Prescription Museum: A life line for our world

Museums have held a fascination for people for generations. Museums provide a look into a by gone era, help visitors reflect on the world around them, provide meeting places for communities and let people learn about new things.  Yet museums are finding it increasingly difficult to reach new audiences, provide resources to everyone in their community and support their buildings and collections.  Financially speaking a lot of museums are living paycheck to paycheck.  But despite their challenges they rise to the occasions and create innovative and welcoming spaces for visitors around the world.

One unique opportunity British museums have taken advantage of is the emerging field of wellness program. A great resource on the British activity is https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/rcmg/publications/mind-body-spirit-report as well as American Alliance of Museums' report on health and wellness in museums: https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/museums-on-call.pdf

I'm feeling inspired to connect my two passions, health care and museum education!

How do museums make you feel? How would you define wellbeing? Do you ever participate in culture or museum activities to increase your wellbeing?

Engaging with Museums

Museums are a hub for art, culture, science and music (among other things...). Museums speak to the very core of their visitors through exciting programs, ground-breaking research and breathe-taking collections. But museums in general aren't able to create their magic single-handedly, there are team of professionals, volunteers and community stakeholders engaging in the process day in and day out.  Through dedicated and exiting stewardship of the programs and collections museums attract a variety of stakeholders across the globe to support both a museum's individual mission and the general idea of museums to bridge cultural, social or political gaps.

Vital research is preformed in museums every day. Retrospectives on historical events and trends help shape our future social engagement strategies as a community. Research on biological and paleo-specimens help answer questions about our scientific heritage and direct us in thinking about our relationship to the physical world around us. The pursuit of knowledge is inherent in museums and their staff, but how can we translate that drive... that thirst for knowledge and reflection to the museum visitors?

This is a question I have been struggling with recently as I embark on creating a research proposal for my PhD... how do communities engage with museums? Why do they engage with museums? and what outcomes are produced through museum engagement, and how does that effect the participant?.... share your thoughts in the comments

Why RxMuse

Many of you may be wondering about the curious name choice RxMuse.  As I mentioned before I'm a want-to-be medical historian (who am I kidding I could tell you the history of defibrillators and the g-suit without even batting an eye) and have a background in hospital museums.  In fact it has been my work in managing hospital collections that inspired my PhD (more on that later).

Needless to say I full heartedly believe that museums are an essential part to community and personal well-being.  Being involved in museums increases health markers in all populations.  So basically, when you need a bit of a pick me up, or you are needing a new motivation to push through some personal goals, visit your local museum: