Age Friendly Museums Network – West Midlands Hub Sharing Day

17^th July, 10am – 4pm

Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust

Free of charge

Refreshments and lunch will be provided

Join the Age Friendly Museums Network West Midlands Hub for a sharing day to bring together health and wellbeing organisations with museums and heritage sites to network, as well as share experiences and best practice.

This day is all about making connections between health and heritage and seeing how we can help each other to help our service users and visitors.

Through presentations you will be able to get an insight into a variety of health and heritage perspectives on working with older audiences. In the afternoon we will be pairing up heritage and health professionals to solve challenges and advise each other on best practice.

You will also get the chance to experience a 45 minute boat trip into Dudley’s limestone caverns.

You do not have to already be part of the network to come to this sharing day, although you are very welcome to join us to take part in future meetings and events. Membership and meetings are completely free as this network is an informal way of sharing best practice and advice.

To register please contact Holly Wain, Heritage Activities Assistant, Dudley Canal and Tunnel Trust at holly@dctt.org.uk or call 0121 557 6265.

10:00am – 10:45am           Health and Wellbeing organisations sharing session

10:45am – 11am                  Refreshments

11:00am – 12:00pm            Museums and Heritage organisations sharing session

12:00pm – 12:45pm            45 minute boat trip into Dudley’s limestone caverns

1:00pm – 1:30pm                 Lunch break

1:30pm – 2:30pm                 Cross sector working: solving health and wellbeing challenges together  

2:30pm – 2:45pm                 Refreshments

2:45pm – 3:45pm                 Cross sector working: advice for museums and heritage organisations

3:45pm – 4:00pm                 Conclusions

 

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Launch of New Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance

 

Daily Stream of Consciousness. (c) Bobby Baker

Age Friendly Museums Network will be at the Third Museums for Health and Wellbeing Conference at Birmingham Thinktank on Tuesday 13 March.

Later the same day will see the launch of the new Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) which is a merger between the National Alliance for Museums Health and Wellbeing and National Alliance for Arts Health and Wellbeing at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. CHWA is funded by the Arts Council England  and delivered by Arts and Health South West and will work closely with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing.

Age Friendly Museums Network is a Strategic Alliance Member of the CHWA. Age friendly practice has many cross overs with health and wellbeing so we are delighted to be involved.  We look forward to the working with CHWA to support and promote age friendly practice in museums.

 

New Age Friendly Museums Network Coordinator

I am delighted to be joining the Age Friendly Museums Network as the Network’s new Coordinator. I would like to thank the Baring Foundation for their continued funding and support of the Age Friendly Museum Network for the next two years.

My background is working with a diverse range of audiences and communities in museums and heritage settings in London and Bath, Somerset. I have also trained in Fine Art and Arts and Heritage Management. Most recently I managed an intergenerational partnership project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund with the Museum of Croydon.

I am passionate about the contribution older people can make to our collective cultural and civic life, both as participants and collaborators. The benefits to the individual, our organisations and wider society deserve our fullest commitment to ensure they are realised to their widest extent. As Coordinator of the Age Friendly Museums Network, I aim to enable practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds to participate, learn, share and contribute expertise and experiences within the network in a collaborative, accessible and of course friendly way.

I look forward to meeting members of the network over the coming two years and hope that the network can continue to reach out to new members and to inspire and support existing members in best practice.

Nicolette Hamilton

Age Friendly Museums Day 2017

Age Friendly Museums Day and Age of Creativity Festival October 2017

This year you can hold an event for Age Friendly Museums Day and be part of the inaugural Age of Creativity Festival taking place from 1-14th October.

Event listings will be hosted on the Fantastic for Families website, which is being launched by the Family Arts Campaign on the 1st October. Upload your activities to the site now – simply tick the ‘Age of Creativity Festival’ box to ensure your uploaded event is part of the festival.

Museums across the UK are welcome to add their events to the Fantastic for Families website. Luminate in Scotland, Bealtaine in Ireland and Gwanwyn in Wales are other well-established annual festivals that celebrate creativity for older people in different parts of the UK. Sign up directly with them to receive more information.

Hold an event, connect with a new partner, deliver some staff training, celebrate and share what you do already – if it is age friendly and has older people participating then add it to the programme.

Activity can take place anywhere and be led by anyone including community groups, volunteers, cultural organisations, health and social care organisations and age friendly charities. Activities can be age specific or intergenerational, with older people taking part as organisers, participants, audience members, volunteers or artists.

Be inspired by the Age Friendly Museum Network’s Manifesto, the Flourishing Lives Charter and the case studies on the Age of Creativity website. To learn more about arts, culture, health and wellbeing see the National Alliance for Museums Health and Wellbeingand APPG Creative Health report.

                                                

                                                  

Age Friendly Museums Network Coordinator – post now being advertised

Would you like to manage the Age Friendly Museums Network? This two day a week post, based at the British Museum is being generously funded by the Baring Foundation. The post is fixed term for two years.

The post-holder will support the development of new regional Age Friendly Museum Network hubs, administer the commissioning of activities across the UK, and manage volunteers in the delivery of programmes. This role involves representing the Age Friendly Museums Network in national forums and providing advice to regional partners.

Take a look at the role description and apply here – Good Luck!

Closing date: Tuesday the 12th September at 12pm (noon)

Old masters: creativity and the ageing brain – a special event at the British Museum

Hokusai passed away at the age of 89 with some of his best work created in his later years. Michelangelo lived and practised until the age of 89, Monet until 86, O’Keefe 98, Louise Bourgeois 99 and Titian 86. Case histories such as this point in one direction – the extraordinary flowering of artistic genius in old age.

Drilling down into the subjects of lifelong creative endeavour, the neuroplasticity of the older brain and the correlation between ageing and heightened risk-taking, this panel discussion explores ageing and creativity across global art history, as well as the enduring example of Katsushika Hokusai, the self-declared ‘old man crazy to paint’.

Chaired by Joan Bakewell, the panel includes writer and art critic Martin Gayford, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Lorraine Tyler, University of Cambridge, and Angus Lockyer, SOAS.

Friday 30 June 2017,
18.30–20.00
BP Lecture Theatre
Tickets £5
Members/Concessions £3

Book here: here

Presented in collaboration with the British Academy.

West Midlands Age Friendly Museums Network

If you’re in or around the West Midlands and are interested in age friendly practice then pop along to this regional network’s second informal get together. You don’t have to be a museum professional, nor do you need to be working with older people – you just need to be willing to share thoughts and ideas.

16th June  :  New Art Gallery Walsall  :  10.30-12.30

 

Do let Rosie Barker at Birmingham Museums Trust know if you intend to join.

0121 348 8103  Rosie.Barker@birminghammuseums.org.uk

Quick update from the AFMN conference

Thank you to everyone who gave their time and energy to making the cross-sector conference a success on Thursday, and to those keeping everyone informed via Twitter #AFMNconference.

Here’s a taste of the illustrations beautifully created on the day by Scriberia:

     

©  Scriberia Limited 2016

More to follow…

Age Friendly Museums Network Cross-sector Conference

16^th February 2017

 9.30-16.30 at the British Museum, London

Join us to explore current age friendly thinking and practice in museums developed through cross-sector collaborations.

For full event details follow this link:

afmn-conference-schedule

Book your free place through Eventbrite:

https://agefriendlymuseumsconference.eventbrite.co.uk

 

 

Leading the Network and getting things done.

As a student nurse many years ago I was told that managing was about getting things done. That has rang true with me throughout a varied career as I learned to be a better manager and a better leader. I love getting things done, seeing outcomes, achieving things.

Leadership is about understanding self, being aware of others, supporting yourself and each other to reach a goal. This was the focus of the Age Friendly Museums leadership sessions, the first of which was in October when 20 participants mainly from small and medium sized museums signed up to galvanize their leadership skills and go out to their local communities, develop the Network and get things done.

It’s amazing what range of skills we use when we work together. The participants formed groups based on their geographical area, and over the last few weeks have been planning and organising events which will help them to learn even more about working with older people, get to know more about their local community and the different cross-sector professionals who work there and most of all bring their own leadership styles to the fore.

So now we are establishing pockets of hubs, talented leaders from Leeds to Exeter who are spreading the word and making the Network more hands on and inspiring museums who are starting out on their age-friendly journey. Leadership with community development is a great combination, and our leaders are certainly getting a lot done.

In January we revisit expectations and look more closely at personal development. In February our National Conference will include feedback and presentations from our hub leaders, offering chance to perform on a national stage.

Come and see how they do.

Jane Turner, Age Friendly Museums Network