Welcome!
This is a website dedicated to creating experimental public programs related to outdoor air quality and the Air Quality Health Index. It involves museums, galleries, artists and public health professionals.
The goals of these programs are:
1) to generate greater levels of public awareness about problems associated with bad air quality;
2) to foster public dialogue and actions that will reduce the negative impacts of poor air quality on people;
3) to foster public use of the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) as a strategy for encouraging the best decisions related to poor air quality.
********** NOTICE! ***********
Final Report of this study is now available – click here.
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Kelowna Forest Fire - 2009
Increasingly, museums and cultural organizations are stretching their notions of how best to engage the public in ways that are relevant and vital. Projects addressing such issues as climate change, sustainability and equity are just some of the ways that new potentials are being explored.
During the months of February and March, 2010, a group of BC museums and cultural organizations, in collaboration with the BC Museums Association, the University of Victoria’s Cultural Resource Management Program and WorldViews Consulting, began developing fundable project ideas related to air quality and public health. Using a tool called the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), the members of this think-tank began creating ways for citizens to make the best decisions about outdoor activity, especially when air quality is poor. But the brainstormed initiatives have also been designed to engage the public in matters of the ‘determinants of health’ – those factors within and outside the community that contribute to bad air – and generate ways to address these problems, both in the short and long terms.
Many museums across British Columbia engaged in the early email and conference call phases of the project. Six organizations participated through to the face-to-face workshop component of the project, held in Victoria, March 9-10, 2010.
To learn more about this project, select from topics at the top of this page:
About – a short description of this project
Projects – the organizations that are participating in this initiative, and the projects they are developing
Framework – the structure of the project planning being encouraged through this initiative
Projects – a list of potential projects, brainstormed through the 2-day workshop in Victoria.
Resources – provides material relevant to this project, such as the feasibility study conducted by WorldViews Consulting on the interest across Canadian museums in creating projects on air quality and public health.
Inspirations – a selection of museum and art initiatives that address issues of public health and sustainability issues.
Some Ideas - a few suggestions designed to stimulate new ideas for this project.
