Manchester Museum has appointed Hannah Hartley as its Environmental Action Manager, a new position for the museum.
Hartley’s role is hoped to bring environmental action to all areas of the museum, and will involve leading the museum’s sustainable practices and “developing narratives and programming in response to the climate and ecological crisis”.
The Environmental Action Manager role will also involve setting up and overseeing a new co-working hub for cultural environmental action, convening visitors, museum staff, educators, environmentalists, artists, activist-led groups, researchers, third sector organisations and students for conversations around environmental action and social justice.
Prior to joining the museum Hartley served as Senior Project Manager at festivals and event organiser XTRAX, managing a range of projects across outdoor arts and leading on environmental responsibility initiatives for the Without Walls national festival consortium.
Alongside her work for Manchester Museum, Hannah is a trainee Assessor for the A Greener Festival Awards scheme; a steering group member for the GMAST network which brings together over 50 cultural and creative organisations across Greater Manchester to address the climate crisis (including Manchester Museum); and a Board member of Justice in Motion, a physical theatre company and charity passionate about inspiring social justice.
This role is partly funded by the Roots & Branches project, a unique collaboration between The Carbon Literacy Project, Museum Development North West and Manchester Museum, and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
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The museum is currently closed as part of a major refurbishment and is dset to reopen to the public in February 2023.
Manchester Museum’s Director Esme Ward said the newly created position reinforces “commitment to building a more sustainable world and increases our capacity to support ecological thinking and action.”
“It is fantastic to welcome Hannah to the team and we can’t wait to see where her depth of expertise and ideas take us.”
Hartley added: “Building a more sustainable world has to be a collective effort and I am looking forward to working creatively and collaboratively with others to drive forward this important work to address the climate emergency.”
