The Lightbox delighted to be part of The Happy Museum Project

The Lightbox is delighted to have been selected to take part in The Happy Museum Project (funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation). As part of the project The Lightbox will be undertaking a project entitled Landscapes of The Mind, which will explore the notion of the museum as a healing environment. People experiencing mental health issues or suffering from isolation, loneliness or lack of self esteem and confidence will be invited to participate in the project and will have the opportunity to create their own exhibition. The project is designed to engage, occupy, create friendships and provide participants with a sense of achievement, in other words, help promote happiness.

Participants will be able to develop their own vision for the project and will lead with every aspect, from choosing the workshop leaders who will work on the project with them, to deciding on the final exhibition’s format. Landscapes of The Mind, will be developed over a 15 month period and will draw inspiration from major 20th Century landscapes from The Ingram Collection, chosen by participants, and their own artistic responses to the work.

Earlier this year The Lightbox hosted the very successful exhibition, Ways of Seeing, which was the culmination of a two-year project which saw participants, who were mental health service users, working to curate their own exhibition. Landscapes of The Mind will build on the successes of Ways of Seeing, and is the first in a number of projects the gallery and museum hope to develop to aid in promoting The Lightbox as a Happy Space.

The Happy Museum Project was launched in March 2011 with the paper The Happy Museum: A tale of how it could turn out alright, co-written by the New Economics Foundation and leading museum commentators. The paper sets out how museums are well placed to play an active part in creating a ‘high well-being sustainable society’ through the experience they provide to their visitors and the way they relate to their collections and to their communities.

Notes to Editors:

More information about the six commissions, along with a copy of The Happy Museum paper are available on the website www.happymuseumproject.org

The awardees will form a community of practice, stimulated by a series of activities taking place between 2011-13. This will include a 2 day symposium in January 2012 which will introduce commissioned projects and leading thinkers from museums, to people with a psychology and social policy background, developing work around subjective well-being, along with climate scientists, environmentalists and energy specialists. The six commissioned projects and reports from the Symposium will be disseminated via the Happy Museum website, connecting people interested in this radical approach to re-imagining the purpose of museums. The project concludes with a Conference in January 2013 which ‘rounds up’ the commissioned projects, establishing a way forward to further embed principles of happiness within the sector.

Other commissions that have been awarded by The Happy Museum include:
• Manchester Museum for The Playful Museum
• The Cinema Museum, London for Creative Community Curators,
• London Transport Museum for The Conversation Hub,
• Godalming Museum for Collecting Connections,
• The Story Museum, Oxford, for Happy From the Beginning.

The commissions were chosen by a panel that included Sam Thompson, new economics foundation; Maurice Davies, Deputy Director Museums Association; Tony Butler, Director The Happy Museum; Kate Brindley, Director MIMA and Paul Hamlyn Advisor and Mandy Barnett MBAssociates; Hilary Jennings and Lucy Neal OBE.

Tony Butler, Director of The Museum of East Anglian Life and Director of the Happy Museum says: “We now have the ingredients for putting the Happy Museum into practice. We recognise many museums already appreciate their position in their community and many combine this with scholarship, stewardship, learning and a desire for greater participation. What the Happy Museum Project is trying to do is to show that the context is now different. Environmental change, pressures on the planet’s finite resources and awareness that a good, happy society need not set economic growth as it most meaningful measure offers a chance to re-imagine the purpose of the museums. Museums should realise their role as connector, viewing people not as audiences but as collaborators, not as beneficiaries but citizens and stewards who nurture and pass on knowledge to their friends and neighbours.”

Robert Dufton, Director of Paul Hamlyn Foundation says: “These new commissions explore how the principles of happiness and well-being can leave a legacy of cultural change within the museum and galleries’ organisations or communities. Museums offer spaces to consider the past, and through that to understand our lives today, and help shape our future. The Happy Museum proposes a way for them to serve our communities by helping them to become more resilient for the future.”