Museum of Circular Economy / Muses United for Circular Economy
MUCE is the first museum of circular economy started by the 25 year old Nina Maat. As a pop-up it tried to convince the governments that we need a place where citizens, knowledge institutions, artists and companies go in dialogue about several sustainability topics like circular economy, regeneration, biomimicry and social inclusion. By putting these actors together and stimulate debate, artists gave all the topics body by making artworks. People paid their visit to MUCE with empty batteries.
National
Belgium
Antwerp (location)
Brussels, Leuven (knowledge institutions like Natural Science Museum and KULeuven)
Leiden (Naturalis)
Gent
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-11-04
As an individual
First name: Nina Last name: Maat Gender: Female Nationality: Netherlands Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: kroonstraat 5 Town: borgerhout Postal code: 2140 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32 498 12 29 99 E-mail:info@muce.be Website:https://muce.be
MUCE believes in the circular economy as one of the solutions to various environmental and climate issues. There is a lot of activity, knowledge, pioneering within the circular economy. This is also experienced by the founder of MUCE -25-year old Nina Maat- after numerous internships at different governmental levels and participation in various (non-profit) initiatives. Despite all this activity, the principles of the circular economy are not widely known. People often think of recycling but it is much more. Therefore, MUCE aims to contribute to the scaling up of the circular economy by making its principles known to a broad population in order for them to participate. That is why MUCE focuses on ordinary citizens. This includes a number of groups such as young people, people with a migration background, lower-skilled or disadvantaged on the labour market. In addition, companies, embassies, schools and governments are also part of the target group.
MUCE believes that everyone can participate in the circular economy and inspire each other. Everyone can be a muse for & of MUCE. In this way, MUCE wants to contribute to citizens' resistance in environmental and climate issues. Secondly, we want to scale up circular processes by providing input on circular innovations of companies in order to scale up industrial ecosystems.
We actively go out to citizens and initiate dialogue around circular themes. Previously, we organized one-day events in museums and event locations.
In October we set up our own pop-up museum, MUCE (Museum of Circular Economy), in the centre of Antwerp. Citizens, artists, companies and knowledge institutions were gathered around several sustainability topics & innovations to go in dialogue. Next to the presentation of innovations of companies, the artists made installations to inform an even broader audience. Accompanied with events, workshops, lending out the location to local communities,... we contributed to scale up the circular economy.
circular, regenerative economy
biomimicry
social inclusion
ecodesign
climate change
MUCE finds itself at crossroads of the 4 New bauhaus categories.
We let people reconnect with nature through art by repurposing a building that was empty for years in the city centre and invited people that aren't represented in the climate debate. In this way we also help shape a circular industrial ecosystem and support life-cycle thinking.
This by informing citizens and inviting them in the debate about circular economy topics on how our industry and consumption should look like.
Our key sustainability objective is scaling up sustainable best practices and innovations.
We do this by making citizens, organizations and companies more resilient in environmental and climate issues.
By handing out tools, information and creativity MUCE tends to inspire people in order to raise "sustainability literacy" and for them to use the obtained knowledge in their own personal or professional practices. We did this by making the exhibition interactive and focused on co-learning processes:
- citizens trying out algae instead of animal proteins
- thinking about how to be buried in mycelium coffins when they are dead
- using reusable options instead of single use
- look at nature in a different way (as a source of inspiration instead of just for leisure)
- companies seeing other companies using circular business models
With every art installation & innovation came questions and voting stations to provide the companies and artists with direct response on their work.
MUCE is exemplary because we mix several themes and actors. It isn't only an art project of solely a project where companies gather.
Dialogue is the starting point.
There are a lot of sustainable innovations, MUCE focuses on scaling up these innovations by making them more known by creating dialogue through art.
We couldn't directly measure avoided emissions or materials used, but we measured the people we have inspired (+6k) to be an actor within the framework of the European Green Deal.
The Key objective was to inform citizens, organizations and companies about sustainability through art. Since the experience of art is subjective MUCE guaranteed a diverse selection of several art, innovation and design forms (digital, sculpture, design, painters, photography, poetry,..) but also the representation of several sectors (mobility, telecom, lighting, furniture, food and farming, economic, energy, waste management) in order for everybody to have their own interest instead of only showing photos or paintings.
