Continued Climate Conversations: A Webinar

About This Video Webinar

Museums are great places to learn something new, and museums in the United States see nearly 850 million visits annually. But they’re not just for public entertainment or dispensaries for interesting facts. They’re often also active research institutions.

Thanks to their trusted relationships with local audiences, museums are in unique positions to educate in new ways and inspire others to take action. Sometimes this takes some experimentation to find what resonates best with the average visitor, but it’s a rewarding process as museum experts help their guests connect with exhibited topics.

During a recent webinar hosted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC), NHMU’s Curator of Learning Sciences, Lynne Zummo presented her research alongside Nathan Lachenmyer, a partner at Sitara Systems. They discussed how museums are developing creative audience engagement strategies, the resources and relationships required to support ongoing research, and how other institutions of informal learning can implement similar tactics.

You can watch the full webinar here, or on the YPCCC’s original post. Want to dive even deeper? Check out a recent interview that the YPCCC conducted with Zummo and her colleague Lisa Thompson, NHMU’s Exhibit Developer/Interpretive Planner. In this interview, they discuss the importance of creative climate communication and are celebrated for their exemplary work on NHMU’s a Climate of Hope exhibition.

About a Climate of Hope

Photo by Mark Johnston | NHMU

Utah’s climate is changing and the impacts are profound. The good news is that it’s not too late to create a future in which humans and nature thrive — every bit of warming we prevent will help.

A Climate of Hope sets the stage by offering guests a path to rational hope in what is often perceived as a hopeless situation. The exhibition then explores the impacts of climate change in Utah before celebrating solutions that have been developed right here in our home state. Finally, as guests depart they are offered opportunities to connect with climate action at the local level.