I’m in Milan on holiday with my family and am visiting many wonderful museums here. This has made me reflect further on what a trauma-informed museum would look, feel, behave like.

On a visit to one museum I was told I had to follow a particular route around the spaces. When I tried to go a slightly different way, I was sternly told ‘No’ by staff who looked more like a police officer than a visitor team member.

It wasn’t even a busy museum, I still don’t know why I had to walk this route. So what? you might be thinking. Well, what struck me was I had no CHOICE in this matter. Along with a few other matters I discovered in the course of my visit. It was clear who was ‘in charge’ in the dynamic and who wasn’t. Hmmm…

Choice – is a key principle of trauma-informed practice. It’s important to integrate choice in a museum experience in any way we can.

Choice supports traumatised people to have a sense of agency and feel in control in a situation – these are often the things that were taken away from them in their trauma.

I’m not saying that being told what way to walk around a museum will necessarily cause an extreme emotional response in a person, I’m simply saying… it’s not ideal. These rules and the manner in which we enforce them matter. They matter.

And as museums the very least we can ask ourselves is ‘Are they really necessary?’.

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#tigallery #TIGallery
#museumsandwellbeing
#creativehealth
#museumsandhealth
#museumsandmentalhealth
#traumaaware #traumasensitive #traumainformedpractice
#traumainformedmuseums

‘What can we do to help?’ It’s a simple question but it means so much.

Happy Friday everyone, what’s been your Highlight of the Week? 

Mine was zooming with the senior leaders from The Armory Arts Centre, in Pasadena, California. 

The Armory has recently been at the frontline of a major disaster with the LA wildfires decimating huge parts of their local community. They got in touch with me to discuss arts and trauma-informed practice and ways they could further support their communities, artists and staff who have been directly affected. I was touched by their genuine concern and quiet determination to respond to this very urgent need. 

Manchester Together Archive

Arts and cultural organisations play an important role in responding to traumatic events that their surrounding communities experience. When disaster strikes the first question we must ask ourselves is ‘What can we do to help?’

This was certainly the question Manchester Art Gallery, in partnership with Archives + and Dr Kostas Arvanitis asked after the terrible Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. The result led to the creation of the Manchester Together Archive.

Respond – the third of the 4 Rs of trauma-informed practice

One of the most effective protective factors in mitigating against the effects of trauma is ‘Who was there for us when it happened?’. In other words, who helped us? Who showed us that they cared? If we are alone and isolated during and immediately after ‘the event’ then the likelihood that we will experience it as traumatic as opposed to merely stressful or distressing significantly increases. 

Who helped? That’s what people will remember.

Museums – when it happens on our doorstep we must heed the call. 

#tigallery #TIGallery
#museumsandwellbeing
#creativehealth
#museumsandhealth
#museumsandmentalhealth
#traumaaware #traumasensitive #traumainformedpractice
#traumainformedmuseums