Museum climate requirements raise issues of fairness and access in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Cultural collections transit the world for exhibition, crossing geographic borders and environments between cooler climatic zones and from tropical to temperate and back. Protecting the works being exhibited through climate control is a central concern for museums. An understanding of what climates are best suited for particular collections, their management, loan and repatriation are part of negotiations between loaning and borrowing museums. But these discussions usually represent particular versions of cultural preservation and overlook others. This can have negative implications for collections, and the historical narratives museums located in tropical Southeast Asia present.