Michelle Kindleysides

Michelle is Head of Health & Wellbeing at Beamish Museum, a large Open Air Museum in the North East of England. Following a degree in social history and a Masters in Museum Studies Michelle began working in the Collections Access Team at Beamish in 2008. Since 2013 she has been developing this new and unique programme of health and wellbeing activities at the museum, working in partnership with, and learning from, local NHS Adult Mental Health Teams, Occupational Therapists and Social Prescribing Link workers.

Michelle will be speaking at:

Museums, Health & Wellbeing Summit

Monday, 6th February 2023

Dovetails – An Intergenerational Wellbeing Project

Beamish Museum’s Men’s Group was set up in 2014, in partnership with a local community based Occupational Therapist, as a response to the need for more support within male mental health. The group is made up of those who have a mental health or dementia diagnosis and those who are socially isolated. Using the Museum’s diverse collections as inspiration, the group is based around meaningful activity and the importance of this in ageing populations. The Dovetails project was a collaboration between the men’s group and a regional children’s charity ‘Kids Kabin’, based in one of the most deprived areas of Newcastle Upon Tyne. The project worked to help each group learn new skills and accumulated in the exchange of four hand crafted gifts.