In the post-Standing Rock moment, museums are being called on to not simply describe the loss of life on Earth, but to act as allies and amplifiers of Native-led movements to protect water, land, and sacred sites. Drawing on recent initiatives organized by the Lummi Nation and The Natural History Museum, a traveling pop-up museum founded by the activist art collective Not An Alternative, this talk will explore how the symbolic and infrastructural power of museums might be leveraged to protect natural and cultural heritage and our collective future.

The Natural History Museum will install their traveling, outdoor exhibition and IMAX-style film projection venue outside the Vashon Heritage Museum this July and August, with a presentation of “Whale People: Protectors of the Sea“, featuring a 3,000 pound killer whale totem and an award-winning film that tells the story of the environmental emergency through the figure of the orca.

Speaker Bios: Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones

The Natural History Museum takes the form of a traveling pop-up museum that highlights the socio-political forces that shape nature yet are excluded from traditional natural history and science museums. NHM collabo­rates with artists, curators, community groups, scien­tists, and museum professionals to create new narra­tives about our shared history and future, with the goal of educating the public, measurably influencing public opinion, and inspiring collective action. The museum is the latest project of Not An Alternative, a collective that since 2004 has worked at the intersection of art, activism, and critical theory. The group’s work has been featured within Guggenheim, PS1/MOMA, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Tate Modern, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Museo del Arte Moderno, and in the public sphere. Not An Alternative connects movements to museums and museums to movements, fostering a growing coalition of museum workers, activist scientists, and frontline communities