But despite everyone from London mayoral candidates to world leaders talking about it, up until now museums - with a few exceptions - have been behind the game.
Over the past few years there have been conferences and seminars on sustainability but it has been the usual suspects turning up - and there is little point in continually preaching to the converted.
Now it looks like the sector is beginning to catch up. Earlier in the year the Rural Museums Network held a Turning Green conference to discuss how they can make their sites more sustainable. And at the Museums Association's (MA) New Entrants conference last month (see p9), climate change and sustainability was flagged up as a major issue.
This month the MA is launching a discussion document on the subject (a copy is enclosed with this issue of Museums Journal), and beginning in June there will be a series of 15 events around the country to discuss the bigger picture, as well as helping people think about sustainability in their own museums.
The likely outcome of the MA's work, depending on funding, will be training and pilot projects that could allow museums to tackle the issue for the first time.
But it's not just individual museums and galleries that need to act - sustainability should be embedded in the criteria that funders and policy makers set. So if you want a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, or to gain accreditation, or to enter the Art Fund Prize, museums and galleries should have to prove their green credentials. Leadership from the organisations that hold the purse strings in now needed.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
Log on to www.museumsassociation.org/sustainability for more information
Sustainability was high on the list. But despite everyone from London mayoral candidates to world leaders talking about it, up until now museums - with a few exceptions - have been behind the game.
Over the past few years there have been conferences and seminars on sustainability but it has been the usual suspects turning up - and there is little point in continually preaching to the converted.
Now it looks like the sector is beginning to catch up. Earlier in the year the Rural Museums Network held a Turning Green conference to discuss how they can make their sites more sustainable. And at the Museums Association's (MA) New Entrants conference last month (see p9), climate change and sustainability was flagged up as a major issue.
This month the MA is launching a discussion document on the subject (a copy is enclosed with this issue of Museums Journal), and beginning in June there will be a series of 15 events around the country to discuss the bigger picture, as well as helping people think about sustainability in their own museums.
The likely outcome of the MA's work, depending on funding, will be training and pilot projects that could allow museums to tackle the issue for the first time.
But it's not just individual museums and galleries that need to act - sustainability should be embedded in the criteria that funders and policy makers set. So if you want a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, or to gain accreditation, or to enter the Art Fund Prize, museums and galleries should have to prove their green credentials. Leadership from the organisations that hold the purse strings in now needed.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
Log on to www.museumsassociation.org/sustainability for more information