An online lecture by Executive Director for ArtScience Museum Honor Harger, covering the topic of “Futures Imagined: Museums and Planetary Wellbeing”, was given on September 10 as part of the educational programme for Recycle Group`s exhibition New Nature.
It can be difficult to think about anything other than the present during a time of crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic is surging in many places around the world. Climate change is getting worse. And many people are desperately anxious about conflict in places like Afghanistan. The past year has felt like one continuous crisis, an extended fraught now. It can be hard to think beyond that grim horizon.
But this talk insisted that curators and other professionals who work in museums, at the confluence of the past, present and future, have the ability to see different paths and dream of a better world.
The talk draw on examples of work that produced at ArtScience Museum in Singapore which illustrate how the planet is changing. It was focused on projects that gives visitors a platform to imagine the world differently, and take action to bring a better future into being.
About the speaker: Honor Harger is the Executive Director for ArtScience Museum, where she charts the overall direction and strategy for the museum. She has over 15 years of experience of working at the intersection between art and technology, having held several key appointments in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia, as well as curated many international exhibitions and events around the world. These include being the artistic director of Lighthouse in Brighton, UK; director of AV Festival, the UK’s largest biennial of media, art, film and music; and the first webcasting curator for London’s Tate Modern. She has also given lectures at TED and LIFT conferences, the European Agency, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, California Institute of the Arts and the American Film Institute.
General Partner for the exhibition – SIBUR.
Partner for Manege’s educational program – The Mikhail Bazhenov Foundation.