This is a presentation given to the Swedish Museums Association in Gothenburg in March 2012.

1. Re-imagining the
Happy Museum
Tony Butler
Director, Museum of East Anglian Life

2. Resilience Happiness
Social Enterprise
Flow Social Capital
Participation Trust
Sanctuaries Rallying Points

7. Gross National Happiness
Kingdom of Bhutan 1972
1.Economic Wellness: (consumer debt, average income to
consumer price index ratio and income distribution)
2.Environmental Wellness: (pollution, noise and traffic )
3.Physical Wellness: (physical health metrics such as severe
illnesses)
4.Mental Wellness: (usage of antidepressants and rise or decline
of psychotherapy patients)
5.Workplace Wellness: (labour metrics such as jobless claims, job
change, workplace complaints and lawsuits)
6.Social Wellness: (safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic
conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates)
7.Political Wellness: (quality of local democracy, individual
freedom, and foreign conflicts.)

11. M

12. Our principles
STEWARDSHIP
We prize our distinctive and PARTICIPATION
precious assets; our landscape, We’d rather not do it on our own.
historic buildings and collections, We welcome all members of the
people and livestock. We will care community to get involved, be
for and show them off to the active and exchange knowledge
standards they deserve.
MINDFULNESS
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE We encourage curiosity and
We want to be a resilient consideration. Our work should
organisation. We’ll be opportunistic inspire and entertain, be playful and
and creative in using our unique thoughtful and help people take
assets and surroundings to help more notice about the world
people fulfil their ambitions. around them.

23. For every £1 invested we
gain over £4 of social
value
Valuing and
encouraging
happiness and
emotional investment
Joint local approaches
to progression
Hidden value of family
outcomes
Key investment in
cultural heritage

24. What makes people happy ?
Fairness
Helping
Status Others
Meaning Respect
Trust Adaptability

26. Asset-Based Community
Development
… takes as its starting point the existing assets and
strengths of community, particularly the strengths
inherent in community based associations and other
social networks. It defines assets not just as physical
capital assets such as buildings but the distinctive
qualities of the environment and the skills of people
within the community.
Mathie, A. & Cunningham, G. (2003)

27. [It is ]the free voluntary associations which
strengthen civil society by creating Habits of the
Heart
Alexis de Tocqville 1835

28. Letting people define for themselves
what’s special about a place, and what
matters about it... That’s the key.
Government agencies and large bodies
can’t stand this. They want to define
things; they want to keep tabs... only
ordinary people can make ordinary
places matter
Sue Clifford, Common Ground

29. Co-production
The home base of the
economy is the
household, the
neighbourhood, the
community and civil
society. That is the
economy that co-
production seems to
rebuild and to
reconstruct.
Edgar S Cahn 2006

30. The Miller and the
Millwright, the harness-
maker and the tailor show
how the old village
community was dovetailed
together by the nature of
the work
George Ewart Evans

31. Positive Psychology
• Positive Emotion
The Pleasant Life
• Eudaemonic Flow
The Good Life
• Using your strengths to
create something greater
than you are
The Meaningful Life
• We would spend less time
treating mental illness if we
spend more time promoting
mental wellness.
Martin Seligman

36. The Five Ways to Well-Being
Connect
Be Active
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Give

37. a sanctuary from commercial messages

38. a place for encounters

39. being psychologically present

40. giving back

41. Happy Museum Manifesto
1. MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY

42. Happy Museum Manifesto
2. PURSUE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIPS

43. Happy Museum Manifesto
3. VALUE THE ENVIRONMENT, THE
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

44. Happy Museum Manifesto
4. MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

45. Happy Museum Manifesto
5. LEAD ON INNOVATION TOWARDS
TRANSITION

46. Happy Museum Manifesto
6. THINK GLOBAL AND BE NETWORKED

47. Happy Museum Manifesto
7. SUPPORT LEARNING FOR RESILIENCE

48. Happy Museum Manifesto
8. FIND YOUR NICHE

50. Happy Museum
Commissions
Manchester Museum
The Playful Museum

51. Happy Museum
Commissions
The Lightbox Woking
Landscapes of the Mind

52. Happy Museum
Commissions
The Cinema Museum,
Lambeth
Creative Community
Curators

53. Happy Museum
Commissions
London Transport Museum
The Conversation Hub

54. Happy Museum
Commissions
Godalming Museum
Collecting Connections

55. Happy Museum
Commissions
The Story Museum Oxford
Happy from the Beginning

56. tony.butler@eastanglianlife.org.uk
01449 612229
www.eastanglianlife.org.uk
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