Museum to You brings joy to local older people
Suzannah Cook and Frances Webb, co-founders of Museum to You CIC, explain how we helped them bring learning to life in care settings across the county with a recent grant for £2,340 from our Main Grants programme.
“Imagine how you’d feel if all the things you love about your community were taken away from you. That’s what the people we work with face because museums and community learning resources are quite often inaccessible to them.
At Museum to You, we believe that everyone, including those living in care homes, should have the right to continue learning throughout their lives. However, many older people, especially those living with dementia, sight impairment and physical difficulties, face challenges accessing museums. This means they may have been excluded from cultural resources, opportunities for cultural stimulation and learning experiences.
Each session involves taking artefacts to care settings and supporting people to interact with them in small groups. Our attendees have multiple support and health needs. This means every presentation we do is unique, person-centred and tailored to them. We’re passionate about inclusivity in our approach.
The sessions bring a fresh burst of energy into people’s lives – it’s all about bringing the outside world in. We’ve noticed our mobile museum visits are discussed positively throughout the care setting on a long-term basis. This contributes to a culture of learning and memory, where people feel acknowledged, respected and alive. The feedback we receive has been superb. Attendees have mentioned they appreciate the opportunity to learn something new and spark interesting conversations. It also adds a rhythm to people’s lives when we return. The last presentation we did was about tea drinking in Wells and people now say ‘Ah – you’re the tea ladies!’
Somerset Community Foundation has been instrumental in providing us with necessary equipment, from bubble wrap to a Bluetooth speaker. They have also extended financial support to sponsor some of our visits. This is especially important because we’re now looking at ways to ensure long-term sustainability. We began with a small pilot programme a year ago, collaborating with the Wells and Mendip Museum, who were unable to meet their outreach goals without our assistance. Today, we’re proud to deliver our services to 9 care settings across Somerset.
We understand museums are incomplete without visitors. No matter how great a museum is, if no one is coming in and engaging, it loses its worth. To tackle this, we bring museum and community artefacts to people who might not otherwise have access to them, so that they can appreciate these cultural gems. We’re very excited about our collaborations with The Bishop’s Palace, Thatcher’s Cider and Mulberry in the coming year.”
21.03.2024
Impact Story details
Grant size: | £2,340 |
Location: | County-wide |
Theme: | Mental & Physical Wellbeing |
Funding Programme:Main Grants