The Green Museum
posted by Shelley Howe | April 9, 2009
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IcerocketStarting my first blog on here about green museums coming up on the year 2012. If the Mayan Calendar abruptly ends on December 21st, 2012, what does this mean for museums? It could mean that it is more the end of an era than the apocolyptic disaster that is interpreted by some. Even if this end of the world concept is more myth than reality, we museum professionals are forever questing for the disaster plans that our facilities require and to create safer environments not just for the collections but for the people who live and breathe inside the museum. We are constantly searching for a way to protect our museum world. In the recent years, it appears that we are in the need to include a green museum plan in there as well. The use of less paper, going towards digitization of the collections and databases on the web for visitors and researchers to browse at their fingertips without having to create pollution driving to the museum. A building made out of environmentally safe materials and powered by the sun and wind would be the ideal. Maybe it will come to fruition at my museum but by the year 2012? I doubt it. The brainstormers group has been put into place, but the actual museum building would not break ground until the year 2017. Can we wait that long according to the emminent 2012 prediction? I am thinking we will probably have a few years to go before the end of the world. As said by one of our smartest citizens, it is at this time of greatest hardship that we rise above it and conquer all difficulties. At the precipice of existence are we the most capable of change.
Comments
This is really interesting.
— Apr 09, 2009
This is really interesting. I'd never thought about the impact specifically of museums, of which there are many here in New York. I'd love to hear more about your museum's plan of action.
the nature of art
— Apr 10, 2009
Hi Shelley,
It is also possible that the nature of art could change.
The separation of art from ritual and from expressions of the sacred was a recent phenomenon in human history. The act of preserving artifacts in a museum is a modern phenomenon. Art might be valued in a different way in the future. In fact we might return to reconnecting art with direct experiences of the sacred.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Hi everyone and happy Earth Day!
— Apr 22, 2009
We are at the end of a 10 year grant renewed every couple years to digitize our fine art, photo, archives, and ethnographic collections. It has been a debate about our newspaper archival collections, do we scan them all and recycle hundred year old newspapers? Historically, they are very valuable, but they are crumbling apart. I am not an archivist, but I was trained in museum studies masters, and I here that librarie archives scan/ microfishe the papers and toss them. But, in 100 years will we be able to access the media if technology is changing so quickly? Does the visitor lose out on the experience if they are in a virtual museum like on Second Life or just by going to a website where they can access our collections as we are planning to do with out extensive photo collection? We don't have a clear green plan yet but it is in the works.
