Date: 23 June 2025 

York Museums Trust launch Creative Conversation Box Loan Scheme to support people with memory loss and social isolation 

York Museums Trust have launched a new Creative Conversation Box Loan Scheme, designed to support people living with memory loss or experiencing social isolation through meaningful and engaging interactions, using themed objects and stories as talking points. 

The themes range from Holidays and Fashion, to At Home in Yorkshire, History of York and Childhood. Each themed box is filled with carefully selected multi-sensory items, including photographs, textiles, objects, music, and activity suggestions, intended to spark conversation, encourage people to share their thoughts and feelings, and create moments of joyful connection. The boxes are free to borrow and available to healthcare and wellbeing providers, carers, and community groups. 

No prior experience or specialist knowledge is required to use the boxes, and each comes with simple guidance to help make the most of its contents. Each box also features specially designed ‘Collection Cards’, which connect the items to objects in York Museum Trust’s museums and galleries, along with suggestions for places to visit. 

Philip Newton, Community Participation Manager at York Museums Trust said: “These boxes contain items which hold a lot of memories and significance for people throughout York’s local community, by providing these boxes to people who might not be able to access museums, it helps to create space for engaging conversation and connection with others. Importantly, the objects included in the boxes are not part of York Museum Trust’s permanent collections, allowing people to handle and explore them freely.” 

The boxes are ideal people who support: 

• People living with dementia or memory loss 

• Those experiencing or at risk of social isolation 

• Facilitators of social clubs and community centres 

If you want to loan one of the boxes, you can request it via the York Museums Trust Community Participation page.  

The link to the form can be found here

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

The boxes were produced by York Museums Trust and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Working Together project by the Cultural Health and Wellbeing Alliance and Group for Education in Museums. The project brought together six museum partners to develop and embed health and wellbeing work in heritage settings. The Working Together project is supporting the sector to build stronger relationships with healthcare and community partners, both nationally and strategically. Through this network, the project offered training and advocacy to catalyse new and lasting partnerships. 

The museum and heritage organisations who took part were: 

York Museums Trust; Royal Museums Greenwich; Scottish Maritime Museum; Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens; Newark and Sherwood District Council (Castle and National Civil War Museum); and the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth. 

How to Book:
Interested individuals or organisations can view available themes and submit an enquiry through the online form at https://www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/community-engagement/   

For more information, please contact: 

Amy Cope  

Public Relations Officer   

Email: amy.cope@ymt.org.uk  

Phone: 07761634646  

High-res images of York Castle Museum and interviews with Philip Newton are available upon request. 

About York Castle Museum 

Website: www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk   

York Castle Museum is open Mondays 11am-5pm and Tuesdays-Sundays 10am-5pm. Seasonal opening hours apply, please visit the website for details.  

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Supported by Arts Council England  

York Castle Museum is a social history museum with a collection spanning from the fifteenth century to present day. The buildings York Castle Museum inhabits are eighteenth century prison buildings, the Debtors Prison built 1705 and the Female Prison built in the 1780s. What started as a collection of Victorian bygones by Dr John Kirk in the early 1900s, the museum opened in 1938 and now houses a vast array of exhibits. From Kirkgate, the recreated Victorian Street, to the prison cells that held notorious highwayman Dick Turpin. York Castle Museum and its collections are cared for by the charity York Museums Trust established in 2002. For more information visit yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.