In 2020 Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace are working together with other groups in Dunbar to focus on Muir’s role as an environmental activist and successful campaigner and his relevance for our situation today. In an emergency, we have to behave differently and act swiftly. How are we doing that? From April to October the exhibition at the Birthplace will support the review and expansion of the John Muir’s Legacy section of the permanent exhibition. The aim is to:
- Raise awareness of how one individual – John Muir – changed the world
- Highlight those following in Muir’s footsteps
- Highlight the current position, issues to be addressed and local implications
- Highlight and map the great range of local community-led activities
- Develop a shared vision for a resilient community and a local, net-zero carbon future
- Inspire people to do stuff
With the Exhibition as a starting point, to focus on:
- The ability of one individual to make a change – to capture the imagination – Muir through time to Greta Thunberg
- Building on the very wide range of activity which already exists in the area, in particular, volunteer activity
- Identifying those local groups that are working in diverse ways to build a more resilient, more equitable community
- Bringing individuals and groups within our community together to develop a shared purpose and to work jointly to address the challenges of the Climate Emergency
- Mapping these local projects and making their activity more visible by telling stories of their activity with photos, podcasts and other media
- Showcasing individual groups on a rolling basis through the period of the exhibition
- Asking ‘What if?’ questions to spark people’s imaginations around future opportunities and to start articulating a positive vision for Dunbar and East Linton Ward in the context of the Climate Emergency
- Arranging and facilitating a range of events and activities in conjunction with other groups culminating in –
- A great walk along the John Muir Way – arriving in Glasgow for the COP26 Climate Conference in November 2020