Infecting Museums with Joy: Seven Ways

Abstract:Do museums spark joy in people? Can they? Should they? Drawing from Positive Museology—an approach that aims to enable human flourishing in museal contexts—this article offers specific ways to integrate these intentions into the museum experience. In particular, it focuses on one notion from the positive disciplines, positive contagion, and the role of positive emotions—especially joy—in one corner of the museum: exhibition communication. Using Barbara Fredrickson's ten positive emotions and related positivity toolkit as a foundation, I offer seven ways to inspire joy and positivity (and therefore the potential for positive contagion) in museum work and, in particular, the exhibition medium. The seven ways are treated as openings, pointing toward research, case examples, and applied practice to gather and solidify the value of a positive approach. The seven ways are not completely unique to museums—one kind of information institution—and can be applied in other allied organizations as well, such as libraries, archives, schools, and more.