Mobilizing people in this enormous demographic to take steps toward climate action and community building is the single most important thing we can do as cultural institutions.

Museums like PEM also hold immense public trust and popularity. Research shows that the public perceives museums to be highly reliable sources of information, both in general and on climate. Their trustworthiness, and their broad, and remarkable, popularity make them a powerful tool for reshaping the public’s understanding of the climate crisis and catalyzing collective action. We’re also heartened by studies that show that asking visitors to take mission-consistent action enhances the immense public trust that museums hold. Climate Action is a phenomenal example of a museum mobilizing these superpowers for climate progress.

Critical to climate progress, and to the Climate Museum’s theory of change, is that this sense of community in the museum sector should be seen as part of a broad renewal of the aspiration for different forms of “town square” – public spaces or commons accessible to all – now with an increased focus on justice and belonging. The climate crisis and the crisis of inequality are completely bound up with each other. The commons we are helping to revitalize must be based on principles of equity and inclusion.

I became aware of the climate crisis as a crisis of inequality because of my background in the study of civil rights in the United States and the practice of social justice law. As a lawyer, I worked in close conjunction with activist organizations and movements, and that orientation has strongly shaped my work at the Climate Museum. Creating space for a civic community to develop is an essential component of the museum’s work.

We do this by convening people to learn and move together toward a brighter future through pathways that include interdisciplinary exhibitions, art installations, interactive panels, performances, science events, youth programs and more. Interdisciplinary arts programming is a fundamental pathway into climate engagement because of the intensely communal nature of the arts in human culture. Climate arts create a sense of connection, which fosters the very community we seek to build.

Interdisciplinary arts programming we’ve presented has moved our audiences, and I’m certain the same will be true of PEM’s Climate Action. Our very first gallery exhibition, In Human Time, presented the work of artists Zaria Forman and Peggy Weil in partnership with Parsons School of Design, exploring ice loss, humanity and deep time. Visitors responded with resolve — “I feel the overwhelming necessity to do something… NOW,” one visitor responded — and a hunger for more: “Never has this made more sense than now — A hurricane Irma survivor.”

We also present programming outside museum walls. Public installations and programs allow us to engage with local and diverse communities in a concerted way. Our citywide art installation in the fall of 2018, Climate Signals by artist Justin Brice Guariglia, activated public parks and plazas in all five boroughs of New York City. At an Ask A Scientist day, passersby most commonly asked one question: “What can I do?”