Staff and volunteers
- All staff and volunteers are supported to build understanding and awareness and take positive, informed action and decisions. We provide certified Carbon Literacy Training (delivered peer-to-peer by a pool of museum staff trainers) and by Spring 2023, we aim to have over 80% of all staff and volunteers certified.
- The internal Environmental Action and Social Justice groups are open forums for all staff to contribute to discussion, knowledge exchange, action and mutual support. The groups comment on and shape the direction of Manchester Museum’s strategy
- In 2023 we will pilot a Climate Action Volunteering programme which will enable staff to use an allocation of their working hours to contribute to the local causes which we care about.
- We have appointed the dedicated post of Environmental Action Manager, Hannah Hartley, to coordinate this work, whose role supports the wider University of Manchester Environmental Sustainability Team.
Active Leadership
- Roots and Branches is an ambitious partnership project creating opportunities for museums to build capacity, skills, and knowledge and experiment with new ideas for a more sustainable future. It will enable the development and roll out of a Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit to over 1,500 colleagues across England by March 2023.
- We work closely with the arts and culture community to share knowledge, skills and experience and support innovation through participating in national and international networks, campaigns and initiatives including: National Museum Directors Council, UK Registrars Group, Culture Declares Emergency, Arts Green Book, Gallery Climate Coalition and The Happy Museum Project.
- We contribute to local policy and action through our leadership role in Greater Manchester’s cultural network GMAST and working with regional environmental agencies to shape Manchester’s Biodiversity Strategy.
Partnerships
- We promote collaborative working, shared goals and understanding across other institutions in the Manchester Museums Partnership ( a formal collaborative partnership betweenManchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth).
- We are forging relationships with education groups, charities, artists, social enterprises, staff and students in our Top Floor environmental action and social justice hub, a co-working space for people to come together to learn, share ideas, build community, and make plans.
Local, global, indigenous, and intergenerational communities
- We collaborate beyond the Museum with our neighbours, for example working to support Ardwick Climate Action in their goals.
- We introduce and highlight indigenous perspectives across our galleries and programmes such as Totem LATAMAT, Botany Bay.
- We share agency with local artists and groups so they can create new work and narratives from multiple perspectives, for example: People Planet Power, Grey on Green and Rubbish Night at the Museum.
- We seek to continually challenge and evolve our approach to engagement and participation, through projects such as Local Matters and Our Shared Cultural Heritage.