Samantha Fryer Ward explains the impact that climate change is having on the museum sector and the steps the Corinium Museum is taking to conserve the past, preserve the present and protect all our futures.
Today, the Corinium is marking Carbon Literacy Action Day. The event on November 14th aligns with the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 29, in Azerbaijan. You may be wondering why a museum is involved in this. Why is this relevant? Well, it is something that our sector takes very seriously, not only because climate change is impacting the present and the future, but it is also impacting our heritage and how we can protect and preserve it.
We have responsibility as members of the community in Cirencester to act. We have a responsibility as guardians and caretakers of the heritage of the area to preserve and protect its history for future generations. We also have the duty to tell the biggest stories of the past, present and future. Climate change is perhaps one of the biggest stories in the world today.
Just one example of the impact of climate change from our museum here. The building in which the museum is housed is not that old (mid-18th century) particularly when compared to some of Cirencester’s medieval architecture and Roman remains. The UK has always been subjected to a lot of rain, but climate change means that the rainfall is in much more intense bursts, with a greater volume of rain falling in a shorter space of time. While our buildings have always been designed to deal with rainfall, these intense bursts mean that older roof tiles and guttering struggle to cope. In our museum galleries we have intact Roman roof tiles on display. What will our legacy be to the museum visitors of the future? Will any of our historic roof tiles on the building today remain for future generations to appreciate?
Climate change also brings with it a threat to our collections, and not just from the impact on the buildings in which they are housed. Raising temperatures and relative humidity can lead to an increase in certain types of pest that are a threat to our artefacts, whether they are made from fabric or other natural materials.
But it is not just how climate change is affecting us that it is important to consider, but our own impact on the climate. In the museum we are making very conscious efforts to reduce our energy consumption. The museum building is Grade II listed, so all changes must go through a rigorous vetting process. Thus, our beautiful, single-glazed sash windows are preserved and not replaced with more energy-efficient modern ones. Making adaptations is difficult but not impossible, and, in many ways, we can learn from the past. Those sash windows have wooden shutters designed to keep in the warmth and also to keep out the sun when it gets hot outside. We utilise these traditional methods to help to regulate temperatures in some of our spaces, without the need for expensive and impactful air conditioning, helping to lower our energy consumption.
In 2022, constructive changes we made to our buildings saw us gain a Green Apple Award and we were voted runner-up locally for our Environmental Projects that supported our commitment to reducing our carbon emissions. We are also very proud to have a public building rated DEC B and we aim to maintain this rating by continuing to improve.
We also regularly monitor our reserve collections in our climate-controlled stores. We have worked hard to find out the best way to maintain the ideal temperature and humidity to preserve artefacts at the lowest energy consumption possible. Our shop uses paper bags, not plastic, and we try to source as many local products as possible as well as reducing the amount of plastic that we sell.
All staff members at the museum are in the process of completing Carbon Literacy Training for Museums. This course helps us to understand more about the issues as well as the actions we can take as a museum and as individuals.
On November 14th, and every other day, the Corinium Museum will be taking into account its actions and its impact to ensure that we can protect the past, present and the future.
