Large swathes of the US have been under heat advisories this summer, putting up to 174 million people at risk. From Phoenix to Boston, St. Louis to Tampa, cities are scrambling to provide emergency cooling shelters by extending the hours of public libraries, converting warehouses, and creating resilience hubs. As I observed in a recent episode of the Anchorage Museum’s Chatter Marks podcast, museums that have already invested in good HVAC to care for their collections are pre-adapted to serve as refuges for their community in the face of extreme heat. Today on the blog, Keith Cook, Director of Archives and Collections at the 390th Memorial Museum in Tucson, Arizona, tells us how his organization has invited people to come rest and cool off, and prepared its staff to respond to heat-related health emergencies.
How might your museum integrate itself into systems of climate resilience in your communities? You could, for example, use the Climate Resilience Resources for Cultural Heritage to review risk projections for your area in coming decades, connect with staff in local government tasked with emergency response, and (channeling Keith) collaborate with libraries and museums in your area to advertise your organizations as cool places to hang out.
Yours from a warming future,
Elizabeth Merritt, Vice President, Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums.
As the climate crisis continues, we are all being forced to come to terms with more extreme weather patterns, including intense heat waves. We here in Southern Arizona are certainly feeling the heat. This year alone, we saw days when temperatures were reaching a hundred degrees Fahrenheit before spring was over. And while not as disappointing as last year, the summer monsoon for 2025 has not been much better, leaving us with more days to bake in the sun. These things take a toll on museums, be they on the collections in our care or on the people who come to our facilities. Museums are already taking action to address these issues in their respective communities. In this article, I will be sharing some of the steps our museum has taken to address heat that you can implement yourself.
Over the past two years, our museum underwent some major renovations to create a cool, uniform environment throughout our museum. This included insulating our roof and several exterior walls and installing a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. This not only provides a stable environment for our collections, but it also makes our museum a more comfortable environment for our workers and our visitors. Since our museum finished installing our new HVAC system, we have advertised ourselves as a cool place to visit to attract more people.
I promise that was the only dad joke in this article. But if you have climate-controlled facilities, why not advertise yourself accordingly? Let people know they can come to your facility to rest and cool off. Make yourself part of the solution.
Admittedly, such measures are not cheap – these renovations cost our museum over a million dollars. However, there are other steps a museum can take that do not require budgeting for expensive building projects.
Heat can be incredibly taxing on the human body, especially for older people and young children. With rising temperatures, we should expect to see more cases of heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Museums can address this by developing an emergency plan specifically tailored to these heat-related health issues. For example, our staff and volunteers receive basic training on heat exhaustion and heat stroke, specifically what the differences are between the two, what signs to look out for, and what they can do to treat someone suffering from them.
People suffering from heat exhaustion will typically feel dizzy or nauseous and sweat profusely. These are signs the body is working on overdrive to cool itself down. In such cases, staff and volunteers are advised to move the person to a bench where they can rest and offer the person a bottle of room temperature water and electrolyte packets to help them cool down and rehydrate. They can even offer a damp paper towel the afflicted individual can drape over their neck. Be mindful you should only offer a person suffering from heat exhaustion room temperature water, not cold water. Drinking cold water could send the person’s body into shock. To ensure an afflicted individual can receive assistance in a timely manner, keep your supplies close to the entrance to your museum in a place that is easily accessible to both staff and volunteers. In our case, we keep water bottles and electrolyte packets in the lobby area so staff and volunteers can provide these items to afflicted visitors the moment they walk through the doors.
Heat stroke, on the other hand, is a life-threatening condition that requires immediate medical attention. Some of the signs to look out include flushed skin, a high body temperature, and no sweating. These are all signs the body is overheating and cannot cool itself down. It is crucial to have an emergency plan in place to ensure emergency vehicles can reach your facility as quickly as possible. This was especially true for our museum, which sits in the middle of the Pima Air and Space Museum (PASM). In such a situation, you should have a way to quickly communicate your needs to your partner organizations so they can allow emergency services onto the property. Our museum has several walkie talkies that staff and volunteers can use to communicate with our partners at PASM. As soon as an emergency happens, a staff member or volunteer will be instructed to call 911 while another stays with the afflicted individual. Once emergency services have been called, another staff member or volunteer will be instructed to contact PASM staff to notify them emergency services are on their way. At that point, PASM staff will wait for the ambulance to arrive and lead them to our museum.
Delegate tasks during an emergency. Point at a staff member or call them by name and tell them what to do.
Depending on how much time your visitors spend outdoors when visiting your facility, consider reducing your hours of operation during the hotter months. For most of the year, our museum is open from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM. But during the summer, we close two hours early just before it gets too hot outside – the hottest time of the day is typically in the early to mid-afternoon, during which the risk of developing heat-related illnesses increases. Adjusting your hours of operation to close in the early afternoon is another way you can help limit people’s exposure to extreme heat.
Extreme heat has become an unfortunate part of daily life in many places across the country. So create a plan to protect your staff and visitors and show you are a responsible, caring member of your community.
Additional Resources
- To learn more about how the climate crisis affects museums, and some of the steps your museum can take to address these issues, visit the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation’s (FAIC) webpage on “Climate and Sustainability.”
- To learn more about heat related illnesses, and what you can do to help someone in need, visit the National Weather Service’s “Heat Safety Tips and Resources” page.
About the Author
Keith Cook works as the Director of Archives and Collections at the 390th Memorial Museum in Tucson, Arizona. He has worked at the Museum for seven years. He spends most of his leisure time gaming, either online or on the tabletop.
