Climate action in practice at UK museums and galleries
This downloadable resource contains seven case studies, detailing ways in which museums, galleries and cultural organisations across the UK are engaging audiences with the climate crisis and reducing the environmental impact of their programmes.
At Art Fund, we recognise the cultural sector's responsibility and want to urgently respond to the climate crisis. We are committed to supporting the sector to develop programmes to engage audiences with this complex topic, building confidence, creating dialogue with local communities, and connecting with local groups.
In May and June 2025 Art Fund supported 44 museums, galleries and cultural organisations across the UK to programme events inspired by THE HERDS, an ever-growing herd of life-size puppet animals stampeding into cities across Africa and Europe to flee climate disaster. Activities were designed to respond to the climate crisis and connect local communities with museum collections and the natural world.
To support this, we have produced a collection of case studies which show just a glimpse of what’s happening across the sector – aimed to inspire learning and engagement teams who are thinking about:
Engagement through storytelling
Connecting with communities
Collaborating with young people
Reducing the environmental impact of activities
Collaboration with local environmental groups
The downloadable resource below contains seven case studies, which detail a variety of ways in which museums, galleries and cultural organisations are engaging audiences with the climate crisis and reducing the environmental impact of their programmes.