Cultural Heritage and Climate: ICOMOS x Smithsonian Institution Symposium
Climate change is rapidly becoming one of the most urgent threats to people and their cultural heritage worldwide, even as heritage itself offers powerful pathways for climate action. To confront these challenges, ICOMOS joins the Smithsonian for Stemming the Tide: Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Through Climate Change, a two-day symposium that examines climate impacts, equity, and the responsibilities of heritage stewards.
A flourishing partnership for heritage climate action
The event will be held 5-6 March in Washington, DC through compelling talks and breakout sessions across six Smithsonian museums, each reflecting the cultural heritage categories defined by ICOMOS, the event asks where the field stands today, where it must go, and how we can get there together.
ICOMOS is proud to be joining with the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) as co-sponsors of the Symposium, which is being hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Collections Programme.
Sharing expertise to drive collective progress
Honoring the ICOMOS–Smithsonian collaboration, the conference’s organization draws in part on the 2019 ICOMOS report, The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action. Building on the report’s framework, the conference will examine the intersection of climate change with six distinct categories of cultural heritage.
The following words quoted from the Climate Change and Heritage Working Group sjow ICOMOS President’s Toshiyuki Kono observations on multidisciplinary advocacy and collective action for heritage preservation :
It would be foolish to imagine the practice of heritage remaining static while the world goes through the rapid and far-reaching transitions discussed in the IPCC’s recent Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. Responding requires adjustments in the aims and methodologies of heritage practice.
Programme highlights
-
Opening Address:
-
Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian
-
-
Keynote Speakers:
-
Kenneth Kimmell – President of the Union of Concerned Scientists
-
Alison Tickell – Founder of Julie’s Bicycle, a London-based charity that helps the creative community take action on climate change and environmental sustainability
-
-
Closing Remarks:
-
Andrew Potts – Coordinator of the ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group and the Climate Heritage Network (CHN)
-
Note: ICOMOS serves as the secretariat for CHN
-
-
This format will culminate in six breakout sessions, each held at a different Smithsonian museum or research centers in Washington:
- Intangible Cultural Heritage and Climate Change (Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage);
- Archaeological Sites and Climate Change (National Museum of Asian Art);
- Built Heritage and Climate Change (National Museum of American History);
- Cultural Communities and Climate Change (National Museum of the American Indian);
- Cultural and Historic Urban Landscapes and Climate Change (National Museum of Natural History) and
- Museums and Collections and Climate Change (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
The week’s activities will conclude with a public programme on the evening of 6 March as part of the IIC’s “Point of the Matter Dialogue” in partnership with AIC, ICOMOS and the Smithsonian. The dialogue, entitled “Heritage at Risk: A Dialogue on the Effects of Climate Change,” will be moderated by IIC President Julian Bickersteth of Australia. The entire programme can be found here.
With its focus on the responsibilities of cultural heritage stewards to leverage cultural heritage for climate action and to address urgent questions of equity and inclusion, the Smithsonian collaboration was a perfect fit with ICOMOS’s approach Potts said, adding “this is how we mobilise arts, culture and heritage for climate action – together.”