by Rowena Fletcher-Wood
This month sees the launch of our Reaching Out for Further Education project: A Journey Through Happiness. Reaching Out is a new collaborative training pathway for postgraduate students and early career researchers provided by the University of Birmingham and Arts and Humanities Research Council. It promotes research dissemination, collaboration and knowledge exchange, and public engagement through outreach placements with partner arts and culture organisations. I (a chemist) am at Town Hall and Symphony Hall along with the awesome Gemma Norman (Ottomon history) and Tanya Pengelly (creative writing). A Journey Through Happiness consists of a number of 'intervention' projects which look at audience engagement and the science of happiness.
Last week I got on with the preparations by spray painting this white post box the colour of happiness -bright yellow. We plan to stand it in the foyer of Symphony Hall collecting ideas on the nature of happiness and stories about happiest moments. What are yours? If you want to take part, visit the Symphony Hall in March or submit online. The final results will be collated and displayed on A Day of Happiness (Saturday 10th May) at Symphony Hall, a free event open to all that will share and celebrate findings of the project and delve deeper into the meaning of happiness.
In the meantime, look out for all the happiness research projects. As well as the postbox, we will be:
- Capturing The Sound of Happiness from the THSH comedy programme
- Exploring the relationship between Music, Entertainment and Emotion through interactive activities
- Uncovering Commonalities in Human Experience at the Symphony Hall Kitchen Table, sharing special memories and creative ideas
Find out more by visiting:
- Town Hall Symphony Hall website
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Follow us on @HappinessTHSH or email ajourneythroughhappiness@gmail.com