UCL Museums & Collections
Touch + Wellbeing Workshops
Wellbeing Workshops
Overview
During 2011, three AHRC-funded workshops were held in London (18th May), Manchester (21st September) and Newcastle (27th October) to invite delegates to consider the evidence and evaluation from museum-focused interventions in healthcare settings.
London Workshop
Heritage, Health and Wellbeing: Mapping Future Priorities and Potential
- 'Therapeutic Museums and Mental Health: Why, where, what and how?' John Pollard, Colchester & Ipswich Museums
- 'Feeling at Home: Engaging elders in the Geffrye Museum' Laura Bedford, Geffrye Museum
- 'Living Memory: Object handling and reminiscence' Elanor Cowland, St Albans Museums
- 'Taking Ojects to Patients' Linda Thomson, UCL
Manchester Workshop
Public Collections for Public Health: Museums, Health and Wellbeing
- 'Working Together to Promote Health and Wellbeing' Leisa Gray, Manchester Art Gallery and Gurdeep Thiara, People's History Museum
- 'The Science and Art of Promoting Health: Public health and the role of culture' Colin Cox, Manchester Public Health
- 'Living and Breathing Wellbeing at Tameside' Emma Varnam, Tameside Museums & Galleries
Newcastle Workshop
Museums, Galleries and Wellbeing: An Evaluation and Evidence Workshop
- 'Reminiscence and Beamish Museum' Michelle Ball, Beamish Museum
- 'Creative Ageing: State of play' Alice Thwaite, Equal Arts
- 'Ageing, Health & Vitality Project' Bruce Davenport, ICCHS and Lynne Corner, Institute for Ageing & Health, Newcastle University
- 'Contemporary Visual Art & Identity Construction: Wellbeing amongst older people' Andrew Newman and Anna Goulding, Newcastle University
- 'Heritage in Hospitals' Helen Chatterjee, UCL
Touch Workshops
Overview
During the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2007 UCL Museums & Collections organized a series of workshops investigating touch and value of object handling in museums. Funded by the AHRC, the workshops brought together a diverse range of experts from academic and museum environments, with a view to establishing a network where information relating to the value of object handling can be shared and developed.
Touch Workshops in the Series
Participants in the workshop series 'Touch in Museums' came from a variety of backgrounds and brought with them a diverse range of expertise, research interests and museum access requirements. Scientists shared their knowledge of the underlying psychological and neurological mechanisms behind touch and sensation. Museum staff discussed the types of practical applications of touch employed in museum such as interactive displays, handling boxes and new technologies for interpreting objects. The union of these two groups afforded a unique opportunity to understand the true value of object handling and provide the museum world with a valuable toolkit for improving access and interpretation.
