Richa Mehta

Richa Mehta is a certified art therapist and educator working as a museum education and wellness professional who currently co-leads the arts for health and well-being initiatives at an international museum. She has developed education and well-being digital resources for the public and co-led world mental health day activations. She is also a key referent within the museum’s accessibility committee.

Accessibility, equity, and inclusivity are core beliefs that translate her choices in her practice. She believes that through the implementation of museum-based wellness and art therapy programming and resources, the museum space can be more accessible to marginalized community members. This stems from her experiences with mental health and the journey of self-exploration through the interaction and personal responses with creative arts therapies. As she continues her practice and research within this realm, she works towards taking a closer look at such practices with a deep sense of cultural humility within her current locality, the United Arab Emirates.

She holds an advanced graduate diploma in Art therapy from VATI (Vancouver Art Therapy Institute) and a Master of Education with a focus on Society, Cultures, and Languages from the University of Ottawa.

Richa will be speaking at:

Museums, Health & Wellbeing Summit

Tuesday, 7th February 2023

Museum as a Space for Promoting True Accessibility

Although museums were only created for the elite, historically, they have now been transformed into a space for public encounters, regardless of the visitor’s background or any categorisation that marginalises a group of people. Following the post-modernistic movement, museums can provide accessibility to our communities by integrating mindfulness-based museum well-being programs. Museums can now tap into their therapeutic values to cater to the public’s social, physical, and mental well-being needs. With the collaborative efforts transversally within a museum space and the creation of mindfulness-based programming and experiences accompanied by empathy and cultural humility,  best practices are incorporated within a unique space, collection, and architecture such as the one of Louvre Abu Dhabi.