PRESS RELEASE HAPPY MUSEUM The groundbreaking Happy Museum announces a third round of awards as part of a wider programme funded by Arts Council England’s Renaissance Strategic support fund and CyMAL, Wales. 10 museums and galleries from England and Wales have been selected to show how museums can support the transition to a high well-being, sustainable society - bringing the total of Happy Museum Commissions to 22. Launched in April 2011, the Happy Museum ProJect is a pioneering programme that looks at how museums in the UK can build links between sustainability and well-being to leave a legacy of long- term cultural change within their organisations and communities. An initial first round of six awards in 2011, followed by another six in 2012, demonstrated that the Happy Museum Manifesto was in step with the increasing number of academics, economists, psychologists and ecologists in identifying the vital linkage between sustainability and wellbeing. The practical work of the Happy Museum commissions helps to shed light on how thinking of these two issues in conJunction might offer the key to providing a better future. This third phase of Happy Museum commissions is launched with awards of over £100,000 and explores how museums build deeper dialogues with their local communities; engaging young people in understanding science, climate change and sustainability; strengthening community resilience through combining comedy and heritage; a community co-designing and ‘fitting-out’ the ground floor of a Silk Mill; inspiring children with creative play and craft; making an abbey a place that encourages environmental good practice and wellbeing and promoting social enterprise through traditional crafts. The awards will go to: • Slough Museum, Community Conversations • Torquay Museum, Young Sustainability Champions • Woodhorn Charitable Trust, Stand Up for Woodhorn – Making a Case for Comedy in Museums • The Royal West of England Academy, Shaping a Happy Academy • WAVE: The Museums, Galleries and Archives of Wolverhampton, Craftplay: Discovering the World through Creativity in the Early Years • Derby Museums, Re-Making the Museum • Kirkstall Abbey, The Kirkstall Abbey Happy Project • Abergavenny Museum, Weaving WellBEEing • Narberth Museum, Unlocking the Potential at the Bond 1 • Ceredigion Museum, Reaping the Knowledge Tony Butler, Director of The Museum of East Anglian Life and Director of the Happy Museum, who has recently been invited to speak about the Happy Museum in Italy and Denmark says: “We are delighted the Arts Council and CyMAL have recognised the innovative work of the Happy Museum Project. We are now extending the opportunity to another 10 more museums to explore how they can show that high well-being does not have to cost the earth. Research in this area has taken significant steps forward of late. New funds from the Arts Council have allowed us to combine the work of Mandy Barnett looking at the Happy Museum’s Story of Change with Daniel Fujiwara from London School of Economics who is working with us on statistical analysis and measuring wellbeing to create a valuation of engagement with museums. Museums have a real opportunity to imagine a positive future where we might consume less, be more mindful of our relationship with a natural environment, and create a kinder, gentler but no less interesting world.” Maurice Davies, Head of Policy and Communication at The Museums Association and Editor of Museums Change Lives says: “The Happy Museum Project is encouraging museums to discover how far they can go in having an impact on communities, individuals and he environment. It exemplifies many of the points in Museums Change Lives, the Museums Association's latest policy initiative. The quality of applications for this third round demonstrated an increasing understanding in museums of the principles of the Happy Museum and the potential for linking wellbeing and sustainability.” Hedley Swain, Director of Museums, Arts Council England, says: “These new Happy Museum commissions join the growing community of practice testing how museums can be sustainable, innovative and resilient, responding positively and imaginatively to pressing economic and environmental challenges. Arts Council England is delighted to join with CyMAL to support The Happy Museum’s bold experiment in how cultural organisations can extend their roles and responsibilities into their local and national communities.” Minister for Culture and Sport, John Griffiths, said: "I'm delighted that three Welsh museums have been awarded Happy Museums commissions. The well being of the people and economy of Wales is inextricably linked to its heritage and environment. The Happy Museum projects put forward by Welsh museums are imaginative and will actively engage with local communities to improve personal wellbeing and environmental sustainability." NOTES The commissions were chosen by a panel that included Tony Butler, Director The Happy Museum; Nick Winterbotham, Consultant, and Mandy Barnett MBAssociates 2 The 22 commissioned proJects will form a community of practice at the core of a wider programme. Commissioned Projects will be supported by a co-ordinated programme of mentoring and bespoke thinking days using emerging leaders from the existing commissions (building on their existing learning and sense of agency) as well as engagement with the wider museum and cultural sector through open workshops and events bringing together key and emergent thinkers to further test the intellectual underpinnings of the project. Arts Council Funding for the Happy Museum Project comes from the Renaissance Strategic support fund 2012-14. HMP also received an award from CyMAL, Wales 2013/14. Information about the new commissions as they progress, along with information about the first and second round of commissions, the original Happy Museum paper and the revised Happy Museum Manifesto Principles are available on the website www.happymuseumproJect.org Tony Butler Director Happy Museum 07736449349 or: Happiness Associate Hilary Jennings [email protected] 0780 3085394 or Happiness Administrator Nicola Mann [email protected] 07549 409494 Further Details of Happy Museum Awards: Slough Museum, Community Conversations (£9,800) ‘Community Conversations’ aims to make Slough’s community stronger, happier, and more sustainable through intergenerational conversations, utilising the Museum’s trusted position to be the facilitator of, and the Museum’s collection to be the catalyst for, this important dialogue. Increased community conversations will build and develop connections, understanding, learning, and relationships across Slough’s community. These conversations will lead to greater cohesion across generations and communities, and will bring people together to work towards an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable future for Slough. The proJect will work in close partnership with young people at Aik Saath, a local charity that empowers and supports young people to lead and deliver change in their community. Torquay Museum, Young Sustainability Champions (£19,978) 3 Torquay Museum, founded by the Torquay Natural History Society in 1844, houses extensive biological and Natural History collections of considerable scientific interest from the local area and beyond. The focus is on science and environmental education, and engaging people of all ages in understanding science, climate change and sustainability. This ProJect will develop a cohort of young community sustainability champions who will inspire youth-led projects aimed at increasing understanding of the agenda and delivering carbon reduction with in communities, local authorities, businesses, schools and the home environment. Woodhorn Charitable Trust, Stand Up for Woodhorn – Making a Case for Comedy in Museums (£13,500) The links between laughter and wellbeing are well established. Laughter releases endorphins, increases oxygen to the blood, promotes relaxation and boosts the immune system, while its physiological effects help counteract the effects of depression, stress, anxiety, sleeplessness and the need for medication. With this in mind, Woodhorn will commission a ‘Comedian in Residence’ to explore the part comedy can play in facilitating meaningful connections between people and their heritage, art and environment. Ashington in South East Northumberland where Woodhorn is based has experienced the loss of its traditional industries, particularly coal mining, and with that has come high levels of worklessness, severe heath inequalities and other social impacts. The north–east is famed for its distinct, dry humour, which endures in the face of adversity. There is also a strong affiliation between local people, their history and heritage and the wider environment. The idea of attempting to strengthen community resilience through combining comedy, heritage and environment therefore has great potential. The Royal West of England Academy, Shaping a Happy Academy (£11,000) Founded over 150 years ago, the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is one of Britain’s four Academies of Art, housed in a magnificent Grade 2* listed purpose-built Art Gallery. A much-loved institution at the historic heart of Bristol, there is immense potential for the RWA to be a flagship for the use of great art to promote well-being. Meanwhile, Bristol is the first city to create and embrace a Happy City ethos. At the core of this proJect is the development of a new strategic and capital plan for the museum, working