By focussing on art and innovations we approached sustainability topics through a positive lens as we didn't purely focus on the problems likes climate change, biodiversity loss,...
The quality of the works can't be measured. There were several meetings in order to get every artists informed about circular economy, the selected theme they worked on, a company visit, a talk with an academic or ngo about the theme, a location visit, material study,...
Next to that we focused on inviting artists and citizens with diverse backgrounds (Thailand, Irak, Congo, Ethiopia, Morocco, the Nederlands, Belgium, Ghana, Brazil) to participate in order to get diverse perspectives and so reach diverse audience and new solutions.
1) selection of (non-) artists who weren't already focused on sustainability issues to get new perspectives
2) let artists work with (waste)materials of companies
3) give artists and non-artists information about circular economy
4) give artists freedom
5) select artists and designers of all fields (digital, sculpture, design, painters, photography, poetry,..)
6) select young and established artists and even non-artists like hobbyist with different backgrounds
1) make circular economy and it's principles accessible for a large audience. Our first target audience existed out of youngsters, people with a migration background, people with difficulty accessing the labour market. Because they are often left out the discussion. Other groups were also welcome and represented but the focus was less on targeting them since they found MUCE already through regular media.
2) make citizens and companies resilient in sustainability issues
3) inviting young artists and "normal citizens" with a migration background to create a sense of belonging and so prioritize people who need it the most because mostly people with migration background experience the effects of climate change
4) MUCE rented the location (building that was empty for years) for the exhibition but also gave young creatives and organizations the opportunity to use the location for free (fashiondesigners, social workers, sheltered workshops,.. ). We chose a location that was easy accessible (near public transportation) but we also made sure people with certain needs like wheel chairs of blind people could enjoy the expo.
5) The MUCE exhibition and events were always for free. People could enter the pop-up by bringing empty batteries and old phones in order for us to recycle them.
6) We actively invited school and social organizations (working on poverty and integration) to visit and provided them with adapted tools for their audience
7) MUCE is a bottom-up initiative of a 25 year old inviting all kinds of actors to participate
The principles of the circular economy are not widely known. People often think of recycling but the circular economy is much more.
MUCE believes that everyone can participate in the circular economy and inspire each other. Everyone can be a muse for MUCE. In this way, MUCE wants to contribute to citizens' resistance in environmental and climate issues.
benefit:
- making citizens resilient in sustainability topics
- showing wicked problems in nuanced ways through art accompanied by museumbrochures, podcasts, talks and walks
- showing best practices in several industries
- giving industry direct feedback on their innovations like circular business models for furniture, algae in food (+30 companies participated)
- supporting schools and universities in making sustainability topics more tangible (+55 schools and universities visited MUCE in 1 month)
- inviting all actors to be part of the discussion and solution
- offering a safe space to discuss these topics
- offering cultural organizations new ways of working and a vision on how to integrate nature in their organization
- We actively invited school and social organizations (working on poverty and integration) to visit and provided them with adapted tools for their audience
MUCE actively contacted civil society organizations to participate by:
- asking them to visit the exhibition with special guidances catered to their audience
- offering the location for free for their own events
Knowledge institutions (national level) like University of Antwerp, University of Leuven (KUL), Thomas More, Natural Sciences Museums of Brussels and Leiden, Technopolis provided artists and companies with critical input in panels and advisory board. Their input was also translated in the exhibition (podcast, museumbrochure), this led to visitors having more trust in the provided information and opened up discussion. Girls Go Circular from EIT Raw Materials provided critical input for the overall project. We set up an advisory board with experts from private and governmental sector like OVAM (European pioneer in waste management), the flemish weather woman, an inclusion expert, 2 teachers (economy and geography), future foresight expert, ...
As we first didn't get financial support from the Belgian governments, we searched sponsorships at company level. The sponsorships were financial but also material, like citizen cooperative Ecopower provided us with renewable energy. As MUCE became a succes the city of Antwerp also provided financial support. The financial support was used to pay for the location, artists, marketing, insurance, events, materials, ...
Every artist was linked to a company and an academic of a knowledge institutions or ngo.
We did field trips, round tables and materials study in order to make an art installation for the exhibition.
The added value was that artists made the theme clear to the larger audience. But also the dialogue between the actors sparked new insights in overcoming certain barriers for the industry itself.
They went into dialogue about the specific topic
mobility = shared mobility
telecom & LED services= stakeholdermanagement, recycled content and ecodesign
furniture = biobased, as as service & modular
food and farming = regenerative and plantbased. what does the food industry do to be more sustainable
how will our nutrient balance look like in the future? will we eat more plant based? like algae? => people could see how algae are being produced
economic = donut economy, regenerative and circular economy
energy = renewable, what is a citizen cooperative? And how can we scale up solar energy
waste management = waste to energy, prevention like reuse and repair
construction = building bricks made of CO2 and waste
manufacturing = how does the manufacturing industry can become more circular? case of circular beds and bio based coffins
For a 25 year old, doing everything on my own I think I can be proud for the achieved result.
I set the goal on 1500 visitors in 1 month based on the number of other museums.
In 13 days I already reached the goal and in one month MUCE attracted +6000 visitors and more than 55 schools and universities visiting the exhibition.
They all learnt about the circular economy and gave 30 companies knowledge institutions feedback on circular innovations and concepts in order to improve the circular economy together.
1) actively reaching out to all citizens
2) dialogue and participation of a lot of stakeholders: artists, knowledge institutions, government, companies, citizens
3) addressing sustainability topics through art
4) young, female, poc entrepreneurship in sustainability / art world
6) concretion of solutions for sustainable innovations
7) in external communication the focus wasn't on sustainability but on a fun and cool experience
8) art in an unusual setting (city center of Antwerp, empty building in the middle of a fast fashion shopping area) instead of being in a museum or gallery.
- MUCE actively reaches out of people because we know sustainability is still a topic only "fortunate" members of society who have time to be busy with it as others struggle to reach the end of the month.
- translation of sustainability issues through art, next to the art works MUCE provided podcasts, tours and museumbrochures in order for visitors to understand
- we didn't chose artists already focuses on sustainability topics to obtain fresh perspectives
- we chose different companies small and big but also frontrunners and laggers within sustainability to get a different mix of perspectives but also audience.
Strategy
The mission and vision are propagated by actively going out to citizens themselves and initiating dialogue around circular themes. Previously, the non-profit organisation organised one-day events in museums and event locations such as MoMu, MHKA, de Meir and KAVKA.
MUCE can be replicated in its methodology by setting up dialogue between several actors.
The succes will be based on the partners you work with like local artists and a mix of small and big companies and established knowledge institutions.
Climate change:
through storytelling we made clear that CO2 emissions can be tackled at national and company level but also individual level. Everybody can play their part by doing what is in their reach (food, housing, transport, consumption). The table of Frank Theys (extinction of a chronicle foretold) showed how the world will look like in this century (war, oil spill, plastic pollution, migration, hurricanes,...) based on data of IPCC. The other installations showed the solutions.
Biodiversity loss, nature preservation:
informing about the problem of deforestation and pollution (art work of Thijs Biersteker, Wither, every second that forest is dissparing in the Amazon) but also through art works where local nature is present, what we can learn from (use biomimicry to optimize our products) it and why we have to protect it
- working together with natural sciences museums and taxidermist to show animals like owls, ants, butterflies, flamingo, spiders for biomimicry practices.
feeding the world in a sustainable way:
- together with a company and an ngo we looked at how to scale up regenerative farming practices through big drawings of a farmers daughter.
- together with a retailer we looked how they made their food offer more sustainable at an affordable price. This by sharing coffee and chocolate for free and talk about the food chain.
Resource extraction and overconsumption:
informing about resource extraction, material loops, importance of ecodesign (for recycled content), economic and social factors to use recycled content, best practices of recycling at big scale (window and doors, telecom, building)
- company uses old window and doors to make new ones
- company captures CO2 to make building blocks
- company recycling and refurbishing wifi boxes
- companies recycling batteries and old phones
- company in waste to energy
- knowledge institutions investigating how to upscale reusable products
