(Madison, Wis.) Madison Children's Museum received one of only five Climate Smart grants given by the National Endowment for the Humanities last week.
The grant was announced as "$268,202 match for 'Caretakers of Wonder Consortium Climate Action Planning,'" with Brenda Baker, the museum's vice president of exhibits, facilities, and strategic initiatives, listed as the project lead. The grant will help "[develop] climate action plans for a consortium of seven family-centered museums led by the Madison Children’s Museum and located in seven different states across the United States: Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin."
"Madison Children's Museum, along with the Caretakers of Wonder network partners, is thrilled to be recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities with a Climate Smart grant that will allow each institution to plan for and adapt to a warming world, modeling bold climate action for the children and families we serve," said Baker.
The U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities is granting $26.2 million in funding for 238 projects across the country.
Overall, NEH made awards in 13 programs, including archaeological and ethnographic field research, humanities perspectives on the danger and opportunities of technology, dialogues on the experience of war, documenting endangered languages, media projects, exhibitions and more.
The Madison Children's Museum award was one of several grants in NEH’s Climate Smart Humanities Program, which supports cultural institutions in conducting environmental assessments to anticipate and plan for operational, physical, and financial risks posed by climate-related events.
Caretakers of Wonder consortium members participating in the NEH grant are Chicago Children’s Museum, Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon, KidsQuest Children’s Museum, Louisiana Children’s Museum, Madison Children’s Museum, Museum of Discovery and Science, and The Wild Center.
The consortium plans to hire Verdis Consulting firm, an environmental consulting firm, to conduct individual assessments of each organization’s Green House Gas emissions baseline that creates a Net Zero Pathway for each museum. Several museums will also conduct a Climate Vulnerability Assessment and a Climate Action Plan, uniquely created for each museum’s location, site, and needs. Each assessment will help individual museums move their sustainability work forward by providing baseline energy audits in all areas of each museum's operations, from food service, to lighting, to air travel. A separately funded toolkit, launching this July, will help the consortium share work openly and broadly to help spark climate action planning across the larger museum field.
The Association of Children’s Museums will do their own climate assessment and help disseminate results of the grant work. Lead project partner Environment & Culture Partners will continue as the collaborative’s project manager.
