Engaging communities with environmental themes through creativity

Between 12 August 2023 and 14 April 2024 the temporary exhibition Rising Tide: Art and Environment in Oceania was on display at the National Museum of Scotland. The exhibition considered how life depends on the ocean and presented various ways in which individuals within Oceania are working to protect it through the medium of artistic practice. The exhibitions team wanted to make the global issues of environmental change in Oceania relevant to our local audiences in Scotland, demonstrating how the issues presented in Oceania have relevance to the lives of people ‘here’ – in Edinburgh. Through artworks such as George Nuku’s ‘Bottled Ocean 2123’ we hoped to be able to show visitors how the issues discussed in the artwork were relevant to them, with the intention of inspiring them to become active agents in the next chapter of environmental action.  Using Bottled Ocean 2123 as a case study this paper will discuss how working with communities in the construction of exhibitions can help engage people in environmental issues.