“Nés quelque part” (“Born Somewhere”), an interactive exhibit now touring France, addresses the problem of climate change by putting visitors in the roles those on the front lines. In one room, an actor playing a young mother in drought-stricken Nigeria wonders how to feed her malnourished baby, while in another room a forest contractor in Cameroon has to determine where he can cut trees without endangering the local environment and economy. In each of the 7 rooms, visitors take part in the decision-making. Read articles in the French publication “20 minutes” here and here.

Another exhibit, this one in the UK, also puts visitors in someone else’s shoes — literally. The Empathy Museum welcomes visitors to a “shoe store,” where a salesperson fits them with the shoes of, say, a longtime prisoner or an Iranian child, and then has them explore that person’s point of view. “The point is to create an explosion of empathy in everyday life,” says one of the exhibit’s creators, in an article in The Independent newspaper. The exhibit launched last fall in London, and in Perth, Australia last month.