This document discusses how museums can and should adopt missions focused on wellbeing and sustainability to address the root causes of issues like global warming, environmental degradation, and inequality. It recommends that museums (1) educate about these issues while giving space for difficult emotions, (2) engage cultural values to help bridge the value-action gap, and (3) change how they engage with communities towards mutual relationships and wellbeing. Adopting missions centered on wellbeing rather than just wealth may risk challenging the status quo but can be achieved by learning from failures, building support networks, and defining communities openly while establishing the museum as a local hub.

1. Setting the scene Why be a Happy Museum? BridgetMcKenzie, Flow Associates

3. Intense farming

4. Extraction & fossil fuels

6. Consumption & waste

7. unequal wealth

9. Water & food

11. Social unrest

12. Conflict & war

13. NOT happiness

16. Severe storms

17. Drought

18. Forest fires & disease

19. Earthquakes

20. Pollution risks

22. Migrations

23. Famine & disease

25. Habitat collapse

26. Risk of extinction to most vertebrates (includes humans) INCREASES RESOURCE SCARCITY Wealth-not-wellbeing is root of global warming

27. Quick note on planetary boundaries Ozone layer (worse than thought) Biodiversity (safe boundary breached) Chemical dispersion (can’t quantify) Climate change (breached & impacts on others) Ocean acidification (40% acid) Freshwater consumption (bad but solvable) Land use change (on way to breached) Nitrogen/phosphorous (pretty bad) Atmospheric aerosol (can’t quantify)

28. So, in the false belief that destroying nature ensures human wellbeing by providing jobs, goods, and jobs to make more goods, we destroy the conditions for our own wellbeing and for all other forms of life*

29. *Except maybe ants... Technical name: ‘Hairy crazy ant’

30. This crisis means that no museum can sustain itself, financially or ethically, without the thriving and wellbeing of global biodiversity (including humanity) somewhere in its mission*. *Ideally, somewhere BIG in its mission

31. Wellbeing: The Eudaimoniamovement Human flourishing Prosperity without growth Autonomy to act Happiness not hedonism Inspiring #occupywallstreet

33. You can find this toolkit on the Happy Museum website and on Renaissance South East pages

35. By Renaissance South East & Flow

36. The legacy of 8 pilot projects: museums in Kent, Surrey, Hants, E Sussex

38. 1. Show & tell the truth but give people space to feel sad and the tools to act

39. 2. Engage cultural values or ‘deep frames’ The ‘Common Cause’ values model

40. People struggle to leap the gap from changing values to changing their actions Museums for the Future 15 The Value-Action Gap External influences: Crises, Teachers, Examples CHANGED ACTIONS CHANGED VALUES CHANGED INTENTIONS Internal influences: Fears/hopes, personality

41. To help breach the value-action gap we need to learn why it’s there 16 External influences tell me ‘conform to social norms of happiness’ & ‘doubt the evidence of science’ The Value-Action Gap ‘I can see logic of change but my values are long-held’ ‘I need nudges, systems, peers to change my mind’ ‘I can’t imagine what this future looks like’ Internal influences: ‘I’m afraid to change. I may be unhappy’

43. Work with others to protect heritage beyond the museum

45. To conclude: My question If a ‘wellbeing not wealth’ mission means your museum must challenge the status quo, what might be the risks to your museum? How could you overcome the risks?

46. Toolkit available on Happy Museum website More about me on:www.flowassociates.comhttp://thelearningplanet.wordpress.com bridget.mckenzie@flowassociates.com