This is a recorded session from the 2020 AAM Virtual Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo.

Museums are bridging into and out of health and wellness spaces. Gain a theoretical base, practical framework, and tools, while exploring three models of wellness initiatives at museums or inside wellness facilities. Learn about creating robust experiences and funding requirements.

Presenters: Kathleen Brown, Lord Cultural Resources; Victoria Coats, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI); Jean Hershner, Nemours Estate; Maria Mortati, Maria Mortati Experience Design

Transcript

Maria Mortati:How’s everyone doing

Kathleen Brown: Doing great. How about yourself. Well, I’m trying to

Maria Mortati: Like chill out now.

Kathleen Brown:  Breaths

Maria Mortati: 17 minutes Yeah.

Kathleen Brown:  It’ll be fine. You know, we

Jean Hershner: Just hearing people run power tools next door right outside my window, and then they stopped. So, I’m just waiting for them to come back.

Kathleen Brown: What, what happened to me this morning was I woke up to a to a worker up front, saying they were going to take down the big tree in the front yard. To cranes and a three trucks and I said, Okay. When do you think you’ll be finished by? He said, Oh, probably noon or so. So, I should be all right. Well then. I’ll after all that they went away and they did something else and they didn’t come back. I haven’t come back yet so yeah.

Alright, well we’ve got people. So, so far, 30 participants so far. That’s nice. Alright.

And

Jean Hershner: I’m gonna feel like I’m just talking to the three of you, though.

Kathleen Brown:  Well, that’s, that’s the challenge. Yeah.

Maria Mortati: So, Kathleen I’m Ryan Just pause when I’m done with a slide. You know what I need. Kind of yes.

Jean Hershner: If it’s okay with you, Kathleen, I’ll do the same thing.

Kathleen Brown: And if I move on, you’ll tell me that I’m going too fast. Yes.

Jean Hershner: Yes. All right. Very good.

Jason – Commpartners: Okay guys, we are live, and attendees are here and hear what we’re saying and see what we’re seeing. So have a great session and welcome everyone thank you.

Maria Mortati: I’m curious if anyone knows how many people are at am today, so to speak.

Kathleen Brown:  Well, we know we have 38 that are on our, on our panel so far.

Jean Hershner: There were like

Kathleen Brown:  Everyone. Hello everyone. Yeah.

Jean Hershner: There were 600 people on a session yesterday, I think.

Wow.

Maria Mortati: That’s fantastic.

Jean Hershner: That was a session about diversity and Equity

Maria Mortati: Oh,

Jean Hershner: Perfect for yeah. It’s fantastic.

Kathleen Brown: Well, going to share the screen and get our slide up. Alright. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the session three models for bridging wellness and museums at the AM virtual conference here this afternoon. We’re so glad that you chose to join us today. I know you have a lot of choices on all of the sessions that were out there.

And right now. Hundred and 21 of you have chosen to join our session. So, thank you very much for, for being here. My name is Kathleen brown I’m Chief Operating Officer and senior practice leader for Lord cultural resources and I’m going to be moderating the session today and introducing the panelists. However, before I do that, I noticed that in the material that am was circulating before that they had Atlantic acknowledgement statement.

For myself being based here out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, we, we have a custom it’s customary in Canada to do land acknowledgments that are based on where we are and the people whose land. This is and it takes gives us a moment to acknowledge those people and the legacy that they’ve left to us because we’re now here in cyberspace and there are so many jurisdictions.

First people across North America and around the world who are represented by your participation. I thought it might be a little bit different to acknowledge the black indigenous and people of color who are suffering and in so much pain across North America today.

So, I wanted to shift that acknowledgement and to acknowledge these people the strife that’s being faced today, and indeed over the last four years, and to assure you that we are listening. We hear you. And we stand with you.

Thank you again for joining us. It is my privilege to introduce our presenters today and I’m going to advance the slide, if I can find it over here. Great.

That’s me in the upper left hand corner and Kevin ground, as I said, I’ve worked in museums and cultural attractions for more than years and so I’ve had an opportunity and the privilege to work with 250 more than 250 organizations across the continent and I’ll be tasked with introducing the panelists and our subject today and moderating the discussion that follows

My first presenter is Maria Mortati, who’s a public experience designer from San Francisco. She creates projects with all forms of museums and healthcare institutions, she’s done work with the Exploratorium the Sainsbury Wellcome Trust, Frog Design UCLA hammer museum Xerox PARC, and the Walker Art Center. She’s a frequent panelists, on the subject of innovative public engagement.

Jean Kirshner is next. She will be a she is director of the new Moore’s estate. A 200-acre historic property located in Wilmington, Delaware and adjacent to the new Moore’s Alfred I DuPont Hospital for Children. She holds master’s degrees in American Studies and nonprofit management and enjoys the challenge of connecting the intent of the state’s founders with current day programming and operations.

For our third participant is Victoria Coates, who is the research, development and advancement manager at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. She has worked on exhibit projects since animatronic dinosaurs first appeared in the museum or recent traveling exhibit projects are focused on human biology. Natural History traditional ecological knowledge and climate change.

