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. Using one of the artworks included in the exhibition: Bottled Ocean 2123 by George Nuku as a case study, this paper will discuss how working with communities in the construction of exhibitions can help engage audiences in environmental issues. In what follows, members of the core exhibition team reflect on the wider exhibition Rising Tide, the process of curating the artwork Bottled Ocean 2123, and undertaking community engagement as part of the creation of that artwork. The paper is written collaboratively but key sections relating to the process and background of Bottled Ocean 2123 will be provided in a first-person discussion by the artist himself.
