On the 7th of April 2022, Leading Cultural Destinations (LCD) will once again hold it's renowned Annual Awards Ceremony at LCD Berlin. The event will be hosted in-person for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. SUNx Malta has partnered with LCD since 2017 to present the Climate SmART Award as a distinct category in this ceremony. The last winner in 2020 was the KlimaHaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost in Germany. The award aims to publicly highlight and recognize the central role Museums and Public Art Projects play in Climate education and to focus attention on establishments that have risen to the challenge of advocating sustainable change, teaching and explaining existential Climate change.

SUNx Malta is a legacy to Maurice Strong, Climate & Sustainability activist half a century ago, who organized the first Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972 and the follow up in Rio 1992. SUNx Malta is an EU NGO, supported by Malta’s Ministry of Tourism, with Malta Tourism Authority, and is advancing a Climate Friendly Travel culture - based on application of SDG 2030 and Paris 1.5 by Tourism Companies, Communities and Consumers.

There are 3 Nominees for the 2021/2022 Climate SmART Award.

Watch the LCD Awards trailers here (bottom of page)

The LÀ Art Museum in Hevergerdi, South Iceland

The LÀ Art Museum in Hevergerdi, South Iceland is the oldest Public Art Museum outside Helsinki and was nominated for the hosting of a group exhibition, ‘Norðrið’ (‘North’), featuring artists from Iceland, Finland and Sweden. ‘Norðrið’ (‘North’) shows, through varied and diverse mediums from paintings to sculptures, how Climate Change is rapidly affecting the unique Nordic natural environments and how artists are reacting to these subtle yet permanent changes. Hosting such exhibitions is exactly the type of Climate Action by which Museums, particularly through artistic means, can touch all types of audiences and encourage the public to notice the tiny daily changes in their local surroundings, to think of what will disappear and what might emerge, to consider the consequences and to be moved to share change.

The KlimaHuset, Oslo Natural History Museum in Norway

The KlimaHuset, Oslo Natural History Museum in Norway is the one of the most recent Climate Change Museums. It is dedicated to communicating Climate Change and has adhered to rigorous climate positive building standards to limit Carbon emissions and physically demonstrate a variety of climate friendly techniques. Located in Oslo Botanical Gardens, alongside a diverse array of interactive exhibitions inside the Klimahuset and the outdoor Climate Garden, it also houses an amphitheatre to host public lectures and meetings primarily directed at youth audiences to inform on research in Climate and environmental science. The new museum aims to inspire widespread public change towards a sustainable way of life.

The Australian Museum in Sydney

The Australian Museum in Sydney is an example of a venerable public museum actively evolving to rise to the challenges of it's time, both in the Climate education services it provides to the public and the sustainability commitments it has undertaken to reduce the institution's carbon emissions, changing energy and waste management and aligning with the SDGs. The Australian Museum has a mission to "ignite wonder, inspire debate and drive change" and to this end it has several projects - on site permanent and temporary Climate themed or solution exhibitions and virtual exhibition tours with online resources.

These three exceptional nominees make for an exciting award event at LCD Berlin, but they also show the central importance of these public spaces where people can gather to learn, share and be inspired. Whatever the Climate SmART Award outcome, here at SUNx Malta we are happy to partner with LCD in showcasing these dynamic institutions and salute the many others around the world that are actively seeking to educate inclusively, to generate debate, discussion and cohesion around existential Climate Change.

Ana Barret