Happy Museum Project – real practice, real impact
Case study 2: Engaging emotions to create impact and wellbeing
Museums and galleries are often very good at sharing learning through
their collections – but all too often the approaches used speak to the
head rather than the heart. Many Happy Museum Project commissions
have increased their impact (improved well-being of audiences and staff)
by deliberately used the collection and museum space to engage
emotions through play, humour, aesthetics, making and participation.
About this case study
The Happy Museum Project (HMP) helps museums and galleries to explore their purpose. It
encourages and supports them to focus on promoting well-being and environmental
sustainability as way a framework for development.
In three rounds of funding since 2011, HMP has given small grants to 22 organisations for
experimental projects. Through an active community of practice over three years, HMP has
evolved a development framework and tools designed to help re-imagine museums for a
changing world. The aim of this case study is to capture and share learning that could be
useful to other organisations facing similar challenges.
Most of the museums and galleries featured in this case study used the HMP funding to
develop work in a direction that was already being thought about if not always being actively
pursued. The funding was an enabler, while the engagement with HMP thinking provided
stimulus and context, and the interaction with other commissioned organisations supplied
inspiration and support.
The Silk Mill Museum – making and well-being
The Silk Mill Museum is one of three sites in the Derby Museums, a charitable trust reliant
on funding, grants and donations. The Silk Mill stands on the site of the world’s first factory
and is a building of great historical importance to the city and the world. The former industrial
museum was mothballed in 2011 and has been under renovation since 2012. Derby
Museums is keen to conserve the most valuable aspects of the site, while modernising the
building and evolving the entire space into a museum and environment that best serves the
needs of the people of Derby.
Happy Museum funded activities: Since September 2013, local volunteers have been
invited to ‘Remake the Museum.’ This exciting community rebuilding project was supported
by HMP and subsequently by the Arts Council England. This project is engaging Derby’s
communities (including staff, partners and volunteers), in co-designing and ‘fitting-out’ the
ground floor of the Silk Mill. Members of the public have become citizen curators, taking part
in organised sessions, helping to design and build new displays, and make furniture and
fittings. Participants learn new skills, meet new people and play a crucial role in shaping the
future of the Silk Mill Museum.
What happened?
“For us as an organisation, the project has been a way of testing out the idea of
coproducing,” says Hannah Fox of the Silk Mill Museum. “The project has enabled people to
connect while actually doing something.”
“As a result we have had people coming in again and again every week because they feel
it’s their space. Many of these people say they have never been to a museum before. What
we’d hoped for is definitely happening. The project has also made us more resilient as an
organisation”.
For Andrea Mercer of the Silk Mill Museum, the project has enabled the museum to focus on
promoting the wellbeing of local people.
“The Happy Museum Project has enabled us to think about wellbeing and happiness on a
much broader scale,” Andrea says. “Some of the people involved in making have told us
their wellbeing has improved – and we wanted to test that. So we have been working with
Derby University’s Biology department as well as the Art & Design department to measure
the impact of the activity of making. We are doing it by taking people’s blood pressure, heart
rate and cortisol (they spit into small vials) over a period of three weeks so we can analyse
the levels of this stress hormone in their saliva. We are also doing qualitative interviews with
individual visitors on issues around health, wellbeing and happiness.”
What’s changed?
Participation – the re-making project has created durable links with the people involved and
engaged a new kind of audience for the museum.
Wellbeing – early evidence anecdotal and quantitative shows that the wellbeing of
participants in the project improved after taking part.
Outdoor play opens new vistas for Bilston
Bilston Craft Gallery is one of four galleries funded by Wolverhampton City Council under
the banner of WAVE (The Museum, Galleries and Archives of Wolverhampton). The gallery
features examples of crafts produced in the area over the past 300 years, with many objects
that can be held and touched. The gallery includes Craftplay, a popular specialist creative
play programme for children up to 7 years old with its own dedicated space.
Happy Museum activities: Bilston used the funding to develop a new activity strand for
Craftplay – developing its outdoor space for use by school groups. Craft experts were
recruited to train Bilston staff to make outdoor play objects and the space was improved and
developed. Three wooden dragons were crafted. A partnership was developed with a local
school, with one class of three year olds walking across the fields to the gallery to put the
new outdoor space and objects to the test. A number of parents joined in for the three
sessions.
What happened?
“We discovered that outdoor work is a very different thing from indoor craft play,” says Jake
Shuttleworth of Bilston Craftplay. “Indoors, the children tend to sit down; outdoors they don’t
stop moving. The school group made three visits and we put less material out each time, as
we found it wasn’t needed. Mud and leaves and other things found outdoors are often all
that’s needed.”
“The teacher hadn’t ever done any outdoor work with the children and says she now has the
confidence to do that and is making use of outdoor space at the school,” Jack says. “The
teacher also said the involvement of the parents had been important and more of them are
volunteering to support her on school trips. The children were also noticeably freer and more
creative in their play after the outdoor sessions.”
What’s changed?
New offerings – Bilston is now offering Autumn term packages of 5 sessions of outdoor play
and crafts to local schools. The gallery is developing a mobile outdoor offering – a pop up
craft space using light-weight sun shades – to bring craftplay to parks and open spaces in
and around Wolverhampton.
Inspiration – Jake says the HMP project as well as being part of the community pr practice
and has inspired him to commit to developing two new project each year (one big, one
small) and to do more to promote the galleries work and successes (he has started a new
blog). Environmental sustainability is now a higher priority at the gallery.
Skills – the Craftplay staff learnt new skills and craft ideas from the external makers and
artists commissioned to support the project. Staff are using these skills to create new objects
and activities.