Mia Hanek

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Natural World Museum

Background

Bachelor of Arts, Art History and Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara; Masters in Museum Studies, Tufts University. Museum Educator, UCSB Art Museum; Archivist, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; Program Coordinator, the Revolving Museum in Boston; Art Director, Pacific Wildlife Galleries; Co-Founder and Executive Director, Natural World Museum.

Awards

Certificates of Honor from the San Francisco Mayor and Board of Supervisors; endorsements from Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House and Barbara Boxer, United States Senator from California; nominations for both the American Association of Museums’ Museum Leader of the Next Generation and the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award.

Publications

Art in Action—Nature Creativity and Our Collective Future, with the United Nations Environment Programme (available June 2007)

Q&A

What started you on the path toward sustainability?

My professional and academic background is in the arts; my interest in the environment evolved out of my global travels. I traveled in over 40 countries, mostly on back roads, where I saw firsthand the environmental devastation suffered by so many people. The pivotal trip was about 10 years ago when I went to Madagascar, which used to be one of the most biologically diverse, lush, tropical rainforest regions on earth, and is now barren land—almost 70 percent of the original forests have disappeared. Once I returned from my travels, I dedicated my life to creating awareness of what’s happening around the world. Since only less than 25 percent of Americans have passports, many don’t have an opportunity to see things for themselves firsthand. That’s where art becomes an amazing tool to generate awareness of topics and issues people otherwise don’t feel a connection with. Scientific facts don’t cause an emotional response, but with art, you can stimulate personal reflection, and ideally action.

Who inspired you, or nurtured your talent?

Jane Goodall is a role model for me, since she has devoted her life to helping millions of people understand the importance of conservation to life on this planet. She travels more than 300 days per year to inspire and empower people to act compassionately toward the environment. She’s been tirelessly working for so many decades, carrying forth her mission. I try to live up to her example as I work around the clock, dedicating my life to reach broad and diverse audiences, empowering people to create change.

What gives you hope in your industry?

I founded the Natural World Museum almost six years ago. At first only the environmental movement and “tree huggers” were interested, but now, only a few years later, many more people are receptive. Back then it was something new—art and environment, together? It was almost unheard of. Now that there is a broader range of environmental awareness in the general public, we’re getting much more support, respect, and partnership from major international cities, ministries of the environment, and cultural institutions. Seeing environmental awareness permeate through mainstream culture has been extremely inspiring.

What worries you most in this area?

People don’t think that they are directly impacting species and habitats around the world. It’s easy to blame people who drive SUVs, or think that the problems are related to all the coal burning plants in China. But it’s our own personal choices and mass consumption that contributes to global warming. Until there is serious personal awareness that our actions make a difference, there’s a lot of work to be done. Policy and products are consumer driven, so until there’s a demand for sustainable products and solutions, they will not be widely available. The transformation will be slow unless the public demands a change.

What advice do you give to young people who want to make a difference in the world?

We have major children and youth components in all of our programs. We provide opportunities to children all over the world to participate in a cross-cultural exchange on art and the environment. We send art supplies and a curriculum to children in more than 25 countries, and ask them to draw what they see and what’s in their backyard. We also send them cameras to take pictures of their groups. They ship the artwork and photos back to us and we produce a book, The Global Community Treasure Book, and send copies to each of the participating school groups. They all get to see the different art and statements from all over the world.

We think it’s really important for children to understand what’s happening locally, and we really try to make global connections for them to learn about children from other countries. It helps broaden their perspective. We do this every year and try to keep building on it. Our goal is to expand it as broadly as possible.

How does technology affect sustainability?

It’s critical, because that’s where society exists these days—it’s all gadgets, iPods, wireless, laptops—the information superhighway. It’s making everything happen so much faster. With email and cell phones, business is conducted at lightning speed. Using technology as a tool to generate mass awareness worldwide is really important. Al Gore is a good example—with just his laptop presentation on global warming, he traveled the world. He’s been able to reach millions of people in a short amount of time, and that’s had a really significant impact on public awareness.