“She’s walking the lines on the museum floor and it seems to be the most interesting thing for her, here, right now!” In this short article, Charlotte Derry proposes that this observation might help us think about how we might bring people closer to our museum’s purpose – through an appreciation and engagement with play and […]
Read More →Between 24 and 26 April over 60 members of the Happy Museum community of practice gathered with the HM team, trustees, partners and supporters in the beautiful setting of Stoke Rochford Hall in Grantham. The Happy Museum fourth symposium was a chance to bring together our growing Community of Practice, share learning from our […]
Read More →SAY IT IN CLAY was a session led by Lucy Neal and Michael Martin from Encounters at the Happy Museum’s 4th Symposium. The session’s genesis lay in previous collaborations between Happy Museum and Clayground Collective – and in particular a 2015 session where a small group of museum practitioners gathered on a canal boat in Kings […]
Read More →Happy Museum Director, Hilary Jennings looks at developments in the programme in the context of a changing sector and a changing world. Since 2011 Happy Museum (HM) has stimulated and supported museum practice that places wellbeing within an environmental and future-facing frame, rethinking the role that museums can play in supporting the wellbeing of people, […]
Read More →Most people care deeply for other people and the places where they live. This is a simple but powerful, and typically underestimated, truth. But – paradoxically – the majority of us underestimate the extent to which our fellow citizens care about these things. Yet when we hold more authentic perspectives of others’ values we are […]
Read More →Tony Butler, one of the founders of the Happy Museum project, makes the case for an international affiliate scheme There’s been international interest in the Happy Museum project since it was first launched in the UK over seven years ago. Since then, as I and others involved have travelled in Europe and beyond, we’ve inevitably […]
Read More →Since 2011 Happy Museum has supported the development of museum people and practice, placing wellbeing within an environmental and future-facing frame, and rethinking the role that museums can play in creating more resilient people, places and planet. Our work has been guided by a recognition that the wellbeing of people, place and planet are interconnected, […]
Read More →Brendan Carr of Reading Museum describes how their Happy Museum work raised the museum’s profile and helped it get involved in shaping the city’s future. Our first Happy Museum Project commission helped to raise the profile of Reading Museum, which led to the museum becoming involved in the Reading 2050 visioning project as a trusted […]
Read More →Charlotte Smith moved from the museums and galleries sector to Chester Zoo. Here she reflects on Happy Museum thinking and the different models of community engagement the zoo uses in its conservation campaigns. My Happy Museum experience at Imperial War Museum North (read about it here) played a role in awakening my inner activist. I […]
Read More →NEF’s Five Ways to Wellbeing and Happy Museum thinking inspired a series of events on well-being and design at the Design Museum, writes producer Bernard Hay. One of the many changes inspired by the Design’s Museum’s move to its new home in the former Commonwealth Institute Building has been the goal to integrate a new […]
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