Sustainable exhibits in Copenhagen Art Museums: the crucial role of aesthetics

2030 SDGs have been questioned at multiple levels in the field of art, from arts management to art curatorship. For several years, art institutions such as museums in cities that have emerged as international capitals of sustainability have been orienting their curatorial practices towards challenging climate change. Among such cities Copenhagen and its museum institutions lead the international scene by thought-provoking aesthetics in relation to the 2030 SDGs also thanks to the different networks established in the surrounding area that challenge artists, museum directors, and curators themselves on this issue. Copenhagen museums had begun to address the issue of climate change even before the adoption of the SDGs by the United Nations e.g., SMK The National Gallery of Denmark pioneered the scene since 2009 by showing contemporary artworks that invited to reflect on how global warming required new way of conceiving the world. This paper aims to trace the evolution of sustainability oriented contemporary art exhibitions in Copenhagen's art museums by researching their impact on the local area and visitors. This paper’s methodology will particularly examine the number of visitors for such exhibits and will question how aesthetics can be a key factor to change people’s behavior toward climate change and museums’ practices in these terms.