A climate-focused museum that until now has only been able to operate through temporary “pop-up” exhibitions is set to gain a permanent home in New York City, amid some criticism that the new building works required will undermine the very mission of the institution.
The Climate Museum is a concept founded by Miranda Massie. Once a social justice lawyer, she now seeks to amplify climate change messaging through art and dialogue, and bring hope to those experiencing existential despair or apathy. For several years, the “museum” has organised temporary exhibitions around the city that never sleeps, in venues such as Washington Square Park, the Rockefeller Center and Governors Island, reaching between 100,000 and 150,000 visitors.
Urban regeneration and sustainability questions
Now the museum has secured a permanent home in New York’s Hudson Yards, a West Side, midtown area of the city that was formerly occupied by railway yards serving Penn Central. It is an unusual plot in that it is one of the few remaining parcels in New York that is state-owned. The museum will be created alongside an urban regeneration project that will also see the construction of over 1,349 apartments and a hotel.
Covering 2,230 square metres, or the equivalent of around 150 parking spaces, the Climate Museum will occupy three storeys and be designed by FXCollaborative, the architects behind the Statue of Liberty Museum – another development on a sensitive, historic and restricted site. They will need to draw on many of the same skills used for the Liberty project when working on the Climate Museum to answer critics like museum consultant and leading arts educator, András Szántó, who say new construction is inappropriate for an establishment that seeks to promote sustainability.
“Moving us closer to a safe and just future”
But pop-up projects also have their own carbon footprint, argues Massie. “Our exhibitions have already inspired waves of civic action. This permanent, year-round space will make our signature, interactive arts and cultural programming more accessible to more people. Ultimately, this means more climate dialogue and action – moving us closer to a safe and just future,” she points out in a press release about the acquisition.
Slated for opening in 2029, the Climate Museum is already creating debate and reflection on sustainable action in the face of climate doom and is not the only cultural institution to come in for environmental criticism. Berlin’s Museum of the 20th Century, designed by Swiss “star-chitects” Herzog and de Meuron, was dubbed “the barn” during the initial phases of the project, and slammed by climate campaigners for its vast, difficult-to-ventilate structure made of concrete – one of the worst polluting materials in the world.