Thank you, panelists for the time and energy that I know that you put into these sessions. I’m really, really delighted to have you here.

I just, to quickly review our purpose as we put it out in the in the program description that those of you who are participating read and understood that that’s what we’re going to be doing today.

First is to understand approaches to programming and the relationship between programming and health and wellness spaces, had you take a program into health and wellness space there are very particular kinds of issues that are important to think about in that environment. So that’s one of the things that will be reviewing and looking at today. Another is around proposing new ways for your institution to align its mission or to support of Health and Wellness Initiatives and issues. And then, finally, to recognize constraints and opportunities that the current situation with COVID specifically provides for us to respond to flexible nimble and resilient in our practice. So those are the objectives that we set out to work toward today.

That’s me doing the introduction I go on to the next slide, which is a little bit of background on why this session came how this session came to be, I guess. Well, it started out that Maria and I had both proposed sessions for am then they’ve been accepted, then when the program went online and gotten more and more condensed we put these sessions together to have a little bit of a background on the relationship between arts, culture and wellness and talk about relationships there, and also to look at some very specific programs and models of engagement, so just to start out the relationship between culture and health is well documented and well-practiced in the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia.

There are positive correlations that have been demonstrated between engagement and inspiration and health outcomes. And that’s a lot of what the field and the research it drives toward in this context.

Museums and health are also well developed in these other places, not so much in the United States. In fact, one of the organizations that we’re going to talk about when we get to this place in the end of the session about resources. The National Organization for the Arts at the health conference that I attended last year. There were about three museum people out of I would say roughly 300 participants so that relationship still has yet to be developed and that’s one of the things that will be talking about and looking at today. So for when it comes to museums health and wellbeing can museums really make you happier and healthier.

Well, I would say, yes, I worked in this field for most of my life. And part of the reason that I did is because I find what I get out of museum visits and interacting with objects with ideas with all of the things that museums represent and why all of us are here. They do make me healthier. They make me healthier and happier. I could say that for sure this morning when Lonnie bunch was giving his keynote. He spoke to our capacity as museums to define reality provide comfort healing and inspiration and to give hope.

So that’s all part of some. So, the things that we’re trying to do today and we’re going to go through three very specific and different models to look to

For how we can achieve this relationship between arts, culture, health and wellbeing. So the first is a clinical look that Maria will be speaking to, and she’s looking at a program that she’s developing in clinic in a clinical setting in an institution.

Then Jean will speak to a legacy property that she’s the director of Moore’s estate and it’s active relationship and support of a health care partner.

Then thirdly, Vicki is going to speak to the her exhibition programs in a science center setting. And then finally, at the end, we’re going to come back to look at some of those resources that I mentioned that will prompt some further discussion and we’ll go from there. So Maria. I’m going to set you up to start right now.

Maria Mortati: Thank you, everybody. Thanks. Kathleen. So, this is a project I’ve been working on since November, and it is to develop a mobile interactive experienced station for Alzheimer’s residence at a new state of the art facility here in San Francisco.

Okay. And so it’s the at the campus for Jewish living the facility is hopefully going to open in the fall and the project will function inside of this site as part of the continuum of care network that they are developing their until the project team is myself, obviously, and Rob Sarason, the Director of Programs, who is also an expert in enrichment and drama for eldercare the project is funded by a cabbie grant center for aging and brain health innovation.

And the initial idea for this project came from Alexis Denton who thought that having something in the facility residence halls itself that would go or augment existing programs would be helpful. And so, she was the dermatological architect on the bill team.

Right.

So, in thinking about this question, I’m here. You know, I think that museums have a lot to offer. Because you know we do things that are whole the whole experience model.

And we do projects that are multi-sensory projects that you can immerse yourself in, and they also function in an institutional ecosystem. This is especially true in memory CARE WHERE RESIDENTS need everything kind of turned up to 11 and as I learned about the best practices in memory and healthcare facilities, it became clear to me that there are natural affinities with the practice of interaction design and him or socially centered design with these other capacities that they already have so one of the things I did. Let’s see. This was in February, January, February, was I attended CPI crisis intervention training institute with the nursing staff and the care staff, and this was to learn about what triggers my project wants to avoid you know I don’t want to be upsetting or creating more anxiety in the residence lives. And then there are situations that my project may want to ameliorate and then I also really want to learn about like very viscerally. How does the staff function and how will this operate so I can figure out how it’s going to operate in in there, their life.

So this chart here is looking at our particular audience, which is the mid to end stage suffers of Alzheimer’s and, in particular, it speaks, you know, it’s speaking to the digression of the capacities for these residents and what connects to the museum world in right ways but a particular with and children’s museums in particular is the second column and it maps this digression to the early childhood developmental milestones and this is a theory of retro Jean sis was first noticed and developed by Claudia Allen in the 1960s.

