Stephanie Rosestone, update: September 2025

Museum of Future Water now live

Museum of Future Water website launches with support from Vic Hub

Learn more about Stephanie’s project: Embracing complex water futures together: critical futures thinking, creative imaginaries and co–production

The online home of the Museum of Future Water has officially launched, showcasing a collection of speculative artworks that invite communities to imagine the future of water — and the vital role it will play in adapting to change.

The project was conceived and curated by Stephanie Rosestone, a 2024 recipient of the Vic Hub Drought Resilience Scholarship, as part of her PhD research with the Institute for Water Futures at the Australian National University.

Exploring water through imagination

The Museum began as a physical exhibition at the Mooroopna Education and Activity Centre during the 2025 SheppArtOn Festival. Visitors were invited to explore creative works that envision water 25 years into the future, reflecting community hopes, concerns and possibilities.

While contemporary water museums may hold physical samples from the past or present, the Museum of Future Water takes a different approach: collecting speculative artworks that prompt reflection and discussion about water resilience in uncertain times.

Stephanie said, “The collection is shaped by community contributions, each a vision of what the future might hold. It’s an invitation to reflect on our relationships with water and to imagine how care, creativity and collaboration can shape responses to complex challenges.”

A journey supported by the Vic Hub

Stephanie’s scholarship, supported by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund through the Vic Hub, provided resources to design workshops and create participatory exhibitions that bring futures-thinking to regional communities.

Her research explores how futures thinking can support adaptation, resilience and collaboration in the Murray Darling Basin. Building on that work, the Museum of Future Water now makes those conversations accessible to a broader audience.

“The Vic Hub scholarship was invaluable in helping me develop resources and materials for these workshops and the exhibition,” Stephanie said. “It has created opportunities to test processes for thinking differently about long-term challenges.”

Looking ahead

The Museum of Future Water is now available online, expanding the reach of the exhibition and continuing to grow as new speculative works are added.

By blending community voices, creativity and futures thinking, the project reflects the Vic Hub’s commitment to practical, collaborative pathways that strengthen resilience to drought and climate extremes.

Explore the Museum of Future Water: museumoffuturewater.org

Stephanie is one of the five researchers into drought resilience who was awarded the inaugural Vic Hub Drought Resilience Scholarship