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These days, an increasing number of museums are recognizing their capacity to work on behalf of human rights and social justice. Some are aiming to improve social conditions trough education, advocacy, the redressing of historical exclusions and misrepresentations, and the promotion of cultural inclusion. From the social work perspective, culture is far more than one or more dominant sets of rules or ways of guiding society. Within social work, culture is viewed as a fundamental aspect of every relationship or system, at every social level. In other words, culture is the ideas, images and meanings as well as customs, habits, skills, technology arts, values, ideology, science and .behavior of agroup of people in a specific time period that defines a particular relationship. P. 38 Social work is a process of planned change in which a social worker and client develop and implement a close, empowering relationship that enhances the clients well-being, social functioning, and personal influence. Since human relationships are the fundamental agents of well-being and social change, social work strengthens our closest, most influential relationships especially the self, pair, family and group.

Captulo 3: From body to soul y Of all human relationships, perhaps none evokes more awe than the one we have with our own existence, otherwise known as the self. How do museums serve the self? As visitors flocked to the MET in NY in the weeks following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, director Philippe de Montebello proffered a bold possibility: Hospitals are open. They re around to fix the body. We re here to fix the soul . Empirical evidence demonstrate that museums also offer physical benefits like lowered stress hormone levels and increase brain activity. Museums help people develop skills, acquire jobs, and express identity. Social workers defines the self as the fundamental building block of all social relationships, the means by which you and I are able to participate in partnerships, families and groups of all kinds. From this perspective, the health of our dearest connections depends in large part on the health of the self. Social workers help individuals to understand develop and transform the self in order to promote effective relationships.

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As social workers know, need of the self are often the reason why people seek or require social services. Health, competence, identity, and transcendence are needs of the self that museums serve. According to the attention restoration theory of psychologist, museums can remedy direct attention fatigue that familiar form of mental exhaustion that results from prolonged focus or work, because they meet for conditions of a restorative environment : they fascinate, or engage without effort ; they are away separate from one s usual environment and everyday concerns; they offer extent, the perception of a place that one can explore for a long time; and they afford compatibility, support for one s purposes at the time. Many museums are embracing their capacity to foster relaxation in innovative ways. From reflective images exercises at the Art Gallery of Ontario to yoga and meditation classes in the galleries of the MunsonWilliams-Proctor Art Institute in New York and the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, mental and physical refreshment is abundantly available in museums. Tambienmuchosmuseostienenrelacin con hospitals,paranioshospitalizados etc. Studies demonstrate that visitors use and appreciate museums for the experience of introspection, defined as turning inward, to feelings and experiences that are essentially private, usually triggered by an object or a setting in the Museum .

Competence: y We all seek competence the acquired mastery of skills necessary to exist as a member of human society . The need for comepetence spans all cultures, everyone needs to be effective at the thins they aim to do. Captulo 4 Solve et coagula (Latin for separate and join together) y Companionship: Museums contribute to the close pair s pursuit of companionship in at least five ways: - Provide social connection opportunities for potentially likeminded strangers to meet. - Offer both fledgling and established pairs enjoyable leisure activity to share - Contents stimulate conversation - Address broader social conditions that support companionship by combating prejudice and discrimination - Promoting common ground

Museums contribute to close pair s need for intimacy in many notable ways: - Help close pairs exercise and develop empathy. - Foster mutual disclosure - Promote nonverbal involvement behavior and provide sex education. Museums foster family togetherness and member autonomy in several key ways: - Museums provide families with opportunities for quality timesimply to be together - Promote positive communication, effective patterns of interacting absolutely necessary for family cohesion - Museums foster family learning, drawing families close while strengthen individual autonomy. - Support family cohesion at the societal level by enhancing family service environments and by increasing public awareness of the families of missing persons.

CAPTULO 5: TREASURES OF HOME Cohesion Quality time y Museums provide families with the place and opportunity to e together and engage in shared activities, to enjoy what family participants in museum visitor studies around the world commonly call quality time . As social workers and families agree, quality time is an essential vehicle of family cohesion. Museums can be used in several other ways in clinical work with families whose interaction patterns need attention. They make excellent settings and partners for the practice of art therapy and music therapy with families, especially in museums that house objects needed for these interventions. For example in the innovative Toddler Rock program at Cleveland s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, music therapists make use of the exciting Hall environment and instruments from the collection to engage preschoolers at risk and their parents in therapeutic music making. The experience promotes positive family interaction and children s pre-academic skills. In the office of a social worker or family therapist, the mere idea of a museum becomes a powerful metaphor to foster expression and insight among family members. In a technique called the Family Museum, family members draw and compare their respective ideal museums and the most important things in their lives that they contain. When clients have trouble remembering difficult family feelings, giving tours of their personally imagined anger museums , hurt museums , and loss museums helps inspire recall and sharing. Real, virtual, or made-up museums may also be used for therapeutic exercises that bring family members together between sessions with the

