The CREMA project will develop and inspire creativity in adult learning. Through the development of innovative methods the project will make use of cultural heritage collections in museums for creative making. Many museums are increasingly working with a variety of creative spaces or maker spaces - places where you can make things, create and innovate. We want to build on methods for creative making and combine that with knowledge, collections and skills found in museums. This will then be used to inspire adults to work together across generations, to invite marginalised groups and people with special needs, and to find audiences who do not visit cultural heritage organisations today because of how they are traditionally percieved. Through this we hope people will learn new skills (both digital and traditional crafts), social competences through cooperation, creativity, entrepreneurship and history. Particular attention will be paid to how to use museum material in a safe way which is both inspiring and does not harm fragile material. Another area in focus will be innovation and entrepreneurship. We will show and encourage people to use cultural heritage material to create new things, which can be used for new purposes in creative industries.The project will develop guidelines for how to work with creative making with the three target groups of the project; people with special needs, people who don't visit museum today with a focus on marginalised groups, and making people meet and work together across generations. Guidelines will also be produced describing how you can work with museum collections in maker activites and how to inspire entrepreneurship through the activites. The guidelines along with an analysis will be gathered in a publication describing creative making in museums, which makes the results easily available for museum staff and adult educators to take part of.By focusing on the target groups and the cooperative element of making we hope more people will feel included. Making people work together, in particular across generations, increase wellbeing. In that way we hope this project will contribute to the larger goal of a more cohesive society.

The Active ageing and Heritage in Adult learning (AHA) project addressed older adults' learning and development needs. Through the work with reminiscence the project aimed at improving the quality of life and well being for people with memory problems, usually with dementia. The project created a methodology with guidelines for how this kind of work can be carried out in a heritage setting. It also carefully evaluated the outcomes of such activities. In addition to this the AHA project also gave attention to the needs of relatives and created a short course that taught them methods of working with reminiscence at home. A similar course was also created for staff at care homes. This made it possible for more people to participate in these kinds of activities. The use of heritage in this was found to be particularly beneficial, since you can build on the individual's personal memories, skills and experiences. The partners in this project were five open air museums in Europe and three Universities. The museums all had previous experience of working with reminiscence for people with dementia, but through this project the quality could be significantly improved and new and innovative ways of working were found through the cooperation. While some of the museums (Den Gamle By, Denmark, Beamish, UK, Jamtli, Sweden) have worked for several years on this and felt the need of renewal and new input, other museums (Maihaugen, Norway and Szentendre Skanzen, Hungary) have recently started their activities and needed the experience of the others, while they themselves contributed to the project with new and exciting ideas. The partner Universities (Newcastle University, Aarhus University and Linnaeus University) all work on the connection between heritage and health. Their role in the project was to facilitate a proper evaluation - since no larger scale evaluation of these kinds of activities has previously been made.The results of the project show that reminiscence session in open air museum settings are beneficial for people with dementia. The evaluation show that during the sessions the participants experience improved wellbeing. The project also made the museums adjust their ways of working to achieve greater impact and reflection on the work and learning by the staff. The courses created by the project were successful, even though cultural differences and systems made the impact of course for relatives different in different countries. The course for professional carers, however, was highly popular and there is a demand for a continuation of this offer.