Slides from a presentation at the Inclusive Museum Conference, Manchester, England September 15th 2017. Focus is on ageing, chronic disease, social diversity and the museum as a locus for healing - not cure and not medicine

1. Healing in the Museum
A Geographic Perspective
Presenter
Hamish Robertson
Visiting Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
AUSTRALIA
Tenth International Conference on
The Inclusive Museum

2. Contents
• Introduction
• The great convergence
• Places of healing, places as healing
• The museum as place
• Healing in and through the museum
• Current practices and future developments
• Conclusion

3. Episodic Museum Contributions 1996-2017

4. OECD Countries - Older Populations % of Total 1970-2014
Source: https://data.oecd.org/pop/elderly-population.htm

5. The Great Convergence and the Museum
• Major demographic changes are ongoing, developmental and
diversifying
• Big 3 - population ageing, disability, socio-cultural diversity
(migrations, generational shifts)
• Dynamic social categories and improving inclusions (disability,
sexuality, aged-related conditions)
• Age/disability conditions - physical, intellectual, psychological (inc.
trauma, PTSD etc.) and cognitive impairments (neurological,
neurodegenerative, pain etc.)
• Updating museum studies (criticalities) for this century, its enduring
cultural conflicts and the implications of convergence
• Situating the museum as a locus of care and identity - represented
by, present and participating in the museum

6. Population Ageing and Chronic Disease
• Ageing is closely correlated with chronic disease, disability and a growing variety
of neuroepidemiological conditions
• Chronic disease is already the largest source of morbidity and mortality globally
(WHO) and this trend is rising
• Women live longer than men, on average, and have higher disability rates –
ageing is both a female and a feminist issue – ageing policy prism
• In many rich countries chronic disease rates are approaching 50% prevalence –
the myth of universal health and healthcare?
• Marmot etc. prove social inequality gradients in life chances persist and many
marginal groups do much worse (the Glasgow effect, the DC train line effect etc.)
• Health inequalities are spatially patterned, often to the level of microgeographies
– life expectancies can vary dramatically within a matter of a few city blocks
• These scenarios can only continue to develop as population ageing progresses

7. Clinical Aspects of Ageing Include;
• Visual impairments including macular degeneration
• Hearing impairments including Deafness/deaf/deaf-blind/HoH/tinnitus
• Cognitive, memory and behavioural problems associated with neurodegenerative
disorders/diseases
• Dementia spectrum including MCI and AD – 50:50 chance of diagnosis in primary
care (Draper et al, 2011)
• Movement disorders including PD and gait ataxias
• TIA/stroke – aphasia etc.
• Persistent pain – e.g. post-operative and post event, headache, neuralgia,
severe/persistent dental infections etc.
• Delirium versus dementia – misdiagnosis and consequences
• Polypharmacy – multiple drugs and their interactions in frail older people
• Disability status, cause and consequences for daily life

8. On Not Being an Extension of the Medical System
• The risks of medicalization – every symptom a potential illness to be
treated
• The Alzheimer’s industry promotes no identity without memory, as though
memory is reliable, stable and objective
• Diagnostic overshadowing – the diagnosis becomes the only health issue –
bad news for older people and people with disability (then and now)
• The risk dimension – physical and psychological accommodations in the
museum experience – how best to manage?
• Culture, memory and continuity – what happens to people’s artifacts when
the individual is gone?
• The long-term orientation of the museum as a plus for people and their
individual and collective memories
• Luciano Floridi and others on ‘digital remains’ – is this an opportunity for
the museum, an extension of the cultural and caring principles?

9. Places of Healing, Places as Healing
• Healing, not necessarily curing…but in time perhaps?
• Reconciliation to and not alienation from the conditions people are
living with (e.g. dementias, disabilities)
• The politics of care and the role of the museum – Monique Lanoix etc.
• Providing care in situ as a place-creation process -> care as placed
• Reconsidering space-place relations (e.g. health and medical
geographic theory)
• Places as sites of healing – cultural shifts and continuities
• Healing in and through place and place-based effects (and vice versa)
• The museum is emerging as a healing place

10. Healing In and Through the Museum
• In-house and outreach activities – spaces become places through
engagement, attachment and identification – museum extends itself
• Contribution to the art and science of ageing – building the knowledge
base through cultural and memory/experiential work
• Contribution to the social care for older people, people with disability etc.
• Cultural heritage institutions and their role in a broader conceptualisation
of care and healing
• Museum staff become experts in their own corpus of knowledge on ageing,
disability etc.
• Exhibition and event design as inclusive of the need for healing
• Museums join the spectrum of healing places by engaging with the care of
these important social categories of person and their experiences

11. Current Practices, Future Developments
• Current projects underway UK, USA etc. on open-ended engagement
with people who are unwell
• Social prescribing in the UK -> preventive potential as well as
interventional?
• Specific projects aimed at physical, psychological (and mixed)
conditions – individual and collective (categories, groups,
communities) scenarios
• Intergenerational engagements – the life-course museum?
• On not medicalising the museum – this would be a step backwards

12. In Conclusion
• We live in rapidly ageing societies, a global trend that is expanding and
diversifying – ageing, disability, sexuality etc.
• The museum is, increasingly, a locus for care work and, therefore, a place
of potential and even actual healing
• Cultural memory work is hugely important for individuals and groups, this
will grow as social inclusion expands
• Neuroplasticity suggests the potential for expanding the role of the
museum – the brain can and does adapt (e.g. Ellen Langer’s work)
• This work should be parallel, not subordinate to the healthcare system
• Museums are places and places can have healing qualities
• Cultural heritage and geography offer a practical and theoretically rich
potential for this emerging ‘landscape’ of care