Happy and Green:  Workshops investigating the benefits to museum teams of a focus on wellbeing and sustainability In September 2013 teams from seven museums gathered together at the fantastic Cinema Museum in Kennington to test out the business and wider benefits of sustainability and wellbeing in museum (and wider cultural) practice. Museum teams came from […]

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We’re delighted to announce that following our open call to the exisiting Community of Practice, we have commissioned new projects at Reading Museum, Manchester Museum and The Lightbox, Woking. The focus of the activity is to deepen our learning about wellbeing and the unique contribution of museums, consider the link between wellbeing and sustainability and […]

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Derby Museums, WAVE/Craftspace and Woodhorn Charitable Trust all use blogs as a way to disseminate up-to-date information about their Happy Museum commissioned projects. Derby Museums’ Tumblr site for example provides a useful archive of information connected to their ‘Re-making the Museum’ project which provides a unique opportunity for local residents to become citizen curators, designers […]

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On a beautifully sunny Friday this June I had the great pleasure to attend a symposium run by Ceredigion Museum as part of its Happy Museum Project, Harvesting the Knowledge. This fantastic collaborative project between the Museum and Tir Coed (an organization that works to improve the quality of life for rural communities in Wales) […]

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Between 27th-28th March 2014, more than 60 participants gathered in the spectacular setting of Stoke Rochford Hall in Grantham to review the experiences, learning and impact achieved since the Happy Museum Project was launched in 2011 – and to set the direction for the next phase of the Project in 2014 and beyond. Rupert Widdicombe’s […]

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Between 6-8th February, 45 attendees made their way to the beautiful Trafford Hall in Chester for the second Happy Museum symposium. Commissioned projects, speakers, and guests from across the museum, culture and environment sectors came together to discuss issues including related to how museums can foster individual wellbeing, resilience, stronger communities and environmental sustainability. Sian Thurgood and […]

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The first Happy Museum Symposium  was held in Suffolk in January 2012 see here for the full Happy Museum Symposium Report and a Storify of tweets from the event here. In addition the following piece by Tony Butler was published shortly afterwards on Guardian Cultural Professionals and the various blogs referenced within are a good starting point […]

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Volunteers – who benefits? Happy Museum Development Day 4 February 2014 Evaluation Ruth Clarke event programmer Event details Date: 4 February 2014 Location: Bilston Craft Gallery Who: Happy Museum community of practice and those involved in Volunteer Management I the wider sector Time: 10.30 – 4pm No of attendees: 32 including facilitators Facilitators Hillary Jennings […]

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At our Symposium (2014), Founder Director Tony Butler presented a paper – Stewardship, Equity, Flow – reviewing the first three years of the Happy Museum project. ‘As it completes its third iteration, Happy Museum will keep asking people in museums how prepared they are to place themselves alongside the rest of civil society to work […]

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Share aggressively, steal with pride and none is as smart as all of us. It was under the guidance of these messages that the Happy Museum Project held its 2 day conference at Stoke Rochford Hall, Grantham. The Happy Museum Project (HMP) re-imagines what museums can be and prompts both museum professionals and audiences to rethink the […]

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