Design competition: Reimagining Museums for Climate Action

On the International Museum Day 18 May 2020, the competition “Reimagining Museums for Climate Action” was launched. Designers, architects, academics, artists, poets, philosophers, museum professionals and the public at large are asked to radically (re)imagine and (re)design the museum as an institution, to help bring about more equitable and sustainable futures in the climate change era.

The competition aims to explore how museums can help society transform to a low carbon future, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and safeguard ecosystems. The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area, which initiated the international design competition, hopes “that the multitude of ways in which communities globally have responded to COVID-19 might inspire new forms of radical action to address the climate and ecological emergency. In this moment, it is particularly important to consider the unique capacities of museums to shape more just and sustainable futures.”

Entries will be judged by an international panel of museum, architecture and design, climate change, heritage and sustainability experts. Eight finalists will each receive £2,500 (€2.797) to develop their ideas into exhibits, which will be displayed at Glasgow Science Centre ahead of and during COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference, in 2021.