The Happy Museum Project and People United are delighted to have been awarded funding from the ACE Museum Resilience Fund for the period 2015/6.

 

Increasing numbers of economists, ecologists, politicians, psychologists and physicians are identifying the vital linkage between sustainability and well-being and shedding light on how thinking of these issues in conjunction might offer the key to a more resilient future. Since its inception in 2011 the Happy Museum Project has has shared this learning and investigated the particular role that museums and culture might play.

 

Happy Museum places its thinking firmly in the context of, and in response to, global challenges: climate change, resource depletion, financial instability and social justice. In this context there is a vital need to develop resilience in museums, in the individuals and communities who use them and in wider society as a whole.

 

We are delighted to receive this funding which will support the first year of activity in an ambitious 5-year strategy, following which the Project aims to disband.

 

During this 5-year period learning will be further developed and disseminated, a sustainable community of practice established and issues raised by the project we hope will have been taken on by the museum sector and beyond. The programme has the following aims:

 

  • Well-being and Sustainability are as familiar and relevant to museum thinking as Learning and Participation.

 

  • Through a focus on Well-being and Sustainability we will have played a key part in supporting organisational resilience in the museum sector.

 

  • In turn museums will have supported the development of resilience in their staff and communities and in wider society as a whole.

 

  • The value of culture in developing a sustainable global future will be better recognised.

 

We will publish the full 5-year plan and details of this first year of activity on the website shortly.

 

In this first year, Happy Museum will link with People United who will help establish a structure, plans and partnerships to enable the Project to deliver its aims. We are excited about this mutual collaboration and the possibilities of reaching and supporting museums across the country – a copy of statements of support from both HM and PU are attached HERE.

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