therapist. The use of museums in clinical work with families is an exciting area full of promise for further research and development. y As scholar Lynda Kelly and her colleagues concluded from reviewing the extensive literature, family visitors go to museum in order to learn together . They do so through play, conversation and other forms of interaction with museum resources, each other, and the larger social world. For many families, learning together provides not only a pleasurable experience but the gateway to a better future. For parents who are illiterate, for example, learning to read, write, and do math can make the difference between employability and poverty. Preschool age children in low-income families face increased risks for inadequate growth and development. The Head Start program that began in the USA in 19656 and similar government-funded social service programs for families at risk such as Sure Start in the UK have fosters family learning as a key strategy to nature healthy, school-ready children. Museum of Natural History in Gainesville to he National Football Museum in Preston, England, many museums work with their local early start agencies to engage caregivers in children s learning, from science to health to the value of cultural institutions. As museum educator and former Head Start Fellow Natalie Collins has observed, museums and early start programs complement each other well: Museums can provide early childhood programs with opportunities for object-based learning experiences that may not be otherwise available. In addition, museums have the capacity to disseminate public awareness information in ways that are engaging and easily accessible. Head Start programs have expertise engaging ethic, language and racial groups that have traditionally underutilized the services of museums (Collings 2006) Societies need to function effectively as groups and as autonomous individuals. Yet, family cohesion is influenced by society in many ways, from service availability to family policies. At micro level, museums aid cohesion by fostering quality time, positive communication and family learning. At macro level, museums enhance family preservation service environments and increase public awareness about the families of missing persons. Cohesion needs often require special institution such as adoption agencies, family courts, and visitation rooms. These environments can be frightening or boring, especially to children. As in health care, museum professionals are helping make these settings more engaging and family friendly. Nothing connects family members to their common past like engaging with those who recall it. Asking mother about her great-great grandparents etc. brings family history into the present for discussion, questioning, and reinterpretation. Through their evocative objects and displays, museums stimulate reminiscence. Research demonstrates that families view and

value museums as good places to share family history across generations. Recognizing this, many museums, sometimes in partnership with schools, use creative techniques to promote such sharing, especially between parents and children. For example, in 1990, the Canadian Museum of Civilization pioneered Family Treasures, now in CD-ROM format, a versatile program that taught scores of children how to conduct oral history interviews with family members and gather stories of deeply valued family possessions to display in museum and classroom exhibits. y From improving health care to ending poverty, many changes that matter most for families must happen in society rather than at home. Yet, home is where we discover our abilities to influence others and alter our environment, essential components of family flexibility, social activism, and civic engagement. With increasing urgency, museums are working specifically within families to cultivate social consciousness, an awareness of the world s suffering and how to help. By engaging young children and older generations in service experiences such as volunteering together, donating to charity, and taking action against injustice, museums help promote lifelong habits as well as societal norms of social responsibility. At the Children s Museum of Indianapolis, The Power of Children: Making a Differenceexhibit has helped families develop and commit to their won social action plan, including a Web site to report their progress. At the Creative Discovery Museum in Tennessee, the Helping Hands exhibit teaches children and their families about philanthropy, volunteerism, and other forms of giving through hands-on participation in letter writing, art making, donating pennies, and other social action campaign activities. Through initiatives like these, museums help foster a society of empowered families who routinely act to ensure the ability to grow and change for all. Museums help families create the treasures of home, cohesion, continuity, and flexibility together.

Capitulo 6 BIRDS IN FLIGHT y We humans demonstrate our greatest strength and grace as we move in groups. Hoe do museums propel groups? When the Smithsonian Institution sought to reach inner -city residents during the civil rights unrest of 1960s America, they chose the Washington DC area of Anacostia to start a neighborhood museum because of the enthusiastic interest of the Greater Anacostia Peoples, Inc. an aggressive broad-base community group willing and interested in partnering to improve people s lives. Toghether with the museums director, the revolutionary Anacostia Neighborhood Museum went

on to serve a range of groups, from a performance troupe of former prisoners o an anti-methadone organizations. Decades later, gropus of all kinds are still finding essential support in and through museums. y One particularly popular activity embraced by museums, social agencies, and citizens alike is the use of collections to foster reminiscence for recreational, social support, and health care purposes among groups of older adults and those with dementia. Since the 1980s, when therapists began to ask museums for artifacts and archival images to be used in reminiscence sessions , countless museums have used their resources to develop reminiscence kits, exhibits, and programs, from the Edinburgh City Museum in Alberta, and the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living in Japan. In addition to history archeology, and world vulture collections, art collections are also being used effectively today to foster group reminiscence. Programs as Met Me at MoMaand other guide-led group tours harness the apparent ability of art to provoke long-term and/or emotional memory for people with Alzheimer sdisease and other forms of dementia. As research and observation indicate, museum reminiscence can promote group interaction and foster beneficial changes in brain activity and blood flow for some people.