Mystic — This is how it begins.

Last week, 26 scientists, historians and other experts from as far away as Australia discussed ideas for a major new exhibit on Antarctica. Some participated via Skype, while museum staff members and others sat around a table in the new Thompson Exhibition Building at Mystic Seaport.

Although the exhibit would not open until 2020 — the bicentennial of the continent’s discovery — the two days of brainstorming sessions were designed to help the museum decide what topics to showcase and how to present them.

Nicholas Bell, the Seaport’s senior vice president for curatorial affairs, said the museum finds it "very useful to employ this kind of collaborative process for major new undertakings at the museum."

He said the same process worked for the museum when it was planning the voyage that followed the restoration of the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, as the group that was assembled "brought ideas to the table we might not have come to only working with our staff."

Bell said last week’s meetings "offer a similar opportunity, with an added twist: no one person working at Mystic Seaport is an expert on Antarctica. We know a fair amount about some aspects of early human engagement with the Antarctic coasts, for example the history of sealers who traveled from New London and Stonington to the South Shetland Islands beginning in 1820, to take advantage of newly discovered seal rookeries. But the subject of Antarctica and the complexities of our engagement with this place as a species over two hundred years involves far more, including quite a bit of science."

"This gathering provided the opportunity for us to engage with scientists, historians, scholars, artists, and adventurers who have dedicated their lives to studying and understanding the Antarctic experience," he said. "It was essentially a moment for us to ask them, 'How do we do this in a way that will be accurate, compelling and meaningful?'"

Bell said the museum will combine their guidance and feedback with the Seaport staff’s "excellent handle on how to engage a broad audience to bring Antarctica to Mystic in 2020."

During the morning session last Wednesday, the group discussed subjects such as what inspires people about Antarctica and what are their biggest misconceptions about it, what significant topics need to be considered — including who discovered it; some say Stonington’s Nathaniel Palmer — and which are controversial, such as melting ice and climate change.

Others included why visitors should care about Antarctica and what the museum would like them to know about it upon leaving. They also discussed what sensory experiences best capture living on the frozen continent, what artifacts exist to best tell the story and how to transport visitors there without leaving Mystic.

At one point, the group divided into four sections being discussed for inclusion in the exhibit: discovery, survival, change and Antarctic imagination.

In the “change” group were Adrian Howkins, an assistant professor of global environmental history at Colorado State University who has visited Antarctica six times; Howard Rosenbaum, the director of ocean grants programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society; Elysa Engelman, the Seaport’s director of exhibits, and Sarah Cahill, its director of education.

'A magical place'

The group quickly decided that the topic should be modified to reflect not just change but continuity.

“The narrative is that there’s big change in the Antarctic but there’s more continuity than you think,” Howkins said.

Rosenbaum pointed out that wind, ice and krill “are constant features” of the continent. So is people coming to explore, work and do research.

“There’s a duality of change and continuity,” he said. “You have things that are stable and things that are changing.”

“So we can’t talk about one without the other,” Engelman added.

Cahill said that, presented with the stories, visitors then want to know what the solutions are and how they can help.

“There’s a thirst for that, a demand for that. Younger and younger people want to know, ‘What can I do?’” Rosenbaum agreed.

The group also discussed how Antarctica changes the people who work in what Engelman called “such a magical place,” the effect on their families, whom they leave behind for months, the change in the continent’s use, the vessels that go there, its geopolitical makeup and the environment.

The group agreed that the exhibit creates a great opportunity for the museum because there is such a fascination with Antarctica and so few people have been there.

“The hook is the wow factor of this incredible pace. People are not coming to this exhibit to just hear more about climate change,” Cahill said.

They did consider how to present the sensitive topics, including discussion about fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels and warming through history, rising water levels and reduction in ice.

“You go to the coldest place in the world and people are talking about warming,” Howkins said.

Bell said that one point that arose often during the meetings was the fact that Antarctica belongs to no one country, and so in effect belongs to everyone.

"That means all of us have a stake in its future, which is inseparable from the future of our planet. We need to answer the question for all visitors why Antarctica matters to them. And that work starts now," he said.

j.wojtas@theday.com