Making Climate Communication Relevant: Leveraging Partnerships To Co-Create Content For A Traveling Climate Exhibit

Collaboratively designed as a tool to communicate how climate change affects people living in different regions, the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s traveling exhibit, Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes, shares the science behind climate change and how humans are adapting. The exhibit was created in 2019 as a way to raise awareness and support climate literacy. It has traveled to seven locations in the U.S. since then, with a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibit is hosted at universities, museums, libraries, and other community spaces and is free to the public. Visitors can learn about climate change and its impacts via nine educational panels and four hands-on activities. While the exhibit is on display, accompanying events such as guided tours and lectures provide additional context and bring the community together to have conversations about climate change. A special feature of this interactive exhibit is the collaboration with host locations to co-create a panel that shows the local effects of climate change. The content of the panel is specific to the environmental and cultural aspects of each host community and designed to inspire engagement in solutions for local climate issues. A goal is that, after a few years of co-creating these local panels, they could become a stand-alone exhibit showcasing climate change impacts across the U.S. In this presentation, we will share the co-creation process we use to understand those needs, foster community relationships, and ensure the relevancy of the exhibit to communities.