SAMBA: Active Collaboration for Sustainability Communication in Museums Project

Period: 2024-2027
Funding: Arts and Culture Norway and the participating museums
Contact persons in Østfoldmuseene:
Desirée Nævdal, Curator NMF, responsible for cultural heritage water, desiree.naevdal@ostfoldmuseene.no
Marianne Løken, director of research and development, marianne.loken@ostfoldmuseene.no 

“Active collaboration for sustainability communication in museums” aims to explore, develop, and share museums’ work on sustainability and sustainable development, with an emphasis on communication. The project is led by Museums in Akershus (MiA, Knut Fagerås) and Østfold County Museums (Østfoldmuseene) and is a collaboration between museums and universities with expertise in sustainability and diversity. 

The project employs two overarching approaches: 

1. Active collaboration – because sustainability poses challenges that are extensive and complex and something which museums cannot solve alone or within the sector. There is limited visibility into what is actually being done. Knowledge and effective measures need to be shared. 

2. Evaluation and method development for sustainability communication – we have a long way to go to transform museums, build a culture for sustainability work, and develop effective methods for sustainability communication in line with the museums’ societal role. We see communication as an interplay, something active that is made and created, not just a transfer from the museum to the visitor. 

The project has four sub-goals: 

1. Establish a 3-year platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and experience exchange on sustainability 

2. Workshops and seminars with and without project external expertise 

3. Conduct pilots for knowledge and method development for sustainability communication among project partners 

4. Co-writing and joint deliverables 

Museums in Akershus
Østfold County Museum
Vitensparken Campus Ås
Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology
Varanger Museum
Alta Museum
University of Tromsø, Centre for Sami Studies
University of Oslo, Centre for Museum Studies
University of Stavanger
NMBU
Norwegian ICOM 

• A working group on sustainability that will continue after the project's conclusion to keep sustainability on the agenda. 
  
• Identify role models inside and outside the museum sector to learn from others' sustainability efforts. 
  
• Sustainability programs and communications at participating museums that can be used fully or partially by others. 
  
• Develop sustainability didactics that can be used for sustainability communication in museums and further developed for continuing education of university partners after the project's conclusion. 
  
• Digital guide for sustainability communication.
  
• Publish scholarly articles, professional materials, and digital content to make knowledge developed in SAMBA accessible.

Beyond project administration (MiA) and academic coordination (Østfold County Museums), SAMBA has a working group on sustainability for collaboration on academic direction, planning seminars, and deliverables within the project, and externally engaging in network building and keeping sustainability on the agenda. As part of work package 2, Østfold County Museums has the pilot: The Environmental History of the Edible Crayfish as Sustainability Communication (WP2c). Work package 3: Academic coordination, collaboration, and joint deliverables is also one of Østfold County Museums’ contributions to the project. 

SAMBA builds on insights from the FLYT research project (2021-2024) but establishes more permanent collaborative structures, is more operational towards museum practice, and aims to learn more from museums and academic communities explicitly working with sustainability and environmental humanities. 

• Discussion and debate on sustainability 
  
• Increased sustainability competence and culture for sustainability work in museums
  
• Knowledge sharing and exchange of experiences regarding sustainability in museums
  
• Knowledge and method development for communication about sustainability
  
• Linking environmental awareness and historical consciousness as a means to enhance understanding of sustainability issues.