“The Natural History Museum” Exhibition
Queens Museum of Art
This event has ended.
In the face of both mounting evidence and denial about the causes and impacts of climate change, it is clear that our understanding of nature is shaped by social and political forces. Museums of natural history, a valued community resource with the potential to influence knowledge and therefore behavior, often lack a critical perspective when it comes to deeply politicized issues like climate change. This is not by accident.
The Natural History Museum, a new museum initiated by arts collective Not An Alternative, seeks to reveal the underlying factors shaping the museum experience, from exhibit design to PR strategy and corporate sponsorship. The Natural History Museum offers exhibitions, expeditions, educational workshops and public programming, but makes a point to include and highlight the social and political forces that shape nature, yet are left out of traditional natural history museums.
As with many of Not An Alternative’s previous projects, The Natural History Museum employs the strategy of mimicry—originally a scientific process among animal species, now powerfully deployed by activists to exert pressure on predatorial actors. In this case, the collective’s members mimic traditional natural history museums by performing as anthropologists in order to politicize the aesthetics of the re-presentation of nature.
The project was inspired when members of Not An Alternative learned that oil man and financier David Koch sits on the board of New York’s own American Museum of Natural History. Koch Industries is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and the Koch brothers fund a large network of organizations that misrepresent climate science.
“In the long term, this project aims to model the museum of the future,” said Not An Alternative member Beka Economopoulos. “It’s not a joke or a punchline. It will speak earnestly to the ideals and values of natural history museums. Wouldn’t it be great if the institutions that provide us with our basic perspective on nature weren’t hamstrung by the threat of self-censorship that comes from accepting corporate cash? And what if they actively championed a version of nature capable of sustaining life for generations to come?”
“We saw the opportunity to move beyond critique to build an institution that could impact other institutions,” said Economopoulos. “We are borrowing the aesthetics, pedagogical models and presentation forms of natural history museums in order to support a perspective that regards nature as a commons.”
Full event info: thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/files/NHM_program and release.pdf
Media
Schedule
from September 13, 2014 to October 04, 2014
See Description
Opening Reception on 2014-09-13 from 17:00 to 20:00