All Being Well: Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Museums

Citation: Levick, Emily A. “All Being Well: Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Museums” The Jugaad Project, 28 October 2021, www.thejugaadproject.pub/all-being-well [date of access]

What does healing look like in the museum context? How can cultural institutions contribute to the wellbeing of their communities?

Museums are stimulating, inspiring, and rewarding environments; they are spaces where people gather socially; they are places of learning and discovery. Yet, for chronically ill, disabled, and housebound individuals, they are also largely inaccessible. Suffering from symptoms ranging from pain and fatigue to depression and anxiety, these people are unlikely to be able to experience museums in the ways they would like, and often will not experience them at all.

How can museums reach out to these communities? What needs to be done in order to achieve greater diversity and inclusivity in the area of health and wellbeing in museums? This presentation considers the therapeutic potential of museums, demonstrating that, with understanding and willingness to adapt, such environments can be physically and mentally beneficial for the whole community.

Core reading

Guffey, E. (2015) ‘The Disabling Art Museum’, Journal of Visual Culture, vol 14(1), 61-73.

McGee, C. and Rosenberg, F. (2014) ‘Art Making as Multisensory Engagement: Case Studies from The Museum of Modern Art’ in Levent, N. and Pascual-Leone, A. (eds.) (2014) The Multisensory Museum: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Touch, Sound, Smell, Memory, and Space, Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield, 29-44.

Suggested additional reading

Boffey, D. (2021) ‘Brussels doctors to prescribe museum visits for Covid stress’, The Guardian, 2nd September 2021 (online): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/02/brussels-doctors-to-prescribe-museum-visits-for-covid-stress

Burke, V., Jorgensen, D. and Jorgensen, F. A. (2020) ‘Museums at Home: Digital Initiatives in Response to COVID-19’, Norsk museumstidsskrift, 2020-12-10 (2), p.117-123.

Chatterjee, H. J. (ed.) (2008) Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling, Oxford/New York, Berg. This edited volume contains several relevant chapters on the benefits of touch for people with additional needs.

Delin, A. (2002) ‘Buried in the footnotes: the absence of disabled people in the collective imagery of our past’ in Sandell, R. (ed.) Museums, Society, Inequality, London/New York, Routledge, 84-97.

Ioannides, E. (2017) ‘Museums as Therapeutic Environments and the Contribution of Art Therapy’, Museum International, 2017, vol. 68, no. 271-272, 98-109.

Koebner, I. J., Fishman, S. M., Paterniti, D., Somner, D., Witt, C. M., Ward, D. and Joseph, J. G. (2019), ‘The Art of Analgesia: A Pilot Study of Art Museum Tours to Decrease Pain and Social Disconnection Among Individuals with Chronic Pain’, Pain medicine, 2019-04-01, Vol.20 (4), p.681-691.

Morse, N. (2020) The Museum as a Space of Social Care, London, Routledge.

Pye, E. (ed.) (2007) The Power of Touch: Handling Objects in Museum and Heritage Contexts, Walnut Creek, Left Coast Press. This edited volume contains several relevant chapters on the benefits of touch for people with additional needs.

Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (Reframing difference and disability): https://le.ac.uk/rcmg/reframing-difference-and-disability Of especial interest is the publication entitled ‘“In the past we would just be invisible”: Research into the attitudes of disabled people to museums and heritage’ by Jocelyn Dodd, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Annie Delin, and Ceri Jones.

https://le.ac.uk/rcmg/building-healthier-communities Of especial interest is the publication entitled ‘Mind, body, spirit: How museums impact health and wellbeing’ by Jocelyn Dodd and Ceri Jones.

Sandell, R. (2003) ‘Social Inclusion, the Museum and the Dynamics of Sectoral Change’, Museums and Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 45-62.

Silverman, L. H. (2002) ‘The therapeutic potential of museums as pathways to inclusion’ in Sandell, R. (ed.) Museums, Society, Inequality, London/New York, Routledge, 69-83.