Flourishing in Museums presents the Flourishing Museum Framework, an interdisciplinary model for reflection and practice. Illustrated via a diversity of international examples, the framework demonstrates how museums can meaningfully address the many challenges facing the profession.
Including contributions from a wide range of scholar-practitioners working across the arts, humanities, sciences, education, business, and mental health disciplines, the volume uses abundance-thinking and takes a strengths-based appreciative approach to museum purpose, function, and being. The book demonstrates that, even within the most difficult climates, abundance-oriented methods and perspectives can inspire and elicit flourishing in visitors, staff, and communities, thus positioning museums as places where people find meaningful and purposeful work and where visitors find satisfaction, meaning, inspiration, and motivation. Drawing from the disciplines of positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship, contemplative studies, and museum studies, the book is unified and organized into six thematic areas that comprise the Flourishing Museum Framework: courage, transformation, care, optimism, gratitude, and delight.
Flourishing in Museums will be essential reading for academics and students working in the museum and heritage fields, as well as the cognate disciplines of arts management and creative industries. It will also be useful to practitioners working in museums and heritage sites around the world.
Part I. Introduction – 1 Introduction - The Flourishing Museum Framework; Part II. Flourishing With Intention – Section I: Exploring Courage – 2 Courage as Flourishing; 3 Expanding a Museum Internationally: Belief Despite the Challenges; 4. Collaborative Courage: Examining Meanings From a Risk-Taking Exhibition Experience; 5. Practicing Bravery in Museum Leadership: A Love Story; Section II: Regarding Care – 6 Care as Flourishing; 7 Museums of Hope: Reinterpreting Museums for People’s Well-Being; 8 Cultivating Compassion in the Museum Workplace; 9 Reconsidering Japanese Museum Professional Training From a Positive Lens; 10 Forgiveness: In Conversation With 3,397 Indigenous Stone Sools; Section III: Envisioning Transformation – 11 Transformation as Flourishing; 12 Appreciating the Broad Spectrum of Positive Visitor Experiences in Museums: A Journey of Discovery; 13 On Museums, Transcendence, and Magic; 14 Different But Same; 15 Flourishing Through Museums: Designing for Empathy® With the Oneness Mindset; Section IV: Considering Optimism – 16 Optimism as Flourishing; 17 Hope, Love, and Improvisation: A Dance Through Change and Choice; 18 An Intentional Museum is Always on the Verge of Becoming; 19 Museums and the Well-Being of University Students During COVID-19: ‘Something That Meant Something to Me’; 20 Archives Making the Past Present: The Folklore Fragments Podcast; Section V: Recognizing Gratitude – 21 Gratitude as Flourishing; 22 How Interactive Playful Experiences Can Help us Practice Being Grateful; 23 A Healing Museum Partnership: Objects, Giving and Gratitude from Syria to Sweden; 24 Gratitude and Ethics: A Business Equation for Success; Section VI: Examining Delight – 25 Delight as Flourishing; 26 Keeping in Good Humor; 27 Meaningful Museum Experiences Are Satisfying Museum Experiences; 28 Why so Serious? Harnessing the Phenomenon of Fun in Museums; Part III. Conclusion – 29 Conclusion; References; Index.
Kiersten F. Latham, PhD, is the President & CEO of Sauder Village, a living history museum complex in Ohio, USA. Professor Brenda Cowan is an educator and former chairperson at SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology in the graduate Exhibition & Experience Design department.
