The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Inescapable Challenge of the Anthropocene for Museums

Abstract

Several indicators suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised public awareness around climate and environmental emergencies, and expanded global consciousness around the interdependencies of natural systems and their individual components. These trends add up to a growing awareness of both environmental damage and social injustices, brought to wide global attention by the 2019 Climate Strikes and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests of 2020. How can museums take advantage of this new social and activist climate, as we resurface form the severe limitations imposed by pandemic-related health and safety measures? The concept of the Anthropocene stands out as the most powerful, all-inclusive topic that museums can leverage to reshape their relationship with a new form of citizenship during and following the Covid-19 crisis. In this article, and drawing on my work and experiences at the MUSE – Science Museum in Italy, I will offer some discussion around the urgent need, for the entire museum community, to review museum polices and activities in light of the Anthropocene paradigm, a process that museums must undertake thorough a complex process of internal strategic change. One key issue with pervasive consequences over several museum activities is the need to shift our storytelling from the humanity-against-nature narrative (a 20th-century environmentalist view) to a humanities-against-(other)-humanities narrative, which more properly describes the current Anthropocene-era conflict between different values and ethical principles with regard to the ontological status of our planet. Moreover and above all, museums need to become increasingly aware of their political role in society, and be prepared to assert it more than is customary in our practices. If the commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda honours the institutional task of museums, the proposal for critical debate on Anthropocene issues stands out as the main challenge for museums who wish to fulfil their social and political roles in a post-Covid-19 world.