So, obviously part of this work is creating, creating new work and also at the same time kind of building on the shoulders of the giants in the latest in research in both Alzheimer’s eldercare but also things like perception and sensory century sensory devices and sensors sensory research. So on the left, the research. And on the right, you know, looking at what are some of the existing tried and true or new technologies that are emerging that we may want to integrate or consider borrowing from a partner with the other really essential piece to this project was the fact that I was able to be located in the clinical space. And so, I was next door on a room in the residence hall next door to all the other residents were accepted a lab to build and quickly test out prototypes. And I could sort of figure out the things that were like this figure out the subtleties of the devices and the different century modes. I wanted to understand I had, you know, done drawings and started work things talking with fabricators programmers and I set up. Just, just to test out one of the early prototypes and then the Ben covert hit and obviously I couldn’t go to the facility anymore.

So, next slide.

So that meant I had to somewhat pivot and reorganize my work process. So, what this work looks like now is obviously with testing and identifying what I want to test. I will be doing things with myself. Family member members, friends and neighbors and then developing things and protocols that I can give to the staff eventually to be able to try out on site.

Um, the other thing is that I’m front loading. Some of the ideal I the idea development and really closely mapping them towards my axes of the capacities. So, we have the low capacity and stage and high capacity medium stage and then the things that you need to do for Alzheimer’s suffers, which is you either need to sue them or you need to stimulate them and so on the left you see the topology is of the content that I’m looking at and you see things like the different types of visuals. So, colors and more phenomenal logical things as well as people, places and things that are kind of part of more narrative experiences.

And other objects are other features that we think will be very impactful for this audience. And finally, you know, starting to develop the custom content as well as starting to figure out where are we going to swear some of this content when you look at music and maybe some visuals and then we’re going to start to figure out what kind of flavors do we start to develop. So, you know, we’ll go from Pat again from passive to highly outcome-oriented experiences that will be developing and against sort of step by step.

So, in thinking about what COVID teaches us I’m here. I think in this project, things like cleaning protocols and the robustness of the design remain the same. I mean, this is a care facility. Right. Um, but thinking about things that really radically change are things like visits from the loved ones.

Which gets me to start thinking about, well, what are we doing this project that we might be able to leverage or maybe show up in other parts of the site, perhaps to help foster those visits with family members or help make sense of how they’re seeing their family members and the other part is that, you know, kind of writ large, the project underscores the useful of, you know, agility, but also this idea of like a holistic design practice so that you can pull on the other strings during the slow down or a pandemic, or a fundraising crisis and I’m lines of fundraising on should say that I’m really happy to report that we just awarded the other day official additional funding during COVID. Um, and so, even with the complexity of this moment in time, you know, our primary objective still remains. And I think that’s true for everybody.

You know, we, in particular, owe it to our older adults care that allows them to live as fully, fully as possible and that extends out to the entire community of care around them.

Kathleen Brown:  Thank you. All right. Good Humor Maria, we will do questions at the end, rather than in between each of the panelists. So, when you have a question, please post it to the Q AMP a section on your screen and we will come back to those at the end of the session. Alright Jean. You’re up next, right.

Jean Hershner: Welcome everybody. And greetings from to Morris estate in Wilmington, Delaware, I before I begin, I just want to explain that I titled representation of bridge to wellbeing, because we define wellbeing very broadly to include all aspects of wellness. And we make this distinction because we share campus with Morris Alfred I DuPont Hospital for Children and they their work is obviously based on clinical aspects of wellness.

So, in the next few minutes, I’ll be discussing the historical context for our focus at Moore’s estate on wellbeing, as well as some of the programs we have implemented to benefit our audiences.

And we’re state was established in 1910 by Alfred urine at palm and his second wife, Alicia Bradford Maddox to count the CERT upon his picture here. The senior he married Alicia his second wife, and when he started working on shortly before he started working on new words mansion also picture here. Alfred and his family had a deep connection to and appreciation for health and wellness on the mansion has a fitness room in the basement. There are walking, riding trails throughout the state that he established, and he was really an avid outdoorsman himself. However, he they were also affected by health issues, Alfred lost vision and his left, I do to hunting accident and who is plagued with chronic hearing issues really for most of his life.

Alfred and Alicia also suffered a series of heartbreaking losses between 1910 and 1920 Alfred and Alicia loss for infants at or shortly after birth. And Alicia would in fact passed away in 1920 carrying a fifth child Alicia struggled to cope with these losses and in fact the estate is surrounded by a stone wall which alpha directed to provide Alicia with a quiet retreat in which to recover her physical and mental health.

