An Empathy-Building Toolkit for Museums

Elif M. Gokcigdem

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN: 9798216387886
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Museum Administration
• Index: Business

Museums as informal learning platforms that reflect the subjects, themes, and contexts representing all aspects of life, have a unique advantage and a responsibility to contribute to empathy-building in our world by offering opportunities for experiential learning of empathy as a portal to a deep understanding of our interconnected and interdependent existence. Within this context, empathy is defined as a form of perception, enabling us to connect with ourselves and others through a cultivation of self-knowledge. This is key to take sustainable actions towards major global challenges our world is facing, such as fragmentation, othering, as well as social and environmental injustices.

An Empathy-Building Toolkit for Museums will offer a rich variety of practical and multidisciplinary solutions to empathy-building with potential for adaptation, implementation, and scaling through a variety of museums, and other informal learning platforms, that aspire to become incubators of empathy in their respective sectors, institutions, systems, and communities. Whether museum visitors are engaging with art, religious objects, or animals, cultural heritage professionals can use the strategies outlined in this book to foster empathy and reflection, making museums a more transformative and enlightening experience.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Content
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Holding Space for Experiential Learning of Relatedness and Kinship Through Contemplative Practices
• Chapter 1: What Is Empathy-Building Through Museums?
• Chapter 2: Empathy-Building with Rumi’s MAP: Meaning, Awareness, Potential
• Chapter 3: Empathy Through Contemplative Practices: Transcending Self and Other
• Chapter 4: Building Empathy Through Art-Inspired Meditation
• Chapter 5: Designing for Emotions: The Mandala Lab at The Rubin Museum
• Chapter 6: The Eyes of the Heart: Nurturing Deep Empathic Connection Through Beauty
• Chapter 7: Agents of Empathy: Objects, Health and Healing in Exhibitions and the Everyday
• Chapter 8: Empathy for All Animals
• Part II: Promoting Understanding Through Perspective-Taking and Thinking Strategies
• Chapter 9: The World and Our Lenses: Addressing Wicked Problems Through Imaginative Empathy
• Chapter 10: Mirroring Art: A Workshop for Building New Understandings Through Engagement with Art
• Chapter 11: Exploring Perspectives and Fostering Empathy in Conversations About Art: Three Learning Experience Models
• Chapter 12: Seeing Differently: Fostering Connections and Perspective-Taking through Slow-Looking
• Chapter 13: Religious Objects as Portals to Connecting and Seeing Humanity
• Part III: Creating Space for Perspective-Expanding Social Encounters
• Chapter 14: The Only Way to Learn Is Through Encounter!
• Chapter 15: Empathy Circles: Learning and Practicing Mutual Empathy in Small Groups
• Chapter 16: Hey, We Need to Talk!: Designing Social Sculptures to Encourage Relational Dialogues That Increase Civic Engagemen and Social Repair
• Chapter 17: Museum Sage: Personalizing the Museum, One Artwork at a Time
• Part IV: Practicing and Sharing Empathetic Organizational Policies and Methodologies
• Chapter 18: Radical Curiosity and Courageous Empathy: Cultivating Compassion in Tumultuous Times
• Chapter 19: Building an Organizational Culture of Care
• Chapter 20: Centering Care while Measuring Impact
• Chapter 21: Considering Apprenticeship: An Ancient Model for Relating, Learning, and Transformation
• Chapter 22: A Workplace Emotion Strategy: Mindsets, Tools, and Practices to Manage Emotional Energy at Workplace
• Part V: Positioning Empathy-Building as a Shared Value in Multi-Sector Partnerships
• Chapter 23: Beyond the Frame: Centering Museums in Healthcare Spaces
• Chapter 24: Empathy in the Healing Professions: Curiosity, Communication, Caring
• Chapter 25: How Play and Making Can Be a Bridge to Practicing Empathy for Kids
• Index
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors