Hygge Heim at the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum
Yesterday was our first Hygge Heim.
Hygge Heim is an attempt to make place in museums for women to express themselves in a safe space, to have dialogue on issues that matter, to reflect on their lives, struggles, joys, dreams and aspirations while having the opportunity to create a trusted community for support and care. It has been started by Museums Of Hope and Museums Mazzedaar Collective with the assumption, that there have always been these communities of women from life to death, that have offered resilience, strength, solace, comfort, laughter and wisdom, and today a lot of us do not have the privilege of being part of such communities.
It is also based on the assumption that we can utilize museums and rethink their collections and narratives to make place for nurturing these communities. It cannot happen in a single programme, but over a period of time one might be able to share the resulting impact. However we also cannot deny, that even a single programme with the kind of honest reflections and beautiful stories that were shared yesterday, could have an impact, could spark a new thought, could be inspiring or comforting.
Designed and facilitated independently at the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum in Delhi, Anaja and I hosted people who might be able to collaborate, there was diversity and resonance, and there was a strong narrative of strength. One of our participants mentioned in her feedback, on being asked what she liked most: “The beautiful conversation and thoughts of women from different background.”
One of our themes was Collective Memory, because it strongly emerged from the collective memories of different communities that were on display at the museum. Our participants shared their families’ memories of pain, strength, discipline, overcoming struggles in life, continuity and aspirations. All this while also being aware of our own impermanence and the circumstances we live. We were connected through the collections with our ancestors and also the future generations, and it did not need much effort to enter that state of flow. This is just the beginning of our attempt at sharing hope.
Our next Hygge Heim is on 8 February at the National Rail Museum, stories of women and travel. Hope to see many more Hygge Heim participants! : https://www.facebook.com/events/2467382360245354/
Poornima Sardana is an independent museum consultant from India. She designs museum strategy for education, development and community engagement. She develops and facilitates programs that focus on building people’s relationship with museums and each other through dialogue, meaning and often playfulness. She is currently researching and experimenting on museums’ contribution to society’s well-being particularly emotional. For this purpose she is working towards her consultancy Museums Of Hope and has co-founded this collective project to spread joy. Poornima completed her MA in Museum Studies at NYU through the Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship, has been an Arts Think South Asia Fellow at the London Transport Museum and explored Science and Liberal Arts through the Young India Fellowship Programme. Prior to this she studied Design with particular interest in storytelling, board-games and designing for children. She is an illustrator and hopes to create her own graphic novel. Poornima had founded The Mazzedaar Laboratory, an initiative to conduct experiments in the museum space and is host for the podcast Duniya Museums Kee.
Museums Mazzedaar Collective brings to you the expertise of two Museum professionals who have been experimenting independently in Museum Pedagogy, Playful and Participatory Experiences as well as impact of Museum Programmes and Outreach on Mental Health. While they continue on their individual journeys, through this project they collaborate to reimagine museums for all people, as spaces where people learn and engage with the diversity of this world through non-intimidating and relevant experiences. We want people to enter dialogue on issues that matter to them while understanding the past and preparing ourselves for a better future. We design unique programmes within museums, at heritage sites and in your own organization or institution through outreach.