Alpha dream married in 1921 Jesse ball du Pont was 20 years his junior he had known her family for very long time. She’s pictured here. She gave Alfred a new lease on life. And after his death in 1935 it felt to Jesse to implement Alfred’s long-term dream of establishing a Children’s Hospital in Delaware, this would become Jesse’s like work. Out the Alfred I DuPont Institute. Our second picture here, opens in 1940 and this is DuPont is standing probably in front of it as she should, and it serves children originally with orthopedic issues few highlights about this project. First, I have to give all kinds of recognition to Mrs. to comp. This was between 1935 and 1940 you didn’t see too many women conquering the world. And this is DuPont organized and built a Children’s Hospital from literally from the ground up. And she did an incredible job. She also believes that the outside of the Institute’s should be just as beautiful as the inside, so she engaged and landscape architect Charles Gillette to design a garden and it’s believed to be the first garden designed for Children’s Hospital. He also creates in this project and alphabet walk from the medical directors residents to the hospital. There was apparently quite a bit of back and forth with children going to the medical directors residents and walking back and forth and going to the grounds around it.

So, with the that walk. They were 26 trees and as you may imagine every tree started with a different letter of the alphabet pay for Ashby for each and so on. And I would like to note here that Mrs. De Palma’s educator before she married. Mr. DuPont, I think you see it very vividly in the alphabet walk there was also a barn on the ground. Oh.

Sorry.

All right.

There’s also a barn on the ground that was converted to recreation center and a fool is established, and there was retreated cherry islands that gave which is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Which really gave more about a summer camp experience to children in the hospital, it was very important to Mrs. to calm the children get to be kits, even while they are stick. And that’s something, of course, that this carry through to Child Life departments today.

So here are two images of as the institute grew it grew its past the to serve more children entry or illnesses. It was renamed to Morris Alfred I DuPont Hospital for Children, just the name of carries today. These are two images from today. So, the first is a picture so that it goes from oldest to newest with that blue. The blue ish its if you look at it from the top section shape like almost two footballs that is the newest section of the hospital and the second picture you see what our view looks like from the mansion.

So, we actually get to see the hospital from the there’s a fence between so I from the, from the mansion side of this tape side of the fence. We get to see the hospital to and there is I want to point out behind between the fountain and the hospital there is that little very whimsical structure that’s, believe it or not, that’s actually a water tower that Mr. DuPont built on the property. And it’s often it’s visible to a lot of patient rooms and the kids have all kinds of imagination, calling it a princess tower as you can. Which is a lot of fun, but you may be asked why we are so close. Well, Mrs. To count when she was when she built the when she built the Alfred I DuPont Institute to build it right on the grounds of the state.

So currently, there are now 100 acres on the hospital side of the fence and 200 acres remain with numerous state on the state side of the fence. There is, but the proximity is very important because this is DuPont spent a lot of time in the hospital children came over to us state quite a bit. We have a number of pictures with children over the state, which is a lot of fun.

So fast forward to the current day all of us at the state are taking our programming queue for wellness and wellbeing from our friend Jesse ball DuPont.

The first picture here is the can grow garden. It’s a patio garden in an enclosed courtyard in the hospital. Plants are started in the state’s greenhouse and they’re taking over to the hospital ours gardeners manage the garden and clinicians in the hospital are kind enough to water it water it for us during the summer on the purpose of this garden is to create is to encourage healthy eating demonstrate that growing healthy foods calm as possible and to show kids what food looks like before it gets to the grocery store family, children and hospital staff are able to eat lunch out there. Attend special programs and even take produce home.

In addition, plant giveaways are held at the outpatient entrance of the hospital. Several days a week and last year, approximately 6000 plants like tomatoes, peppers and beans were distributed to families and that was made part in hospital by a grant from so don’t cares at the foreground is a book box built in the at the state with free gardening and plant books with different reading levels it for people to just help themselves and take home.

And our second picture here, highlights our mobile Garden Cart. It’s also, it was also built at the estate, and it contains nature themed activities for children. Last year it was a part of the Department of Child likes summer camp program for children who miss out on the camp experience due to illnesses and hospitalizations.

So that’s the state going a few just a few examples of the state, going to the hospital. This is an example of now our programming based at the state.

Pictured here is yoga in the gardens in our temple of love. We’re hoping have a socially distant session this fall. And it’s primarily for employees at the hospital. We kept this really an inside indoors program.

So, for a whole number of reasons not the least of which is the stress that clinical staff and you’re working in a Children’s Hospital.

Along the same lines, we had a walking program that makes the estates very beautiful 200 acres of grounds available to staff and patients and families at the hospital for free. On the enter through side gate and anytime we’re open, they’re able to come in. Aside gate and just walk the grounds. It sounds very simple, but there’s such a value and hospital for this program staff is an exercise and reduce stress levels and families who have children. Their children often stay in the hospital for weeks and months, so they’re able to get some sunshine and then some just some space to to really process. Quite often some very difficult circumstances.

Before I move to the second picture, I have to mention one of our other signature programs. Each year the state house that day of remembrance for families for the last two years have lost a child ignores the pastoral care department needs a non-religious remembrance ceremony and families offer their memories and reflections. And then their entire family places a flower on the surface of a pond in memory of their child. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful and we are very honored to host of each year.

