This newsletter celebrates the Spring Equinox by sharing with you some reviews of events, exhibitions and books that we have been involved in or that we have enjoyed lately.
One of the themes we’ve been exploring is “Looking at the Past to Inform the Future”. While we don’t have a physical museum you can visit, we are museum-like in that we explore the history of human interactions with the environment and the origins of the Earth Crisis, using this knowledge to inspire action and visions for the future. See this TED talk by Roman Krznaric to get a taste of this challenge of learning from History for Tomorrow.
Climate Museum UK news
CMUK appointed to deliver ‘Green Narratives’ Training for Museums Development Midlands
We are happy to announce our new collaboration with Museums Development Midlands for their upcoming ‘Green Narratives’ training programme.
CMUK Associates Clémence Aycard, Justine Boussard and Kathy Moore will be delivering a series of workshops focusing on how museums can harness their collections to respond to the Earth Crisis. From understanding the planetary emergency to looking at collections with an Eco-lens, making sense of climate psychology and designing appropriate displays, our sessions will provide participants with confidence and tools for engaging environmental interpretation.
A cohort of four Midlands museums will be selected from an open call to join the programme, which will take place between May 2025 and March 2026. If you are based in the Midlands, we highly recommend signing up to MDM’s newsletter and keeping an eye out of the programme announcement – applications will be open soon, and we’d love for you to join us!
Generation Hope Newcastle
Credit: Generation Hope: Newcastle workshop materials
Climate Museum UK was one of 12 organisations receiving funding from the Natural History Museum to deliver activities focused on creating advocates for the Planet as part of its Fixing Our Broken Planet community of practice. On Thursday 13 March, CMUK member Justine Boussard delivered the first of a series of participatory workshops designed for children aged 12+ to explore how change happens over time and what it means to be good ancestors. The children were taken on a guided tour of the museum looking at human adaptation since the last Ice Age, travelling back to the Carboniferous Age and learning about intergenerational stewardship with the Haudenasaunee.
The tour was followed by a future-focused group activity inspired by the work of Joanna Macy that explored the concept of the ‘Gifts of the Ancestors’, with students invited to choose gifts to pass onto their descendants to help them navigate their own future challenges on the themes of Food, Energy and Society. Students travelled to 2035 where they chose gifts according to short-term future scenarios, then to 2100 (by switching tables), when they discovered and debated the choices made by their 2035 ancestors.
This workshop was designed by Justine with support and guidance from CMUK collaborators Kevin Davidson, Kathy Moore and Bridget McKenzie, and Great North Museum learning officer Jo McSwaine.
Reviews
The Hidden Power of Soil
Review of Soil, an exhibition at Somerset House, by Bridget McKenzie
Photo: Bridget McKenzie, artwork from Soil exhibition at Somerset House
As you walk into ‘Soil’, there’s a prompt to imagine feeling what is under your feet, and then the text
Lately, I’ve been sensitive about the plight of animals in the Earth Crisis so I struggled in witnessing a piece ‘With Horses’ by Maeve Brennan, with films of mother and child horses living in plastic-infested land in Burkina Faso. This moment stirred me, shifting my mode from critiquing an art experience to feeling activated. From here, I searched for ways out of the soil to help create a thriving multispecies Earth. Then I saw the short film of the Arhuaco people in Colombia making payments to the soil, and I thought of Joe Brewer’s amazing work regenerating Barichara in Colombia. (If you want to make a soil payment, support the Earth Regenerator’s Fund.)
At the end there is a kitchen of eco-food ideas by Something & Son, with the image of Earth looking down, and here are some welcome ways for the audience to share their hope and ideas. Overall I greatly appreciated the approach of this show. It is a good example of my Earth Talk methodology of moving people from framing, to thinking, through empathy, to imagination and action. My main challenge is that the explanations of the works were difficult to understand, and didn’t answer key questions about the artists’ process and material.
The Green Ages
Review by Kathy Moore, of the book The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability
The aim of this brilliant book by Annette Kehnel is a familiar one to What would our ancestors suggest…?” Medieval people were better at long-time thinking than we are today.
Read more of this review on our website.
And, for an insight into the book, Annette Kehnel talks about it on the Medieval Podcast: https://youtu.be/cmQdcp_fbI4
Waters Rising
Review of Waters Rising, an exhibition at Perth Museum, by Clemence Aycard
Perth Museum (Scotland) reopened with a bang in 2024 after years of refurbishment. Its first exhibition, Unicorn, won a Museum Change Lives Award for its social impact in collaborating with community groups and highlighting LGBTQ+ lives and experiences.
Its second exhibition, Waters Rising, took on a new challenge by tackling the pressing topic of floods. Perth is built along the River Tay, the longest of Scotland’s rivers, a fishing haven that is prone to bursting its banks. Read more on our blog.
Earth Bound exhibition
CMUK Associate artist Jaime Jackson is working on the socially engaged program for New Art Gallery Walsall’s current Earth Bound Exhibition.
Left: Charmaine Watkiss, The warrior focuses intent to overcome adversity, 2022. Right: Sally Payen 2024, Core Sampling with Mountain View. Watercolour on handmade paper.
Set within the context of global anxiety about the climate crisis and planetary health research, the Earthbound exhibition at New Art Gallery Walsall presents existing and newly commissioned artworks that highlight our connection with the earth and our potential to return to a more healthy and harmonious existence with the natural world. It emerges from the argument that, over time, natural and human histories have become so disconnected that we have lost sight of the innate interconnectivity between human and natural life.
As part of the exhibition Jaime is co-organising a Nature and Culture Youth Summit: New Art Gallery Walsall: Thursday May 22nd 2025. Our nature and culture youth summit at the Gallery in West Midlands will support and enable young people by exploring their emotions and perspectives on what biodiversity and the earth crisis means to them. For more information on the summit contact email@jaimejackson.org.
Socks – The Art of Care and Repair
Review of the Socks exhibition at NOW Gallery, by Tamasin Rhymes
Photo: Tamasin Rhymes
The wall of colour on entry reminded me of Ed Hawkins’ warming stripes and represented all the 600+ school children who took part in workshops to learn about the art of darning. The stitching demonstrates the variety of skill and approach from the decorative and playfull to precise and adventurous.
The socks on display (and those available for visitors to experiment with) are donated from seconds by a traditional uk manufacturer using natural fibres.
There are videos and diagrams to show you how to get started. There are also stories of the journeys of the children and staff during the workshops as they experimented with stitches and transforming their socks.
There are also much loved examples of the artist’s friends and family’s loaned socks that have been mended, often multiple times.
Listening to other visitors handling the yarn and enjoying the colours and textures adds a layer of performance that is missing if you go round on your own.
Socks is on till March 30th at the NOW Gallery by North Greenwich tube station in south east London.
News from Climate Museum UK members
The Art of Rewilding
Climate Museum UK Associate and Artist James Aldridge is working with Wiltshire rewilding organisation Found Outdoors, to offer The Art of Rewilding.
The Art of Rewilding is a series of three one-day art and ecology workshops using visual arts methods to explore the relationship between ecological and human well-being.
Each day will focus on a different aspect of the land at Found Outdoors and introduce participants to new materials and equipment, to explore, record and share the plant and animal life found living there.
Workshops in this series:
- Thursday 8th May – Animal Tracks and Signs
- Saturday 12th July – Mapping and Mark Making
- Tuesday 23rd September – Understanding Trees and Leaves
Full information and booking details: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/found-outdoor
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