The United Nations (UN) Climate Week provides a platform for organizations and individuals to come together sparking climate action through education, engagement, and collaboration. Museums and cultural institutions have a critical voice in advancing climate action. But how can museums promote awareness through art and culture of an environmentally sound and just society? The 17×17 initiative by ICOM Austria is designed to demonstrate that museums take the SDGs seriously and can make a contribution to their implementation. To increase solution-oriented imagining on museum strategies for fostering environmental sustainability, The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Environment Climate Network (ECN) featured this webinar in cooperation with ICOM Austria and the MuseumsQuartier Vienna.

23. September 2022

Program:
 

Welcome Message
Laura Huerta Migus, Deputy Director, Office of Museum Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services
 

Introduction
Joyce S. Lee, FAIA, WELL AP, LEED Fellow President, IndigoJLD Green + Health Chair, AAM Environment Climate Network
 

17 Museums × 17 SDGs — Museums as Pioneers of Social, Ecological and Economic Development.
Bettina Leidl, President, ICOM Austria & Director, MuseumsQuartier Vienna (MQ)
Doris Rothauer, Museum Adviser, Bureau for Transfer
 

Best Practice-Examples 17 Museums x 17 SDGs
Otto Hochreiter, Director, Graz Museum
Friedrun Schwanzer, Managing Director, Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Alexandra Guth, Public Relations, Belvedere

Technical Partner:
MuseumsQuartier Vienna
 

The Agenda 2030 pursued by the United Nations through the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisages a world in which every individual can live a dignified and fulfilling life, a world that ensures the planet’s survival through responsible consumption and sustainable growth, and a world without hunger, poverty, injustice and inequality. It is an agenda for the sustainable economic, social and environmental transformation of our society. In that regard, the seventeen SDGs are an ambitious call to us all, at both the individual and institutional level, to contribute to the sustainable development of our planet so as to safeguard our future potential.

But how can museums promote awareness through art and culture of an environmentally sound and just society? The 17×17 initiative is designed to demonstrate that museums take the SDGs seriously and can make a contribution to their implementation. It aims at awareness-raising and visibility, both internally with respect to the museum staff themselves and externally with respect to the public, in other words the visitors and stakeholders. It makes accessible to as many people as possible the vision by the international community of an optimistic future for all in the field of culture, since museums and art institutions are important societal actors with a wide impact. It strengthens relationships with internal and external stakeholders and communities through information, discourse, lobbying and a common language and aims.

During a one-hour live discussion, distinguished museum professionals will engage in an insightful dialogue addressing their response to operational sustainability while preserving cultural heritage and inspiring, protecting and respecting their communities. Participants from around the globe tuned in.

Links:

https://www.aam-us.org/event/un-climate-week-webinar-2022-looking-ahead-...
http://icom-oesterreich.at/
https://www.mqw.at/en/
http://www.dorisrothauer.com/en
https://www.grazmuseum.at/en/
https://www.museumdermoderne.at/en/
https://www.belvedere.at/en