The second picture here is a program we piloted last year with a child development center also on on campus at Moore’s and in Thomas Bluebell picture here is our educational programmer and she’s here with a kindergartener on a nature walk this wasn’t we piloted this last year it was an eight-week program that explored history and art in nature. It was a rousing success, and we hope to have that pro same program at some point again this year and then expand it to homeschooling groups wellbeing a COVID 19, so I had to include so we have a number of gnomes scattered through the 200 acres at the state and our gardeners decided that that they needed to be appropriately masked one day.

It was a it was a nice chuckle and a very stressful time and the pandemic unfolded in the States offseason so our offseason is January through the end of April. And in fact, we’re still close we plan to start the walking program up again. On June 9 but still we wanted to offer during the height of the pandemic. We really wanted to offer some encouragement and support to our clinical colleagues next door. So, when the daffodils were in bloom are gardeners pick them daily. We have to them in small benches and place them on a table used to seeing the first picture near our associate parking garage. So, nurses and clinical staff as they’re leaving the hospital each day to go home can pick up a bunch of daffodils. And just for a smile and just a small token of appreciation for their efforts.

On the water tower that you saw that the kids often Cali Princess tower in the hospital is also still it in blue every night and supportive frontline healthcare workers.

Finally, we spent a lot of time to spring ramping up or online programming, as I’m sure many of you have in this session. If you’d like to see some of our programs. Please check out indoors estate on Instagram and Facebook.

This is, as this is our sunken Gardens at the estate. And this is actually where we hold the Day of Remembrance ceremony and as a concluding thought I just want to say that while we are in a special position to enhance a sense of wellbeing, to the hospital next door. I would just encourage everyone to look around at the needs near your locations, because you’re all in unique places.

I am a chronic over thinker and my biggest lesson learned and watching some of these programs come together. Is it? It’s really the simple things. It’s opening our grounds, giving away flowers, providing families a place to process stress and grief. And many of our programs happened organically, because we met a need, right around ourselves. I mean, it was on the same campus but still it was you know there are there are 10s, if not hundreds of thousands of people that rotate to this campus and there’s all kinds of needs to come up and so we just so many of these things are sprung up organically. So, I just or respectfully encourage and challenge every be listening to the small ways to enhance wellness and a sense of wellbeing, because I cannot think of a better time in history do that then right now. Thank you very much. All right.

Thank you, Jane.

Kathleen Brown:  And next up is Victoria, unmute, unmute

Jean Hershner: Okay, there we go. Thank you.

Kathleen Brown:  I mean…

Jean Hershner: I’m pretty excited and honored to be able to present with to such innovative and beautiful projects. And I think my approach that I’m going to talk about as much more typical if we think about teaching about health and wellness often that happens in science museums and examples. I want to look at are some of the exhibits that obviously has done.

Over the years, highlighting health and wellness and we have been fortunate to receive funding from the science education partnership, a word that goes by the acronym SEPA and it’s a education funding mechanism at the National Institutes of Health, it’s housed in the National Institute of Jean ral Medical Sciences and it began funding informal science programs in the year 2000 before that it was focused primarily or entirely on K through 12 programming for schools and summer and after school programs so museums started applying and we started getting exhibits funded and most of the awardees are universities medical schools research centers so museums have kind of dropped off recently. So, I just want to advocate. I’m hoping that more will apply and that we can become a bigger part of the community again. So, next slide.

So, if you’re if you’re intrigued and you’d like to learn more, a really good place to visit is the SEPA website. It’s and I see the.org and on the website. All the super projects are archived to by funding year and by state the program announcement is there. Unfortunately, the, the next upcoming deadline is July 9 so that’s a pretty short window to put an application together and the application is fairly daunting. It’s the same application that you’d fill out to fund a human clinical trial, but it can be done using SIP done it. And the good thing to do is to get advice and find partners who’ve used the application before the other things you can find on the website, you can find the minutes of the annual meeting and you can also find lots of resources, everything’s archived on this project. Most past projects have websites or curriculums or tools or other resources, they’ve developed. So, it’s a really good place to go if you’re looking for information for health or wellness education.

And the awards that SEPA give us our five-year awards. Around one and a quarter million dollars.

So, let’s look at the next slide and see the range. This is a pie chart showing what the current projects cover. And so, you can see some of these topics are health topics and others are type of project. So, the big blue wedges Citizen Science, the big red wedges infectious disease immunology and epidemiology how useful. What a good topic that is now the green wedges mentoring workforce development teacher PD. So, there’s quite a variety of different subjects and different models being used the very tiniest web is early STEM education and that would be science really Science Learning for preschool and really elementary. You can see that’s it under a dress topic that was added to the SEPA program in and so lots of opportunity to do more with that. So, next slide.

So now I’d like to talk about projects that Ponzi and other musicians have done with SEPA funding.

Our last project was a traveling exhibition on the human microbiome, and it was produced in English and Spanish and it’s 2000 square feet. And it seems like a really great topic now the thing that we were really trying to do with this topic is help people appreciate that, um, microbes are good for us and to take a positive view of their microbes. So that’s going to be more challenging now. Your body is more microbe than human. If by number of cells, you’ve got like 10 times more microbes in your body than human cells. So, you’re basically a colony of microorganisms and those microbes are you couldn’t live without them, they’re helping you digest food and controlling your moods and fighting off infections, so the example in the picture here of the young women touching the screen is one about how microbes in your gut.

