Is your community at risk from climate change? A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting (2012 – ongoing) makes this global threat personal, inviting museum visitors to contribute to an ongoing collection of physical items from places directly threatened by climate change. The archive will be on view in the exhibition The Darkened Mirror: Global Perspectives on Water (Apr 7 – Aug 27, 2017).
“Sinking and melting places” exist around the world. They are places that are already, or in the near future may become, uninhabitable because of the combined physical, political, and economic aspects of climate change, including sea level rise, erosion, glacial melting, and subsidence (the gradual caving-in or sinking of land).
If you live along the San Francisco Bay Delta or other parts of California that are threatened to disappear—or if you are a displaced climate migrant now living in California—please contribute an item from that place to A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting. On Earth Day, co-registrar Amy Balkin will be at SJMA to collect items and speak about the archive.
Learn more at sinkingandmelting.tumblr.com
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
1. Choose any item from a sinking or melting place
- It can be something natural, manufactured, found, made, or discarded, including trash
- Any item is equally valuable as a record of a sinking or melting place, as contributed by someone who lives there
- It doesn’t have to originate from that place; it can be anything that is found there
- Weight limit is ½ pound or less
2. Bring your item to the San Jose Museum of Art on April 22
3. Download and complete the entry form and bring it with you (or email registar@sinkingandmelting.org)