imagining the happy museum gothenburg 2012

Re-imagining the Happy Museum

Tony Butler

Director, Museum of East Anglian Life

Resilience Happiness

Social Enterprise

Flow Social Capital

Participation Trust

Sanctuaries Rallying Points

1.Economic Wellness: (consumer debt, average income to

consumer price index ratio and income distribution)

2.Environmental Wellness: (pollution, noise and traffic )

3.Physical Wellness: (physical health metrics such as severe

illnesses)

4.Mental Wellness: (usage of antidepressants and rise or decline

of psychotherapy patients)

5.Workplace Wellness: (labour metrics such as jobless claims, job

change, workplace complaints and lawsuits)

6.Social Wellness: (safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic

conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates)

7.Political Wellness: (quality of local democracy, individual

freedom, and foreign conflicts.)

Gross National Happiness Kingdom of Bhutan 1972

M

Our principles

STEWARDSHIP

We prize our distinctive and precious assets; our landscape,

historic buildings and collections, people and livestock. We will care

for and show them off to the standards they deserve.

PARTICIPATION

We’d rather not do it on our own. We welcome all members of the community to get involved, be

active and exchange knowledge

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

We want to be a resilient organisation. We’ll be opportunistic

and creative in using our unique assets and surroundings to help

people fulfil their ambitions.

MINDFULNESS We encourage curiosity and

consideration. Our work should inspire and entertain, be playful and

thoughtful and help people take more notice about the world

around them.

For every £1 invested we gain over £4 of social value

Valuing and encouraging happiness and emotional investment

Joint local approaches to progression

Hidden value of family outcomes

Key investment in cultural heritage

What makes people happy ?

Fairness

Helping Others

Respect

Adaptability Trust

Meaning

Status

Asset-Based Community Development

… takes as its starting point the existing assets and strengths of community, particularly the strengths inherent in community based associations and other social networks. It defines assets not just as physical capital assets such as buildings but the distinctive qualities of the environment and the skills of people within the community.

Mathie, A. & Cunningham, G. (2003)

[It is ]the free voluntary associations which strengthen civil society by creating Habits of the Heart

Alexis de Tocqville 1835

Letting people define for themselves

what’s special about a place, and what

matters about it... That’s the key.

Government agencies and large bodies

can’t stand this. They want to define

things; they want to keep tabs... only

ordinary people can make ordinary

places matter

Sue Clifford, Common Ground

Co-production

The home base of the economy is the household, the neighbourhood, the community and civil society. That is the economy that co-production seems to rebuild and to reconstruct.

Edgar S Cahn 2006

The Miller and the Millwright, the harness-maker and the tailor show how the old village community was dovetailed together by the nature of the work

George Ewart Evans

Positive Psychology

• Positive Emotion The Pleasant Life • Eudaemonic Flow The Good Life • Using your strengths to

create something greater than you are

The Meaningful Life • We would spend less time

treating mental illness if we spend more time promoting mental wellness.

Martin Seligman

The Five Ways to Well-Being

Connect

Be Active

Take Notice

Keep Learning

Give

a sanctuary from commercial messages

a place for encounters

being psychologically present

giving back

1. MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY

Happy Museum Manifesto

2. PURSUE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIPS

Happy Museum Manifesto

3. VALUE THE ENVIRONMENT, THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Happy Museum Manifesto

4. MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

Happy Museum Manifesto

5. LEAD ON INNOVATION TOWARDS TRANSITION

Happy Museum Manifesto

6. THINK GLOBAL AND BE NETWORKED

Happy Museum Manifesto

7. SUPPORT LEARNING FOR RESILIENCE

Happy Museum Manifesto

8. FIND YOUR NICHE

Happy Museum Manifesto

Happy Museum Commissions Manchester Museum

The Playful Museum

Happy Museum Commissions The Lightbox Woking

Landscapes of the Mind

Happy Museum Commissions The Cinema Museum, Lambeth

Creative Community Curators

Happy Museum Commissions London Transport Museum

The Conversation Hub

Happy Museum Commissions Godalming Museum Collecting Connections

Happy Museum Commissions The Story Museum Oxford

Happy from the Beginning

tony.butler@eastanglianlife.org.uk

01449 612229

www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

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