Douglas Worts is a culture & sustainability specialist.  He and his business partner, Glenn Sutter, have recently started a new firm, WorldViews Consulting. Through WorldViews, Doug is bringing greater awareness of the central role that culture plays in fostering a 'culture of sustainability'. 

Spending more than 25 years in the museum world, Douglas worked as an interpretive planner for the Art Gallery of Ontario, where he was involved with the public dimension of the museum's activities. Specifically, his work included exhibition development, preparing interpretive policies and strategies, facilitating community consultation and carrying out audience research projects. He has published and spoken extensively on a wide range of museological topics related to public engagement and museum accountability. From 1992 to 1997, he taught a graduate course in museum education at the University of Toronto.

His research and writing over the past dozen years has been focused on the cultural roots of our increasingly unsustainable society.  For Douglas, museums have tremendous potential to become catalysts of public engagement and change leading to more sustainable lifestyles.

In 1998, Douglas was the recipient of a Senior Research Fellowship from the Canadian Museums Association to explore the relationship between the educational potential of museums and sustainability. Simultaneously, he became a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (aka LEAD International).  Douglas' research, both related to the CMA Fellowship and the LEAD training, lead to numerous articles and book chapters aimed at the museum community.  A couple of the titles are “On the Brink of Irrelevance?: Art Museums and Contemporary Society” and “Negotiating a Sustainable Path: Museums and Societal Therapy”.

Douglas' key focus now is the development of indicators that can help museums and cultural policy-makers improve the role and impact of cultural operations in urban centres. This work is being undertaken in conjunction with the Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities - a national group committed to the pursuit of sustainability.

Douglas was a founding member of the Visitors Studies Association, consultant to the American Association of Museums for its Museum Assessment Program-Public Dimension program, and is currently the co-chair of the Museum Excellence Program of the Alberta Museum Association.

Personal Website: <www.douglasworts.org>