UK climate change museum looks for funding to accelerate development

Crowdfunding is being used to raise money for a pop-up climate change museum for the UK.

The brainchild of cultural consultant Bridget McKenzie, Climate Museum UK can be hired by museums, schools, libraries or businesses, with content targeted to its next location – for example, low lying areas might focus on the history of flooding. It will include props, games and infographics that McKenzie herself is developing while not dealing with her day job.

"There’s been a lot of interest shown in the project," she said, speaking to Attractions Management. "Without funding, I can’t progress as fast as I would like to, but in order to get funding, I need to be more progressed than I am."

Funds raised through the crowdfunding campaign will be used to develop a website without advertising, and finish the business plan and prototype, with a view to getting some pop-ups going this summer. The St Margaret’s House chapel in East London will host the first one-day workshop.

Additional aspects to the plan include developing a tour script around a current exhibition or site, bringing a climate change theme into that setting, and a digital museum of music, art and resources connected to climate change.

Currently, a climate museum is being established in New York on a permanent site, and this inspired McKenzie to pursue her movable museum idea for the UK. There is, she says, a growing movement in the cultural sector to discuss climate change, and this must continue.

"Many museums are starting to integrate the environment into their work for social action. We’ve gone past the point of asking if museums can affect change. We know they can, so they need to start doing it."

To read the full article see Issue 1 2019 of Attractions Management here