Curating Sustainability

Public understanding of environmental issues is critical for the active positions we need to take as individuals and societies for transforming unsustainable to green economic activities. Museums have the potential to contribute significantly to this by communicating scientific knowledge on environmental issues. The study examines the scale and character of environmental exhibitions and collections in Denmark and surrounding countries. The study finds that the scale far from exhausts the potential. Exhibitions predominantly focus on natural science dimensions with limited coverage of the social science aspects of environmental problems and their solutions. Interdisciplinary museum activities including social science aspects on institutions and values are recommended. Moreover, it is argued that the emotions and the scientific and political controversies involved in environmental issues should not be seen as obstacles to museum engagement in the environmental field, but rather as important ingredients in creating valuable museum experiences.