Manchester Museum and The Whitworth – Leading the way
Manchester Museum and The Whitworth, both part of the University of Manchester, have been involved in MAST since its beginnings in 2011. Both the museum and the gallery have shown some great examples of environmental leadership over the last decade, putting environmental sustainability at the heart of building redevelopment, exhibitions and collaboration.
A green gallery in a green park
The Whitworth reopened its doors in 2015 following a major building refurbishment and extension project, to which environmental sustainability was central. The extended and refurbished building features a range of green technologies such as a ground source heat pump, a solar thermal array to heat hot water and specialist glazing to reduce solar gain as well as sustainable materials such as lime plaster and locally sourced recycled bricks. All this resulted not only in beautiful new spaces and an Art Fund Museum of the Year 2015 award, but also an ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating.
Whitworth exterior
The gardens in which the gallery is set have been landscaped to encourage biodiversity and are managed and maintained by the gallery’s Landscape & Sustainability Technician and Art Garden volunteers. The Whitworth is unique in having created two dedicated posts - Landscape & Sustainability Technician and Cultural Park Keeper - whose remit includes raising awareness, educating and inspiring its many and diverse visitors in all things ‘green’.
Its Going Green webpages provide lots more information about the sustainability of the building, the gardens and its other environmental initiatives.
Whitworth gardens
Living Worlds to Climate Labs
Manchester Museum has reinvented the traditional natural history gallery. Its Living Worlds Gallery recognises that people are part of nature and encourages visitors to explore the natural world and their relationship to nature. Over the years the gallery has run many different exhibitions, including After the Bees and Extinction or Survival exploring themes of loss and the impact of humans on the natural environment and, Nature and Me, a series of films of local people and their connections to nature. And it continues to stimulate and galvanise public and local community interest in environmental sustainability.
2016’s Climate Control was a six-month long series of exhibitions and events exploring what kind of future people hope for and how to make it a reality, including opportunities to rebuild a model Manchester. Over 90,000 visitors attended. Climate Control was carried out in partnership with the Tyndall Centre, the Global Development Institute and Manchester Climate Change Agency, as part of Climate Lab, an experimental programme to test different ways to engage Manchester stakeholders in developing city climate change strategy.
Living World Gallery, Manchester Museum - Photo: G. Gardner
Climate Control, Manchester Museum 2016 - Photo: G. Gardner
Solutions for museums and galleries
Maintaining appropriate environmental conditions – humidity and temperature - to ensure collection care is a big source of energy use for museums and galleries. Yet it still tends to be an area where there has been relatively little progress on the energy efficiency side.
The Whitworth however, has been well ahead of the pack. It ensures environmental conditions for its collection care through mainly passive techniques with minimal energy use, an approach made possible as a result of extensive engagement of the gallery team during building redevelopment.
Collection storage was rearranged and consolidated in the basement, making it easier to zone settings and controls, and a range of measures introduced to maintain stable environmental conditions while reducing or eliminating the need for air conditioning and active chilling. Passive techniques include the use of materials such as lime plaster - which naturally store heat when it is warm and release it when it is cooler - solar shading and roof insulation, mechanical ventilation and creating promenades which wrap around exhibition spaces acting as a buffer zone.
When the Covid pandemic made it either impossible or extremely difficult for curators to accompany loans as they normally would, ensuring safe carriage and installation at the other end, Manchester Museum started trying out digital couriers.
This process resulted in valuable learning around risk management and managing the loan process remotely. One such example was the loan of Ancient Egyptian artefacts to an American museum. Handling this loan remotely represented quite a challenge for the team considering the size, age and nature of the artefacts. However, with a trusted museum partner, good risk management, dedicated teams with high levels of expertise on both sides and the technology to meet remotely at all stages of the process, the loan worked successfully – without the need for any of the museum team to fly long-haul.
The museum now intends to develop the procedure and risk management so it can continue using digital couriering with confidence, while cutting down on air travel and saving carbon going forward.
Roots & Branches
In 2021, Manchester Museum started work on creating a nationally significant co-working hub of cultural environmental action. The hub will bring together museum staff, educators, environmentalists, artists, researchers, third sector organisations and students and will be coordinated by an innovative new post shared between Manchester Museum and the Carbon Literacy Trust.
It is part of the Roots & Branches partnership project between Manchester Museum, the Carbon Literacy Project and Museum Development North West (MDNW) which aims to accelerate the museum sector’s ability to respond to the climate crisis. MDNW will host a new Environmental Sustainability Museum Development Officer post leading the roll-out of Carbon Literacy training across museums in England over two years and creating an environmentally aware and active sector.
Find out more about sustainability commitments on the websites for the Manchester Museum and The Whitworth
