2017-2018 HUMANITIES CENTER BROWN BAG SERIES

Creating a Multidisciplinary Museum Collaboration through a Green Sustainable Lens

Leslie Tom, Chief Sustainability Officer Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History;

Samantha Fernandez Keys , Director of Catalytic Opportunities at the Michigan Science Center

Wednesday, February 28, 2018 12:30PM-1:30PM Rm. 2339 F/A Bldg

For more info about the Humanities Center, call (313) 577-5471 or visit www.research2.wayne.edu/hum

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Samantha Fernandez Keys

How might Museums and Cultural Institutions do sustainability well? Cultural institutions have the opportunity to champion sustainability. The Wright Museum and the Michigan Science Center, two midtown cultural center neighbors, are on the journey of being sustainability neighbors to hold space for demonstration, messaging, gathering and be places for conversations to be catalyst for community wellbeing. Through this presentation, we will define our “sustainable museums approach” where we are codeveloping sustainable solutions, using humancentered technology and developing clear business cases to effectively move on implementation. Planning, funding, and implementing green projects, presents cultural institutions with a way to save operating budget, reduce carbon, and create healthier environments. Museums can retrofit their existing buildings and create roadmaps, be ready for grants and opportunities to replace older infrastructure with new appliances and retrofits to align with aligning saving energy, water and waste to one’s nonprofit mission. We will review two projects; submetering and Green Infrastructure Stormwater (GSI) as examples for exploring our sustainable museums approach.

Leslie Tom and Samantha Fernandez Keys both came to Detroit by way of San Francisco to join a cohort of other midcareer professionals in Wayne State University’s Office of Economic Development, Detroit Revitalization Fellowship. Both Leslie and Samantha work at the midtown cultural center serving as the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Charles H. Wright Museum and Director of Catalytic Opportunities for the Michigan Science Center, respectively. Both have their Master’s from UC Berkeley.

Leslie Tom