Contemporary art, natural history collections and environmental crisis

This article explores the development and display of contemporary art in natural history collections as a way to engage audiences with environmental concerns at a time of ecological crisis. It contextualises this field of practice within recent art and curatorial history and explores this work in relation to long-term programmes of contemporary art in the context of natural history collections at the Natural History Museum, London, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and the Horniman Museum and Gardens, London. I observe the possibilities this work presents for encouraging engagement with ecological distress through exhibitions and observe the challenges inherent to this curatorial work.