You want the good mic… you’re trying to get the good microbes to out to out reproduce the bad microbes and maintain a healthy balance in your gut prevent illness and then the best exhibit ever. Now, that feels like so far sighted and an essential everyone will want when we had an exhibit in suing you about handwashing and at the time that we were putting it in the exhibit. I was kind of skeptical. I was kind of like, no, we want it, like it seemed like such a small thing and not really worth maybe doing a whole exhibit about and now it’s kind of like that the most relevant exhibit in the whole exhibition. So, the little girl puts her hands under the faucet and a blue light shines on her hands as long as she keeps rubbing them under the faucet and the little timer counts down 20 seconds. And then that’s a big hand in front of her that’s covered in microbes and the microbes disappear as she washes her hands. So now that looks like the most brilliant exhibit ever.

So, let’s go on to the next example. I wanted to throw in this big. This is from the Science Museum of Minnesota because its collections based sorry. No worries. Its collections based and um the Science Museum of Minnesota acquired a collection of questionable medical devices from a museum that closed and they’ve got all this strange old stuff you know things for weight loss and electrical stimulation and all kinds of health products that look really sketchy. And like, you know, pure quackery now. But at the time, people were seriously, trying to use them to improve their health. So, they took this collection and created an exhibit about making evidence-based decisions about health care choices. So, it’s got a really important message and a really fun way of communicating it and I think that, you know, it just shows the range of things that you can do to teach people about health and wellness. Next slide.

So, this is another obviously traveling exhibit that’s bilingual and this is the one that we’re currently working on and we’re doing the final design right now. And this whole topic. All of these are hands on exhibits, which is problematic during the Age of COVID but we’re hopeful, we’re kind of looking at this as opposed pandemic it because I bet are traveling exhibit. It’s usually open at MC and then they tour for usually up eight or more years to three venues, a year.

So ideally, we win this pandemic kit. We did start looking at this and trying to figure out if we should try and adapt it for COVID But realistically, it goes on our floor in the spring and then it begins its tour in so it felt like we maybe would be doing more harm than good if we really tried to modify it. I mean, we’re being optimistic that we’ll get through this pandemic and go back to being hands on. So, this exhibit is targeted to adults and children ages zero to five, and they’re adults and families and the messages in it. It’s about early brain development and how important families and parents are to foster that in children.

And so, the message is a really all for the adults and we’re trying to model it in these illustrations every illustration shows children and adults interacting and fun and playful ways. So next slide.

And we created kind of a little world and then now we’re doing the design and you can see the, the kind of overview in the background and the great image and then some, some of the components in the foreground. And when we designed this exhibit. We really are designing it for adults and children. So, the seating is really the comfort, we’re thinking a lot about adults being comfortable and being able to reach things with their kids and signage, that’s really easy to read and images that show you what to do and just encourage adults and children to play in this space. And then there’s text and diagrams in a few just kind of scattered throughout. We need to keep the messaging. Pretty simple showing how these activities connect back to early brain development and how important that is. So, we’re pretty excited to start production next month. Ideally, if all goes well its things have gotten just like from Maria our project has kind of slow down a bit and I hope that these examples will inspire you and that it’s certainly I’m certainly expecting the secret program to be well funded because I can’t imagine a better argument. The experience we’re having right now for public health literacy and communicating health and wellness to the public. So, thank you so much.

Kathleen Brown:  All right, thank you. Vicki. That was, that was really great. I’m going to move on to the next section. Thank you all for participating and for panelists again for putting together your presentations and your comments, just to let the participants know that we did put together a host of resources for you. The next few slides are resources. I just wanted to talk a little bit about each one of these to give you inspiration.

The, the first one that Musicals are in Montreal is a fabulous organization that has a whole Atal yay in within it that is about art therapy and museums and how they work together. It’s a super interesting example of for a lot of reasons not the least of which is how their focus on health care and wellbeing came about. It was primarily through this organic element that we heard from Jean about we heard about it a little bit.

From Vicki as well that that these ideas and the needs of your audience has changed, and they bubble up organically. And the, the focus at the Museum of bizarre was actually originated and came to be through a process of community and public engagement that they undertook. Then there was a founder whose name is on the building of course who create who provided the funding for this program to get started. So, it was a very much community based and community driven approach that has made them.

The, the most widely known organization in North America. They’re the only one. The only Museum in North America that has art and art therapy program in house and art therapist on staff.

I also wanted to talk just a minute about the National Organization for the arts and health. It is a US based organization, the only one out of the ones on this page that are US based. It has a I would say an essence program in museums and wellbeing. So, it’s one to keep an eye on and it’s one his program is growing.

