Report | Creatively Minded at the Museum

How can museums engage creatively with people with mental health problems? Our new report with the Baring Foundation features 16 museums who are taking the lead in this area.

Targeted engagement by museums with people with mental health problems is relatively rare, despite a lot of interest in work around wellbeing and a strong commitment to inclusivity. However, targeted work is being done, and at the heart of this report are 16 self-reported case studies by museums who are taking a lead in this area. They include three mental health specialist museums:

• Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol
• Mental Health Museum, Wakefield
• Bethlem Museum of the Mind, London

And 13 non-specialist museums:

• The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
• Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
• The Foundling Museum, London
• Glasgow Museums
• The Holburne, Bath
• Leeds Museums and Galleries
• The Lightbox, Woking
• National Galleries of Scotland
• Salisbury Museum
• Towner Eastbourne
• Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums
• University of Edinburgh (Prescribe Culture)

Image: A meeting of the ‘Sounds Beaney’ group for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s, Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury