The Anthropocene Reading Group
We are living in the Anthropocene, an age in which human activity has become the dominant force shaping the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The V&A Anthropocene Reading Group explores what this can mean for museums, from environmental perspectives on the collection to new models for how we work.
Our group enables staff to come together for collective learning and discussion, complementing other sustainability initiatives at the V&A. Together, we investigate questions around climate crisis, histories of environmental change and new forms of ecological thinking.
Written by: Holly Burton, Zofia Trafas White and Maude Willaerts, co-chairs of the V&A Anthropocene Reading Group
Published: May 2025
Description: ‘Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene’
Maker: Donna J Haraway, Duke University Press
Description: ‘Wild Dress: Clothing and the Natural World’
Maker: Kate Fletcher, Uniformbooks
Description: Book, ‘Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants’
Maker: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Penguin Books
Description: ‘Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics’
Maker: Timothy Morton, Harvard University Press
Description: Book, ‘Designing Fashion’s Future: Present Practice and Tactics for Sustainable Change’
Maker: Alice Payne, Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Description: ‘The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene’
Maker: Simon L Lewis, Mark A Maslin, Penguin Books
Description: ‘The Climate of History in a Planetary Age’
Maker: Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago Press
Description: ‘A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None’
Maker: Kathryn Yusoff, University of Minnesota Press
Description: ‘Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today’
Maker: T J Demos, Sternberg Press
Description: ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’
Maker: Janine M. Benyus, Harper Collins Publishers,
Description: ‘Darwin comes to town: How the urban jungle drives evolution’
Maker: Menno Schilthuizen, Quercus
Description: Book, ‘The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us’
Maker: Christophe Bonneuil, Jean- Baptiste Fressoz, Verso
Working Museum
- Museum Number
- LOAN:GILBERT.443-2008
- Title/Description
- Snuffbox
- Artist/Maker
- Unknown
- Location
- St Petersburg (Russia)
- Date
- ca. 1820
- Materials/Techniques
- Gold, Silver, Diamond, Turquoise, Chasing, Setting
- Museum Number
- 1423-1902
- Title/Description
- Nutmeg grater
- Artist/Maker
- Unknown
- Location
- France
- Date
- ca. 1720 - ca. 1750
- Materials/Techniques
- Walnut, Bone, Carved
- Museum Number
- T.15-1950
- Title/Description
- Fan
- Artist/Maker
- Natté, M. & E. (Melles)
- Location
- Brazil
- Date
- 1880s
- Materials/Techniques
- Feather, Silk, Ivory, Turkey, Animal part - melegaris gallopavo, Chestnut-breasted coronet, Animal part - boissonneaua matthewsii, Amazon parrot, Animal part - amazona sp., Stuffing, Wrapping, Glueing
- Museum Number
- E.2650:1 to 3-1953
- Title/Description
- A Tour Through the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions
- Artist/Maker
- Betts, John
- Location
- London
- Date
- 1850-60
- Materials/Techniques
- Linen, Hand coloured