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The Natural History Museum and the Future of Nature

Mon Feb 26, 2018 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

In a post-truth era, the role of trusted institutions of science is more important than ever. Drawing on recent initiatives organized by The Natural History Museum, a mobile and pop-up museum founded by the activist art collective Not An Alternative, this talk will explore how The Natural History Museum leverages the symbolic and infrastructural power of science museums to transform them into vital infrastructures for environmental progress, champions of science for the common good, and advocates for a just and sustainable future.

Beka Economopoulos is the Co-founder and Director of The Natural History Museum, a mobile and pop-up museum that highlights the socio-political forces that shape nature. The museum is a project of Not An Alternative, a non-profit collective that works at the intersection of art, activism, and critical theory. Named in the NY Times and ArtNet’s “Best in Art in 2015” round-ups, the group’s work has been widely exhibited around the world. Beka has two decades of experience working within the advocacy and sustainability sectors, as the Director of Online Organizing at Greenpeace, and the Director of Strategy at Fission Strategy, where clients included United Nations Environment Programme, Global Climate Change Alliance, EarthJustice, and others.

Dan Kammen is a Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. He was appointed the first Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) Fellow by Secretary of State Hilary R. Clinton in April 2010. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), and is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He has founded or is on the board of over 10 companies, and has served the State of California and US federal government in expert and advisory capacities.

Participating Units: Arts + Design, Arts Research Center, Energy & Chair Energy and Resources Group, Science at Cal, BERC (Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative).