CHAPTER 36
Nathalie Bondil and Stephen Legari
Abstract
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has been active in partnership with community for more than twenty years. During the last decade, the MMFA has pioneered numerous pilot programs with medical health providers. This chapter presents an emerging concept of “Museotherapy” (Nauleau, 2018; Bondil, 2021) that contextualizes a diversity of therapeutically intentioned practices in a museum. Conceived along a continuum of engagement, “museotherapy” seeks to address the wellness of the individual, the group, and the community. This concept was accepted in 2020 by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF): Museotherapy is, following its Grand dictionnaire terminologique, “une méthode thérapeutique individuelle ou collective qui consiste en l’exploitation de l’environnement muséal à des fins de bien-être physique, psychologique et social. Plus concrètement, il peut s’agir de la contemplation d’œuvres d’art, de la création artistique en atelier ou de visite guidées en compagnie de médiateurs culturels.” An English translation of the definition would read, “Museotherapy: The exploitation of the museum environment as a therapeutic method for an individual or group for the purposes of physical, psychological, and social well-being. More concretely, it may involve the contemplation of works of art, artistic creation in a studio, or guided tours in the company of cultural mediators.” This vision redefines the role of an art museum, especially within society. “Museotherapy” requires reframing the role of the museum beyond the activities of art history, conservation, and supporting artists, and rethinking its public as Homo aestheticus, as experiential beings who are nourished by beauty and social connection.
Key Words: museum therapy, museotherapy, art therapy, arts and health, neuroaesthetics, museum education, museum definition, humanism, inclusion
“Museotherapy” is a new concept for wellness through the arts (Nauleau, 2018; Bondil, 2021). Internationally recognized as a pioneer and major player in the field of education and in promoting wellness through the arts, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has made its mark as a socially committed institution that initiates actions to promote education, inclusion, accessibility, and wellness. It works with over 450 organizations associated with schools, community groups, and healthcare institutions to address issues such as school dropout rates, stigmatization, violence, discrimination, poverty, illiteracy, radicalization, racism, homophobia, homelessness, obsession with body image, isolation, disabilities, and suicide (see Figure 36.1). A recent report made by the World Health Organization from over 3,000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the life span (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). Art is good medicine!
The MMFA seeks to become a vehicle for social cohesion and individual well-being. To do so, it takes a holistic approach based on co-creation, developing innovative partnerships, particularly in the areas of research and health (Bondil, 2016). For more than twenty years, the MMFA has been a pioneer in original programming directed toward the actions of inclusion and accessibility and, more recently, recovery, well-being, and therapy to an ever-expanding public (Lajeunesse & Legari, 2019). The synthesis of these activities is at once global and local. The activities are based an evolving best practice echoed in museums around the world and, more immediately, a response to the complexity of healthcare needs of Montreal society. Nevertheless, given the more traditional role of the fine arts museum to conserve and display art and artifact, this reframed stance as a milieu for social health care is not without resistance.
Figure 36.1 An inclusive visit in the Focus Perfection: Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition, 2016, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
© Sébastien Roy
Redefining the Museum: Theoretical and Philosophical Stance
Reframing a fine arts museum is the result of reflection on our long-standing primary mission: the excitement generated by temporary exhibitions should not distract us from our main mandate, which is to address Homo aestheticus rather than Homo festivus. This vision redefines the role of a fine arts museum, especially within society. Supporting artists, studying art history and carrying out research, are still at the core of the museum’s mission, but it is not enough. In 2019 the International Council of Museums (ICOM) discussed a new definition of a museum. Evidenced through applied practice, we propose to enlarge the International Council of Museums’s (ICOM) definition of a museum with notions such as inclusion, health, and individual well-being. ICOM’s definition of a museum has long been a “nonprofit institution” that “acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment” (International Council of Museums, n.d).
Guided by our own “Manifesto for a Humanist Museum” (Bondil, 2016), we proposed expanding the definition beyond its current scope to encompass the promotion of “inclusion” and “well-being,” two values that not only can coexist with, but also can strengthen, the museum’s historic commitment to its collections and scholarship (Bondil, 2019). We do believe cultural experiences will be soon understood to contribute to health, the same way that sports improve physical conditioning. Over and above our intellectual knowledge, culture is a school for sensory perception that puts us in touch with our emotional and physical selves. It is what differentiates human beings from robots. Aesthetic pleasure is therefore anything but a trivial business. As a result, we have worked to become a vehicle for individual and social well-being. With 450 partnerships, including hospitals, schools, and universities, the MMFA plays a vital role. We support victims of abuse and restorative justice. We work against racism, poverty, violence, radicalization, aging, and loneliness. We provide dedicated spaces and a consultation room for medical and community professionals. Our art therapist (a museum first) organizes programs using art and art-making that encourage the expression of emotion. Supported by prominent scientists, we have become a research laboratory for measuring the impact of art on health. In 2018, we created the first medical Museum Prescription, in partnership with the Médecins francophones du Canada. By adopting a holistic approach, we bring museums into conversation with social issues. Introducing values like “inclusion” and “well-being” helps us understand our complexity (Bondil, 2019; Bondil, 2020) (see Figure 36.2).
Aesthetic Emotion Is a Physiological Need
This expansion of the paradigm hinges on essential elements that make up a museum: the public and the context around a central value—relevance—for devising strategy and planning partnerships. As a result, this requires rethinking those essential elements within the reframed paradigm of the fine arts museum as a milieu, a tool, or a modality that fosters development and connection.
Figure 36.2 The Art of Diversity, “The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts brings Arts » free posters programme for schools.
© MMFA
Rethinking the nature of our public means, above all, to consider our visitors as living, experiential beings. The human need for “beauty,” or at least for aesthetic sentiment, is physiological, and not just philosophical or cultural. A museum is a school for the senses, where we can connect with our emotional side. In this regard, like love or friendship, aesthetic feeling sparks a positive sense of well-being. As neuroscience has demonstrated, art is a “soft power” that stimulates our empathic circuit (Conway & Rehding, 2013; Pearce et al., 2016; Torabi Nami & Ashayeri, 2011). We now have to think about art as a force for social cohesion and individual well-being. Rethinking context means establishing creative partnerships with other specialists, schools, organizations, associations, institutes, and universities, not to coalesce, but to evolve together. Making ourselves available to the agents of social change requires humility, generosity, flexibility, responsiveness, open-mindedness, and ingenuity. Fostering and nourishing interdisciplinarity will henceforth be a part of the museum’s DNA (Bondil, 2016).
Beauty is a physiological need. We humans are both cultural and biological beings, in equal parts: “The brain studied in biology and the mind studied in psychology are two aspects of the same reality” (Morin, 2014). Research, in particular in neuroscience, is identifying ever more precisely the complex neural circuits that connect our feeling and emoting being to our thinking and reasoning being (Changeux, 2010); Darwinian man has followed on Cartesian man. We, the “Third Chimpanzee” that we are now, stand alongside rational man (Diamond, 1991). The twentieth century not only explored the “Je est un autre” [I am is another] concept by the French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud in terms of the psyche, but also established the basis of scientific—and not just symbolic—comprehension of our multiple intelligences by exploring the biological processes of our emotional and sensorial experiences, and in so doing, of our aesthetic experiences (the word “aesthetic” comes from the Greek aistheta, meaning “perceptible by the senses”).
We now know that the pursuit of beauty, which we will call the aesthetic experience, derives from sexuality and the drive to reproduce. Like the many animals that display bright colors, perform elaborate dances, or sing songs to attract mates, human beings have been dressing up, singing, and dancing since the dawn of time, probably even before we could speak. Some animals demonstrate fascinating behaviors requiring a tremendous effort. These include the bowerbirds of New Guinea and Australia, which build impressive architectural structures, called “bowers,” out of branches and decorate them with brightly colored objects for the sole purpose of offering a home—not just a nest—to their prospective mate, and perform their courtship dance in front of it. Deducing the animal origins of art is no great leap. Thanks to brain imaging, we now understand that aesthetic pleasure in human beings, that which activates the reward circuits, corresponds to the areas of our primitive brain linked to sexuality: “The aesthetic experience does not spring from the simple deciphering of sensorial perception, but generates sensorimotor processes and multiple emotions, both subjective and objective, appealing in particular to the empathic circuits, the mirror neurons and emotional memory” (Lemarquis, 2012).
Art Does Good
The aesthetic experience is thus just as vital to our everyday lives: it is felt when faced with a physically attractive person, contemplating a landscape, listening to music, or admiring a painting. Aesthetic pleasure is therefore anything but a trivial business: it is an integral part of our healthy animality. Moreover, the brain perceives works of art “as living beings … aesthetic emotion is the outcome of, among other things, an evolutionary process of seduction.” (Lemarquis, 2012). The instinctive biological need that stimulates the human animal’s aesthetic experience is thus irrepressible. The nonvirtual experience—what we call “live art,” in that it is not recorded or reproduced, but performed in a social context—is immensely powerful; for example, pleasure’s emotional circuits are not stimulated by listening to synthetic music, no matter how impeccably a score may be rendered. The aesthetic experience is thus a hedonic experience combining attention, emotion, and pleasure, which includes both science and philosophy in Schaeffer book (Schaeffer, 2015).
Whereas the twentieth century promoted (in both the arts and psychology) the primal side of our being with our newly liberated bodies, we believe the twentyfirst century will value our experiential being in the virtual world. To make up for the dematerialization we are seeing, the sensual experience is becoming more highly prized: “the psychologization and sensualization of wellbeing, sensory and emotional experiences” (Lipovetsky & Serroy, 2013, p. 419) characterize the pursuit of pleasure in presentday society. Knowing how to be must come before know-how. Over and above developing cognitive and intellectual knowledge, it is equally important to create a “school for the senses.” It is what distinguishes humans from robots, our emotional intelligence from artificial intelligence. This field of research is expanding day by day in this new century, and it is exciting to see the humanities link up with science. This approach to education, which unites materials long compartmentalized along a sterile dualism, will help future generations to better understand today’s complexities. The main issues of the democratic conversation needed to face the challenges of the future will relate to both science and ethics, which of course relate directly to culture. This is why, to maintain their relevance, cultural institutions like museums are called on to commit to a plurality of approaches: this concept of “museotherapy” shows arts and sciences are, more than ever, interlocking atoms.
The artistic experience and contact with works of art have a positive impact on health and well-being, as described in the recent meta-analysis by the World Health Organization (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). Positive impact of the arts on the academic success of young people and in various segments of society are also proved, following the Arts Council of Montreal (Mendonça, 2017). The studies stipulate that the arts stimulate neuronal connectivity that supports psychological resilience: they have a positive impact on attention and working memory; they promote relaxation, and richer, more complex neural activity. The MMFA initiated a series of video documentaries entitled “L’art fait du bien” [Art does good] (see Figure 36.3) with vibrant testimonies of such experiences (Ouellet, 2014).
Art Therapist and Therapeutic Spaces
The impact of space on therapeutic activity and outcomes has become important to architects and health professionals alike. Both fine art and architecture can connect us with the living world and experiences of well-being when curation and design are conceived with all 5 senses in mind (Chrysikou, 2014; Richard, 2005). The MMFA’s most recent pavilion, the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, was designed to highlight an expanded fine art collection across four floors but was also intended for human flow, both in pause and movement. Each level opens onto a gallery of light and visual interaction with the surrounding city before re-inviting the visitor into another epoch of art history.
Figure 36.3 © MMFA
With the inaugurations of the Michel de la Chenelière Studio in 2012, then enlarged as International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy in 2016 (Bastien, 2018), the MMFA dramatically expanded its actions in support of wellness and health. With spaces dedicated to therapy, well-being, rest, and activity, this facility provides an unprecedented practice framework for medical and community professionals. The MMFA also is involved in the training of future physicians by offering McGill University medical students work-study workshops aimed at refining their interpretive skills. The Museum has become a research laboratory for measuring the impact of art on health, with a dozen clinical studies currently underway. To consolidate the Museum’s position in art therapy and health, the Art and Health Advisory Committee was created in 2017 under the initiative of the MMFA direction Consisting of sixteen experts in health and wellness, art therapy, research, and the arts, it was at first chaired by Dr. Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s chief scientist, who became at the same time a member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. These eminent representatives of internationally renowned Quebec institutions, as well as from the CNRS (France) and the Cornelius Foundation (England), meet several times a year to observe Museum research projects that are underway or are about to be launched. These experts from the areas of health, art therapy, research, the arts, and philanthropy provide support in terms of their vision and potential partnerships. The Museum creates new treatment avenues that combine experience of the arts with a holistic curative approach (Pauget & Tobelem, 2019). Supported by the expertise of its Education and Wellness Division team, including a full-time art therapist—a North American museum first (Solly, 2019)—thanks to the support of the Rossy Family Foundation, it establishes programs developed in situ in collaboration with physicians, university researchers, and hospital professionals.
Museums are Vital to the Well-Being of our Society
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM) recognize the pioneering role of the MMFA in their new publication Culture and Local Development: Maximising the Impact Guide for Local Governments, Communities and Museums. (OECD, 2018). Launched in Venice on December 7, 2018, this guide is intended to promote a sustainable future. Several studies commissioned by the OECD and conducted in 2017–2018 provided the basis for the report, which is a road map for local governments, museums, and museum professionals on how to jointly define a development agenda. Several studies on culture, heritage, and local development commissioned by the OECD and conducted in 2017–2018 provided the basis for the guide. The MMFA study was directed by Lucie K. Morisset, professor and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Urban Heritage at UQAM (Université du Québec À Montréal; Sauvage, Morisset, & Joannette, 2018). Promoting inclusiveness, health, and well-being supports the view that the Museum plays a social role and that culture is vital to the well-being of society, as noted by the OECD guide (2018, p. 38):
Box 11. Promoting inclusiveness, health and well-being: A Manifesto for a Humanistic Fine Arts Museum. As part of the Manifesto for a Humanistic Fine Arts Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has put forth a strong vision of the social role of culture and cultural institutions and has taken numerous actions aimed at promoting inclusiveness, health, and well-being. The MMFA’s art therapy programme takes a particularly innovative approach, which has earned global recognition. The established programmes are aimed broadly at persons experiencing mental health disorders, autism, eating disorders, and learning and behavioural difficulties, and also extends to socially-excluded and marginalised individuals. Activities are quite diverse ranging from: using art to improve self-image, hosting arts workshops to assist those with speech and sensory disorders and helping immigrants to settle by illustrating their own life stories through art. The MMFA partners with many specialised partners to create these programmes and works with scientific organisations and universities to perform research in these areas. To facilitate these activities, in 2016, the museum inaugurated a purpose-built premises, and in 2017 established an Art and Health Advisory Committee of 16 experts to form policy in this area. In 2018, museums visit prescriptions started to be administered by doctors as part of a new project between the museum and the Canadian association of francophone doctors. For more info: https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/education-and-art-therapy/art-therapy/.
This recognition by the OECD and ICOM of innovative actions supported by a humanistic and inclusive vision of the Museum as a vector of social progress constitutes a milestone. The validation by international economic and cultural institutions enables us to advance our message to strengthen the role of culture and expand the definition of a trailblazing museum in the areas of inclusion and well-being. We are convinced that in the twentyfirst century, culture will be to health what sport was to it in the twentieth century: we would remind skeptics that only a century ago it was believed that sports could deform the body and harm women’s fertility. Cultural experiences will be understood to contribute to wellbeing, as sports are understood to improve physical conditioning. Our understanding of our emotional intelligence is as essential as the artificial intelligence (Bondil, 2016).
“Museotherapy”: Applied Practice for a New Concept
The therapeutic and well-being projects of the MMFA are geared to a variety of clientele: people with eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia; those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual challenges; victims of breast cancer; the elderly; or people suffering from cardiac arrhythmia, epilepsy, language or sensory disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, or mental health issues (AAMD, 2017). The following is a sample of those activities at the MMFA that can be conceived along a continuum of the concept of “museotherapy.” Each is drawn from a co-created community partnership. The protocol pursued at the MMFA in community partnership has been carefully developed over decades, wherein the needs and objectives of the partnering agency, be they a clinic, association, or community center, are carefully listened to and integrated into the project design to our best capacity so as to respond to the public with congruency and allyship. In practical terms, the partner is invited to imagine how their members will move through the museum, what kind of encounters they will benefit from, what obstacles must be accounted for, how the museum’s collection will serve their objectives, and what professionals will be involved and their respective roles.
Well-Being and Social Connection
Museums can facilitate social connection and inclusion (Sandell, 1998; Thompson, 2012) (see Figure 36.4). In a time where social isolation is on the rise, especially in our major cities, museums have been reconceived as hubs that allow for individuals, families, and communities to gather and develop or reinforce social bonds grounded in arts-based encounters. There are several projects at the MMFA that directly address social isolation, marginalization, and neurodiversity.
Museums have been called upon to act as supportive environments for adults living with Alzheimer’s and dementia and their caregivers (Rhoads, 2009). A visit to the MMFA’s galleries with the support and guidance of a trained museum mediator (educator) is an opportunity to delight in the fine arts. Participants, along with their caregivers, are invited to share spontaneous associations, memories, and preferences during various themed visits. Qualitative research supports that such activities can positively impact the quality of life for both those living with cognitive disorders and their caregivers by means of social connection, self-esteem, and cognitive stimulation (Flatt et al., 2014; Rosenberg, 2009).
The MMFA also boasts a long-running free program for seniors called Beautiful Thursdays. Every week, more than sixty seniors are invited to create, move, and discuss, through activities provided by our museum mediators, whether in an art class, art with yoga or dance, or a guided visit to the galleries. The program provides a valuable social resource for those that may be at risk of social isolation and its associated symptoms of depression and low self-esteem. The success of the program has prompted a study in gerontology (Beauchet, 2018; Beauchet, Bastien, Mittelman, Hayashi, & Ho, 2020), now being replicated in several museums across the globe.
Both children and adults who are neuro atypical/neurodivergent/autistic are at risk of loneliness, social isolation, being bullied, and anxiety (Müller, Schuler, & Yates, 2008; White & Roberson-Nay, 2009). Museums are well-placed to provide specialized programming to confront these social realities and to create welcoming, low-impact opportunities for social connection, alternative communication through the arts, and skill-building that can improve the lives of neuro atypical people, their families, and neurotypicals alike (Langa et al., 2013; Mulligan, Rais, Steele-Driscoll, & Townsend, 2013).
Figure 36.4 Angelina Dass, Humane Pantone, a world-wide performance and installation, also commissioned by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2019.
© Humanae Project, Angélica Dass
In 2015, in response to parent advocacy, the MMFA launched its first program for children on the autism spectrum and/or living with developmental disabilities. The program included creative activities and encounters with the museum collection and was developed in collaboration with parents, teachers, and specialists. Five years later, the program includes a committee for neurodiversity, sensory days, a weekly art therapy program for young adults, and community exhibitions. In 2017, neurobiological researcher Bruno Wicker launched a study at the MMFA using eye-tracking technology to better understand the centers of interest in adults with high-functioning autism and found important differences from their neurotypical counterparts (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2019) (see Figure 36.5). Additionally, the MMFA has collaborated with French and American museums to develop a best-practice guide for museum programming in neurodiversity (Barthélémy, Bonnave, Giroux, Legari & Wiskera. 2020).
From Art Therapy to Art and Health Pilot Projects
Museums-based art therapy is a specialized practice facilitated by a trained and qualified art therapist. The American Art Therapy Association defines art therapy as “an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship” (American Art Therapy Association, n.d.). The inclusion of a museum’s collection into a clinically inspired protocol makes for dynamic therapy, one that has gained momentum and attention in several museums worldwide (Coles & Harrison, 2017; Betts, Potash, & Kelso, 2015; Jury & Landes, 2015; Pantagoutsou, Ioannides, & Vaslamatzis, 2017; Salom, 2011).
The art therapy program at the MMFA was launched in 2017 as a unique, full-time, and comprehensive program that includes an art therapist in residence, several therapy groups, research collaborations, and training internships for master’s-level students (Henry, Parker, & Legari, 2019). In addition to working with people with chronic illness, trauma, grief, and disability, the program is committed to research and evaluation. A 2017 paper showed that the museum art therapy protocol was an appropriate adjunct for those living with eating disorders (Thaler et al., 2017). A follow-up study in museum education explored the program design to inspire its replication (Baddeley, Evans, Lajeunesse, & Legari, 2017). Museum art therapy at the MMFA for people living with epilepsy was the focus of a mixed-methods graduate research study (Smallwood, Legari & Sheldon, 2020). And more recent research has looked at the lived experience of women with breast cancer and those in the chronic phase of stroke recovery.
The Art Hive
The Art Hive of the MMFA is a unique studio among its peers. It is premised on a theory and practice of arts-based social inclusion. In literal terms, it is a creative space that is open to any member of any public twice a week to make art in a community setting. It is facilitated by an art therapist and a museum mediator and emphasizes the autonomy of each participant to discover their unique creative voice through a panoply of provided materials. The brain child of art therapy professor Janis Timm-Bottos, the Art Hive, as both method and movement, benefits from decades of engaged research in community settings (Timm-Bottos, 1995, 2011; Timm-Bottos & Reilly, 2014). Its repositioning inside a museum of fine arts has a mutually beneficial impact on both the museum and the Hive, creating permeability between the world of the fine arts and community-based arts programming. It is also a destination for after-care for those doing closed group experiences in other programs.
Figure 36.5 Maxwell Bitton, Self-portraits, 2016, acrylic and photography on foam board. From the February 16 to the March 27, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents some 50 artworks by the creative genius Maxwell Bitton, a young artist of 24 years old, who did not let his autism stop him from achieving success. Part of “The Art of Being Unique” programme organized by the MMFA, this installation is the result of an artist’s residency for adults with autism spectrum disorder.
© MMFA
The Museum Medical Prescription: A World Premiere
In 2018, the MMFA launched a unique partnership with a national association of francophone doctors (Association des Médecins francophone du Canada) (Riou-Milliot, 2019; Lemarquis, 2020) to develop and deliver a museum prescription that would allow participating physicians to prescribe the MMFA to their patients, including patients’ families and partners. Built on the strength of emerging research in social prescribing overseas (Chatterjee & Camic, 2015; Camic & Chatterjee, 2013; Thomson, Ander, Menon, Lanceley, & Chatterjee, 2012), our own prescription proposed a novel model wherein the physician and the museum were direct allies in the patient’s wellness goals. The prescription highlights the autonomy of the patient in choosing what kind of experience they would like to engage with, be it gallery visits, tours, the Art Hive, or activities for family or seniors. In its pilot phase, more than 500 prescriptions were filled in under a year, and there are initiatives underway to scale out the availability of the prescription.
Discussion
“Museotherapy” is an emerging concept that contextualizes a diversity of therapeutically intentioned practices in a museum. Conceived along a continuum of engagement, “museotherapy” seeks to address the wellness of the individual, the group, and the community. The “museotherapy” of the MMFA is uniquely embedded within the socio-historical context of the museum’s history, especially its collection, and of Montreal society. We believe that what differentiates a therapeutic from quotidian experience at the MMFA is objective and intention. Programs that are designed to meet well-being and therapeutic objectives will be informed by best practice in partnership with our partners in community and medical healthcare. Those visitors, or referring professionals, whose intention is for the museum to be a source of well-being will encounter beauty, connection, and respite.
“Museotherapy” is not without its problems (Bondil, 2021). A single fine art museum cannot respond to the complexity of needs presented in a given society, nor can it present itself as an alternative to allopathic healthcare. “Musotherapy” as a concept is not an official modality of therapy. There are no museotherapists at this time, no training in “museotherapy” is available, nor is the concept grounded in established deontology. “Museotherapy” is thus proposed as framework to both better understand the therapeutic mechanisms and potentialities at work in a museum in the service of its public and to develop innovative approaches to expanding and deepening the therapeutic potential of the museum experience. “Museotherapy” is thus equally poised to inspire other museums to reflect on their own therapeutic potential and contributions to collective best practice.
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