Reimagining

Reimagining explored how creative programmes can help to create a healthier, more inclusive museum environment. The programme was developed in collaboration with Filipa Pereira-Stubbs, a local dance artist who previously worked with the Fitzwilliam Museum on Look, Imagine, Move, a social prescribing initiative supporting older adults affected by chronic pain, musculoskeletal conditions, and post-stroke.

Reimagining was delivered in the Museum (April-May 2024). Two series were offered, providing alternative times for engagement, with a total of 12 older adults participating. Each session included both creativity and evaluation, with a dance-based activity in a closed gallery, and reflective evaluation sessions taking place in the Studio. The gallery-based element of each session involved sharing practices of close looking and movement, which participants were encouraged to use in everyday life. The evaluative element was structured using the Creative Health Quality Framework (Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, 2023) and Evaluation Principles (Centre for Cultural Value, 2021).

The project explored questions like:

how does it feel to be in the museum?
how is it different being in the museum space?
what does bringing a sensory attention to artwork bring to the museum experience?

This project was funded by the Marlay Group

Related publications

Briefing paper

Conference presentations to relevant, specialist audiences

Project team

Emily Bradfield, Practitioner Research Associate (Programme Lead)

Filipa Pereira-Stubbs, Dance Artist (collaborator on Reimagining and Look, Imagine, Move)

Outcomes of the project

Collaborative, evaluation programme is developed and delivered with community participants, leading to the development of a set of principles for inclusive practice with older adults in the Museum.

A new set of principles for inclusive practice will be developed from the findings – see Museums for Life.

“Best thing that’s happened in my life since being like this...” (participant, 2024)

Participants described taking part in a programme in the Museum as a “safe space (with a nudge out of your comfort zone)” and “a space where you’ll experience...”. Having participated in health and wellbeing programmes in the Museum, they feel comfortable in the space, developed friendships and have a shared feeling that, “this is our museum”.

Since Reimagining, some of the participants have created their own, independent group. They meet monthly at the Museum to talk, eat and look at artworks together. The Project Lead supported them to access the Museum’s study room, to view some Renoir paintings in September 2024, and they visited again in October 2024. They continue to book these sessions independently.

A couple of the participants have also taken part in an accompanying research project Take a Walk in My Shoes.