De Nil: Winter and Spring Schools Cultural Heritage & Wellbeing
9 January 2025
Since 2014 Bart De Nil organised, together with The National Archives UK Education and Outreach department, a series of international spring and winter schools on archives and education. In 2019 he teamed up with Dr Guislain Museum a museum on the history of psychiatry in Belgium and shifted the focus to a training programme for professionals working in museums, archives or libraries who want to develop wellbeing programmes. Editions have taken place in Newcastle (with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums), Swansea (with Waterfront Museum), Ghent, Leeds (with Leeds Museum and Galleries) and Tilburg (with City Museum and Textile Museum). These editions brought together participants from 18 countries with a background ranging from museum, archive and library professionals, heritage professionals, academics, students, health and care professionals, artists, civil servants and community workers. There is an interesting legacy of experience and knowledge on a long-term professional development programme, that evolved from a 'traditional' approach using heritage too connecting with newly emerging topics. A red thread is how heritage professionals explore how they can use their collections for community participation and outreach and collaborate with other societal partners. And how creative health emerged as a ‘new’ field that forced heritage professionals and organisations to reflect about different ways of working. This contribution gives an overview of this training programme. And show the added value for professional development if you bring an eclectic group of professionals from different countries together to learn and share knowledge and experiences.