Learn for Resilience is one of the Happy Museum Principles – see below for relevant tools and resources

Why?  Communities who learn together become more resilient. As Barbara Heinzen identifies in How Societies Learn resilience and adaptation come from learning gained in small diverse groups, project by project over time.

How? Encourage learning in all it’s myriad forms

Museums enable individuals and communities to learn together. Museum learning is already all the things much orthodox learning is not: curiosity driven; non-judgmental; non-compulsory; engaging; informal and fun. The people needed in the future will be resilient, creative, resourceful and empathetic systems-thinkers, exactly the kind of capacities museum learning can support. Museums have the potential to lead in developing our understanding of why and how education needs to change to bring about these capacities

What?  Encourage learning across and between communities using the collections as a catalyst and the museum as a host.

Museum Case Studies

Some case studies where this principle was tested out in practice.

• Thematic Case Study – Empowering staff, building external relationships
  This case study is about how encouraging a culture of ‘active citizenship’ – in staff, ...
• Case Study – Museum of East Anglian Life, building social capital and promoting wellbeing.
  This case study looks at how the Museum of East Anglian life reimagined itself as ...
• Case Study – Reading Museum, engaging with vulnerable communities.
  This case study is about how Reading Museum used a community history project to pilot ...
• Case Study – The Lightbox, Woking, community engagement and co-creation.
  This case study is about how members of the community with mental health issues curated ...
• Case Study – Godalming Museum, co-creating a new gallery with local people.
  This case study from Godalming Museum is about how deciding on a community engagement approach ...
• Case Study – Derby Museums, participation, making and well-being
  This case study is about how Derby Museums put community participation and co-production at the ...
• Case Study – Beaney House, prescribing happiness
  This case study is about how The Paper Apothecary, a participative temporary exhibition/activity was co-created ...
• Case Study – Abergavenny Museum, real practice, real impact.
  This case study is about how Abergavenny Museum used Happy Museum funding to test a new ...

Themed Case Studies

Here is a themed case study focusing on this principle.

• Thematic Case Study – Empowering staff, building external relationships
  This case study is about how encouraging a culture of ‘active citizenship’ – in staff, ...

Tools

Tools you might like to use.

Review for organisations

• Valuation DIY
  Valuation DIY A fun, workshop approach reviewing outcomes by prioritising or valuing outcomes. Valuation DIY is ...
• Observational evaluation
  Observational evaluation An in-gallery approach to predefined indicators of outcomes. Observational evaluation involves researchers observing participants in ...
• Narrative evaluation
  Narrative evaluation A desk work approach to identifying themes including how frequently they recur, by analysing ...
• Embedded evaluation
  Embedded evaluation A variety of in-gallery, open approaches which might be fun, embedded in the exhibition ...