The Sustainable Development Goals

Guide: Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals, Asia-Europe Museum Network, 7 September 2019

Written by Henry McGhie (founder, Curating Tomorrow), Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals is a free, how-to guide for museums, galleries, the cultural sector and their partners. It is intended to help empower museums (small, large and of any kind, anywhere), museum workers, museum networks and their partners to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The guide outlines a six-step plan for museums to plan activity to support the SDGs, and outlines seven key activities that align with the SDGs, mapping these against the 17 Goals and 169 targets. The six-step plan and seven key activities are scalable, and can therefore be applied to individual museum workers (in different roles), to museums, role types, museum networks and the overall sector.

Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals is based on the idea that the SDGs are not just for governments: they are an invitation to all sectors of society, in all places, to collaborate and participate in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. To this end, the publication sets out the vision of the SDGs, explains the SDG agenda and sets out how the SDGs need museums and museums need the SDGs.

Henry McGhie, who worked in museums for nearly two decades, founded Curating Tomorrow to help museums and their partners enhance their contributions to creating a sustainable future. He is a member of the Sustainability Working Group established by ICOM in 2018, the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, and the Education, Communication and Outreach Stakeholders recognised by UNFCCC. He was involved in getting museums recognised as key sites for climate change education and action in the Workplan for the Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2018.

Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals: A how-to guide for museums, galleries, the cultural sector and their partners is available as a free download from https://curatingtomorrow236646048.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/how-can-museums-support-the-sustainable-development-goals/

See also: https://curatingtomorrow236646048.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/how-can-museums-support-the-sustainable-development-goals/