Read how research at Derby Museums informed work into the intrinsic wellbeing of objects. It was a friend of mine that tipped me off to Happy Museum Project and the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. This was in 2016, as I was underway with my research into humans, objects and wellness that would come to […]

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‘The wonderfully named Wellbeing of Future Generations Act requires public organisations to consider the long-term implications of their decisions for people and places, culture and communities. It aims to encourage people to think harder about the future and to consider the triple bottom line of environment and society as well economy. In fact, with its […]

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In early 2018 Happy Museum joined Culture24, 64 Million Artists and Battersea Arts Centre on Lets Get Real 6 as partners in an action research project investigating the impact of digital technologies on social impact in Museums.    Inspired by a blog written by Sejul Malde of Culture24 Museums doing digital and museums doing good — can we forge […]

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by Mandy Barnett – Happy Museum Research Associate The Happy Museum project is especially targeted at museums that want to encourage participation and activism.  We particularly focus on work with communities and the wider environment, sometimes called ‘place-making’.  On 13th June we are holding our annual training day for museums who share our desire to ‘measure […]

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In April 2017 Happy Museum Director, Hilary Jennings, appeared via video at a Canadian Museums Association Panel – Beyond Rhetoric; Beyond Neutrality: Introducing Three Game Changers.   The moderator: was Robert R. Janes, FCMA and the other panelists were: Nika Collison, Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay; Beka Economopoulos, The Natural History Museum, Brooklyn, New York […]

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WICKED PROBLEMS At a recent Happy Museum gathering at Woodhorn Museum, Lucy Neal introduced the concept of climate change as a ‘wicked’ problem.  Reading from Tackling Wicked Problems, a 2007 policy perspective from the Australian Public Service Commission she noted that the term ‘wicked’ is here used, not in the sense of evil, but rather […]

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On a rainy summer afternoon in August 2015 a small group of museum practitioners gathered on a canal boat in Kings Cross for an afternoon session investigating and experimenting with the links between museum collections and our relationship with the material world. We wanted to consider what the benefits and impact might be of activities […]

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The Happy Museum Project are pleased to announce the publication of our second  Learning and Evaluation Report (Sep 14) . One of the principles of Happy Museum is to ‘measure what matters’, and the report was undertaken in that spirit.It is about learning as much as advocacy, and so explores challenges openly. It aims to […]

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