On 5th March 2019 a small but energised group of museum professionals gathered at Woodhorn Colliery Museum to consider how environmental concerns might be focus for connections between a museum and its community.  Museums in the Happy Museum community of practice already tackle subjects as diverse as energy use, waste and recycling, food production and […]

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This case study looks at how the Museum of East Anglian life reimagined itself as a social enterprise and used appropriate evaluation tools to demonstrate the value of its work. The museum’s success in building social capital and promoting wellbeing inspired the creation of the Happy Museum Project in 2011. Download (pdf): case_study_MEAL

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This case study is about how Reading Museum used a community history project to pilot a new approach to working closely and engaging with communities. The project changed perceptions about several deprived areas of the city and had a positive impact on the participants. A further Happy Museum project Where’s Reading Heading went on to […]

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This case study is about how members of the community with mental health issues curated an exhibition called ‘Landscapes of the Mind’ – and helped The Lightbox to embed a participative way of working and a focus on wellbeing. Download (pdf):

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This case study from Ceredigion Museum is about how a project developing craft wares with local young people led to a range of wider benefits – important partnerships for the future, a new source of revenue for the museum, exposure to new evaluations tools, as well as benefitting the young people involved. Download (pdf): Case […]

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This case study is about how Abergavenny Museum used Happy Museum funding to test a new approach to co-curation with local vulnerable young people. The success of the project has led to a new openness to collaboration with local organisations and community members. Download (pdf): Case Study – Abergavenny, real practice, real impact

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