The culture Health Alliance that culture health and wellbeing alliance in the UK is probably the best source of inspiration that I find when I go through and try to understand what’s going on in other countries and around the world through their programs. They also have a great mission statement, which is actually good enough to read. I can find it quickly. It was its inspirational just in its own in its own right. Where is it. Oh, the alliance is a national organization representing everyone who believes that cultural engagement can transform our health and wellbeing. What a great mission statement. Don’t you think so. That is well funded in large part by the Arts Council of England. It is an organization that will that welcomes everyone no matter where in the world you happen to be. And then the last one is this report on the arts and healthcare that was authored last year, and it was released by the World Health Organization, there’s one place that you see in this notation that is the Alliance for art of actually as they are for arts, which is actually based in British Columbia, which is another great resource organization for you to go to.

These are resources that Maria had put up. Is there anything you want to say about those, Maria.

Maria Mortati: Um, I think they’re pretty self-explanatory. One is the funder. One is the aging two-point O is an excellent resource for this type of work and then that’s the CPI they cover all types of price prevention, but this is, in particular the dementia care training. I took great. Excellent.

Kathleen Brown:  And then these are the resources that Vicki spoke about anything from there to say about those Vicki.

Jean Hershner: Um, yeah. So there’s the link to the science education partnership award where that you can find information about that funder, and then all of our health and wellness exhibits are archived on our traveling exhibits page and you can look up some of the other, most of which received well-funded and then if you’re intrigued about the zoo and you since my groups are kind of in the public eye right now there’s a website with some activities for education about microbes. Okay, great.

Kathleen Brown: And then these are just more information and contact for the four of us all of this is embedded in the presentation that you’re looking at right now. So, if you want access to these resources. I think you can download, or the session is recorded, so you can download and get access to it through your, your membership and participation here today.

I’m going to stop the share right now so that we can come back to the Q&A. I’m going to move that over so as not to block out any. Okay, so there’s quite a few questions, but Maria What were triggers that you learn to avoid at the prices prevent the crisis prevention training.

Maria Mortati: And some of them are sensory and then, you know, things that I wanted to avoid some more content specific um and I think that that’s something I could probably speak better to offline is on one question, but definitely the immediate things were about. I’m not triggering anxiety or repetitive behavior through any sorts of upsetting content or visual stimulation and that was to uh, yeah, to teach dramatic for them.

Okay.

Kathleen Brown:  For any Morris. Do you have any tips for engagement for those of us who have museums, but don’t have access to amazingly beautiful gardens and grounds?

Jean Hershner: That’s a great question, and I do not take for granted for a second. What a beautiful location. And what of what how wonderful it is to be next to a pediatric hospital. You know what, I, I would encourage anybody with this question to look for institutions, I will tell you that the Department of Child Life is always looking for programming.

I have a background working in long term care. They are the activities departments. They are always looking for programming. There’s are there real opportunities and quite frankly, those are often underserved populations to begin with. So, if, if I could offer any one piece of advice, it would look to the institutions in your communities and see what opportunities there are for partnerships there.

Kathleen Brown:  That’s, I think, is another important point to raise because in again in in LA nice presentation today. He said that one of the most important things for museums to be doing moving forward out of recovery and into whatever the new normal. Is he said the partnerships are going to be more and more important, not only between museums, but with between museums and health organizations for one or community organizations or even corporations?

So, I think that’s and I heard each of you speak about partnerships and specifically Vicki in your discussion about SEPA and that partnership and how that grant program actually does require partnerships in some respects between research institutions and informal learning institutions. So, so I think that that that’s an excellent point that you raised the partnerships are going to be fundamental to our success moving forward.

Jean Hershner: Okay. Yeah, I can add that what we have found two is because we have such a strong partnership that we are we have the comic con to it from other for other museums, who want a way to get to connect with the Children’s Hospital to. So, once you get a really good established partnership again to the organic nature of things.

Once that happens, you may find people approaching you, in order to, again, to be a conduit so it’s, you know, all it takes is one really good strong partnership. You don’t have to conquer the world just to make a difference, one or two places.

Kathleen Brown: One. One question is easy to answer, so I’m going to answer it right now. Can the resources be sharing a document or in the chat? I didn’t get the written down. Again, the presentation is available or if you can’t get it any other way you can be in touch with any of the four of us, and then another one is can the panelists share their thoughts on how to adapt and engage visitors when there is a reluctance to touch.

That’s a tough one. Thoughts? Maria, you said that in your environment. That’s not the issue because it’s a clinical environment it’s well cleaned. It’s well looked after it’s well monitored for certainly so that’s not so much an issue for you. Vicky, what are you all in the science museum world thinking about how to make perception safe to touch more amenable?

Jean Hershner: Well, so, and obviously right now our featured exhibit is body worlds, which fortunately doesn’t. You’re not encouraged to touch the planets.

So there are health experiences out there because of obviously exhibit experiences and the exhibition that we just closed in January was or February was exquisite creatures which was a collection of artwork using insects from all over the world. And those have been very, very popular. So I think there’s an opportunity for hands on museums or different kinds of means to pivot and look for those really engaging no touch experiences.

