Our Story
The Museum of Happiness was born in 2015 after its co-founders, youth and resilience mentor Vicky Johnson and mindfulness trainer and author Shamash Alidina, met at the Vauxhall Community Centre in 2014 and realised that they shared a vision to spread more peace, love and happiness in the world!
But the idea to co-create a centre for happiness and peace came when Shamash volunteered at a Dalai Lama event and Vicky was in the healing fields of Glastonbury. They met up on their return, shared their ideas by the lake in Hyde Park, and the Museum of Happiness was born!
They immediately googled “Museum of Happiness” and discovered that there were thousands of museums for everything from war and slavery, to pencils and coal. But, at that time, not one single Museum of Happiness. So they decided to try and start one, despite limited resources and not knowing how!
Luckily a huge amount of love, support and inspiration came from Action for Happiness, Service Space and a burgeoning Museum of Happiness community. It takes a village to raise a child and sometimes for a museum, too!
Since its first one-day event at the youth hub LIFT Islington, we’ve held hundreds of interactive, accessible and informative events.
Our inaugural Winter Happiness Festival, in Spitalfields East London in January 2016, went viral with 1 million people seeing the event page and almost 10,000 people turning up!
Since then we’ve held annual ‘Blue Monday’ Winter Happiness Festivals for the public, and hosted hundreds of in-person events across London in various locations including residencies at The Canvas Cafe, Arlington House, and 42 Acres.
And we’ve won lots of awards! We’re one of Facebook’s Top 100 Community Organisations in the World and have been awarded an East London Innovator Award, a World Peace Award, a Young Sacred Activists Award, and were The Independent’s 2017 Happy List winner.
In the summer of 2020 co-founder Shamash stepped down to return to his first love of mindfulness and to focus on his new love, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. We’ll always be incredibly grateful for the amount of time, love, resources and magic he poured into the Museum.
There will be weekly pay-it-forward community classes and a variety of in-person events from then on. See Eventbrite or sign up to our newsletter using the form below to be the first to know. We really look forward to meeting you soon.
Here's to co-creating a happier, kinder and more peaceful world - together!
Who We Are
We’re the Museum of Happiness, a London-based not-for-profit social enterprise who shares the art and science of sustainable happiness with individuals, communities, schools and organisations.
We base our work in research-backed positive psychology, focusing on mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude and self-care.
Launched in 2015, we hit the news when our Winter Happiness Festival attracted thousands of people in 2016! Since then we’ve shared the art and science of happiness with over 20,000 people and had lots of fun along the way.
We’ve held 500+ workshops, festivals, events and interactive experiences across London, and as far afield as Nepal and Sydney, Australia! We’ve attracted thousands of participants to our events, educating the public on the skills of happiness.
We’ve won numerous awards, and we’ve worked with everyone from Google, Facebook and Bank of America to homeless hostels, universities and schools. We’re honoured to have helped doctors and nurses in the NHS, and even ex-military veterans at JP Morgan.
What We Do
We bring an innovative approach to relieving the stress and suffering experienced by children, communities, individuals and organisations who don’t normally feel comfortable accessing mental health or wellbeing services.
It currently focuses on three main areas:
Bringing the science and tools of happiness into schools, to help young people flourish both now and in the future;
Sharing practical researched-based positive-psychology interventions in organisations and workplaces, to reduce stress and overwhelm;
Training others to teach the art and science of sustainable happiness in their own community, school, workplace or home.
And we continue to connect to our amazing community through regular Facebook lives, newsletters, and online events.
Our Future
As with many other event-based non-profits, we’ve had to pivot to delivering our work online. But in the future we hope to create dedicated physical centres for sharing the art and science of happiness all over the world, starting with London.
We’re currently seeking funding to create outreach programmes, bringing the art and science of happiness to those who need it the most e.g. vulnerable individuals, schools and community groups living in areas of poverty and deprivation, and homeless hostels.
We believe that no-one should experience a barrier to sustainable happiness!
If you would like to support our work, we’re gratefully welcoming donations. Or email smile@museumofhappiness.org for an informal chat.
