Museums on the Go - Healthcare

Connecting Communities to Serve a Vital Need

The Illinois Association of Museums has begun a new initiative with the support of two healthcare organizations in the Illinois region to provide museum like experiences to patients in hospice, hospitals, and beyond. This partnership seeks to have museums join VITAS Healthcare, Franciscan Health Olympia Fields, and the Illinois Association of Museums in creating content that can be used by volunteers and staff in healthcare organizations to provide patients with museum activities that would have otherwise been unavailable to them. 

The Illinois Association of Museums seeks to provide a hub for healthcare providers in the state of Illinois with a list of museum activities available from museums across the state. We encourage you to consider submitting activities, games, videos, 3D printed activities, or other options for healthcare volunteers or staff to facilitate during visits with their patients. Examples of activities could include things like guess the artifact, museum mystery games, and museum exhibit walkthroughs. 

There are even opportunities to provide pop-up exhibits in some facilities such as Franciscan Health's Olympia Fields Hospital. We encourage you to submit possible pop-up exhibit topics you would be able to put up for a short duration of time for not only patients, but families, and staff to come and see. 

We are proud to serve as a bridge between healthcare providers and museums in the community to provide better healthcare experiences no matter where people are in their health journey. From hospital to hospice, museums are for all.