But I you know when we, when I looked at a leg or mentee and the early childhood space. We just opened any early childhood space out on see as well. It’s really hard like babies learn through sensory you know young children learn through sensory experience. So that’s very difficult. I think that would be a really interesting challenge. And I guess it would probably mean creating again, it would probably mean creating things that could be mediated by caregivers their parents. I think…

Kathleen Brown: And also, if you have an exhibition component that’s been handwashing that that helps. Yes.

Good for you. Good for you.

Jean Hershner: For real. Man washing exhibit

Kathleen Brown:  There you go. Jane, any, any last thoughts before we go on to the next question.

Jean Hershner: You know, it’s, it’s a great question. So, for us, we have to coordinate a lot of things with Infection Control department and the hospital. So, to take things into the hospital.

Already is a whole ramped up level. I mean, just to move potted plants through a clinical space. I mean, how do you do that. So, we had to navigate all of those questions. We get around a lot of that by doing a lot of handouts. So, the book box. And again, this is an infection control requirement. The book box that I showed for the for the camera garden. That’s a giveaway. So, anything that the children in the hospital touch.

They take with them so that that is, you know, if you can we do the same thing on our side of the fence on the estate with scavenger hunts and things that we can create in house and extensively. So that’s one way to navigate that. And that’s how that’s how we do it.

Kathleen Brown:  Excellent. Okay, there are two more questions. One is directly for you. I think Maria, but others may have thoughts about it, setting up a program in a memory care facility sounds fascinating and wholly useful for our community members. But getting started seems completely intimidating for our historical museum. What tips do you have for getting started with this sort of thing without expertise in memory care or even the health profession.

Maria Mortati: Hmm. Um, why did quite a lot of research, you know, directed by myself. And then I think there are people in the field, that would be more than happy to talk with you on the phone informally. And so, I think it’s, you know, identifying who those people are helps. I think you know, maybe having some early-stage conversations, just to help yourself, figure out, you know, okay, where really do we want to go. Can we go what’s best suited are those things? But I would definitely do some poking around first and then reach out to some of those people just to chat, you know, and talk is free typically.

Kathleen Brown: And there’s also quite a bit, as you say, in the literature and the resources that I mentioned, because the, the, the relationship between memory and historical organizations is probably one of the most what most developed so the wellbeing alliance would have lots of great stuff on that particular topic so you can go in and in and find that out fairly easily. The last question, and their timing is perfect. How does each panelist define a health and wellness space?

Jean Hershner: Great question. Well, I’ll start for us that no more state. It’s a place that foster that that enriches your Mind, Body, and Spirit and it’s for that’s different for everyone. So people, it’s, it’s the artwork in the mansion that just is so invigorating for them, others it’s seeing absolutely nobody walking through the Gardens at the estate is going to be a different experience. But whatever experience resonates with you personally that that does that. That’s, that’s our definition.

Kathleen Brown: Great. Right. Yeah.

Maria Mortati: Um, let’s see, um, I think that, you know, having immersive beautiful experiences that we as museum professionals are expert in and being able to translate those practices. To other spaces and also bring that expertise into the museum. I think it’s going to be even more so relevant going forward, from my perspective, Vicki.

Jean Hershner: So, armies and I don’t think, Well, it’s funny. I feel like our museum because it’s a science center it’s often full of kids, and it’s not the most restful space, it can be loud and kind of busy and chaotic. And I think sometimes when we have like walking through exquisite creatures like if we have that kind of exhibit that’s more object based and then that was really interesting because that was a pretty quiet space because everyone was looking it had that kind of contemplate if more art museum feel so I, I know I really value that when we can create that. But the Jean real feel of the museum is a lot higher energy.

And one of the things that that we have underway right now we’re in an urban setting and there’s not a lot of green space around the museum, we’re right on the river, but the waterfront hasn’t really been developed at all. And I think there’s a lot of potential to make that a more like a that’s a vision. I know that that the institution has to create outdoor spaces and I’m create more natural spaces outside because that seems like our opportunity. Will never be the grounds of numerous estate, but we could we could definitely be something

Kathleen Brown:  Well, you know, well, I also think that there’s a lot that that museums can do to be more porous to be more permeable for Health and Wellness Initiatives to come in. So, there’s, it’s not. I don’t think that there’s a, there’s a, there’s a barrier to any organization being considered a wellness space.

I think that empathy is one of the core pillars of a caring wellness space and there. It’s pretty clear to me that museums need to be places of empathy and caring. Now, especially now than ever. So, there’s nothing that could make your space. There’s your space could at any, any time be a wellness and wellbeing space. It’s just a question of the right approach the right attitude the right welcome and empathy aspects of your programs all the things that we know make museums make good museums great museums.

So, we’re I think we’re out of time. At this point, I’m just going to close the questions, see if there any comments from our folks that that we need to address. But it doesn’t look like it and it is 530 exactly.

Thank you so much. Each and every one of you. I really appreciate it. Thank you. All participants for, for being here. We appreciate you sharing your time with us this afternoon and take good care. Be safe out there. Thanks. Bye, bye.