Mental Health is increasingly becoming the subject of heritage interpretation and museum displays. In addition museums are becoming places of social prescribing and therapeutic engagement. In light of this Museum Studies students at the University of Reading decided to use the Museum of English Rural Life’s collections to explore mental health and wellbeing in the countryside.

In a blog on the MERL’s website, their programme director Dr Rhi Smith talks about the challenges of taking on this topic and of planning a display during lockdown.

The exhibition, Space to Think: Rural Wellbeing, was part-funded by the Centre for Health Humanities.