Celebrating Sustainable Practice

By Lindsay Martin,
Senior Consultant,
Lord Cultural Resources

Increasingly sustainability is the primary concern of cultural organizations, new and old alike. While shifts in the global economy and recent events have helped to put this issue at the forefront of management, government and board discussions – it has always been core to the missions of museums. Museums are the keepers of tangible and intangible heritage; preserving it in perpetuity for future generations. Thus they must be sustainable to fulfill the promise of their missions and carry out this critical societal responsibility.

As civic leaders, museums must strive for and balance social, environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability – the quadruple bottom line. Each dimension of sustainability has its own unique charge, yet is mutually reinforcing with the others.
 

The articles in this edition examine how museums are making meaningful contributions to each of these dimensions of sustainability. On the social dimension, the National Civil Rights Museum in Nashville, Tennessee shares with us about their commitment to making education a civil right in America. On the environmental dimension, the California Museum Association’s Green Accord, a collective action of museums to contribute to environmental sustainability, features highlights from its members. Ted Silberberg provides insights to trends in financial sustainability. For the cultural dimension, the Liberation War Museum in Bangladesh tells us about an education program that embraces the museums mission to be a national museum and engage young people in dialogue. Longwood Gardens, an organization now into six years of delivering on its its plans, shares how planning has contributed to long-term sustainability and success.

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By Tracy Lauritzen Wright,
Director of Administration and Special Projects,
National Civil Rights Museum

In 2011, the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM), located at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, celebrated its twentieth anniversary. At the time this was a significant milestone, as NCRM was the first museum to interpret the African American civil rights movement in permanent exhibit format. The original museum design approached the story NCRM interprets from a perspective of commemoration, which was appropriate as the first museum of this kind in the nation.

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By Tim McNeil,
Chair,
California Association of Museums Green Museums Initiative Committee

Launched in 2010 by the California Association of Museums, the Green Museums Accord encourages museums to become catalysts for environmental sustainability. The goal is straightforward: every museum, regardless of mission, size or resources, can do something to support a sustainable future. Adoption is simple: it is a non-legally binding commitment to start greening a museum.

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By Ted Silberberg,
Senior Principal, Market and Financial Planning,
Lord Cultural Resources

In these tough economic times, strategies to boost earned income and control operating costs are of substantial importance to the financial sustainability of many museums. In reality, a combination of private and government sources still account for the bulk of operating revenues. Financial sustainability is thus very much about identifying not only what the market wants but also what funders want (private and governmental).

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By Mofidul Hoque,
Trustee,
Liberation War Museum

Paul B. Redman,
Director,
Longwood Gardens