Don’t miss our playful places next workshop in Leeds which will be talking about Children’s rights, playful adults and play as protest! If you are interested in gaining creative ideas and support for play at your venue, then come along and join us! We will be sharing our knowledge and experiences and learning from each […]

Read More →

Resources produced by Playful Places in collaboration with Affiliate Museums The Rules for a Playful Museum book project, 2015 and The More Playful Museums programme at Manchester Museum, 2014-2016 Articles & Useful Links The Manchester Museum Playful project in Arts Professional, Play Wales Magazine, and in the International Journal of Play Fantastic resources on play, and […]

Read More →

We hear from Rowan Guthrie and Jane Cockcroft about their experience of playful interventions at the Ashmolean The Ashmolean Museum is an affiliate of the Happy Museum. Over the last year, we have been involved in a series of training days which have helped to shape our thinking about the importance and potential of play […]

Read More →

The Happy Museum’s Playful Places network is pleased to announce details of our next workshop which will take place at Chester Zoo on Monday November 5th. If you are interested in finding ideas and support to provide better opportunities for play at your venue, then this event is for you. This time we are getting serious and radical with […]

Read More →

This case study looks at how deliberately seeking to engage emotions can help to promote wellbeing in audiences and staff, and also build resilience in organisations.

Read More →

As a Happy Museum Derby Museums, are committed to creating the conditions for wellbeing in their venues.   To reinforce and encourage the benefits of everyday creativity, Derby Museums are teaming up with 64 Million Artists, a national campaign that is working to unlock the potential of everyone in the UK through creativity. For January the […]

Read More →

This case study looks at how a partnership between a research institute and a museum led to the development of a software app that allows visitors to ‘tag’ objects and artworks with their own commentary. The app was tested to see if it increased audience engagement.

Read More →

Observational evaluation An in-gallery approach to predefined indicators of outcomes. Observational evaluation involves researchers observing participants in projects to record their activities, behaviours, emotions, interactions, themes and so on, to get a sense of how people experience your project. It can also be an opportunity to engage the front of house teams. Download: (pdf) Observational_evaluation For information about the […]

Read More →

Embedded evaluation A variety of in-gallery, open approaches which might be fun, embedded in the exhibition or activity to gain a variety of feedback. This is the idea of making evaluation part of the project itself rather than something that takes places outside of the project or at another time. Download:  (pdf) Embedded_evaluation For information about the rest […]

Read More →

LIFE survey (Learning, Interaction, Feelings, Environment) Sophisticated, individual survey before and after activity to identify Learning, Interaction, Feelings and Environmental awareness outcomes. Download (docx): LIFEGuidanceHappyMuseum See also our ‘Are you a Happy Museum?’ Survey

Read More →