Hey Mate x Museum of Brisbane: Leading the Way in Wellbeing for Cultural Workers

We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Museum of Brisbane, a collaboration that puts mental health and wellbeing at the heart of the cultural sector. 🎨🏛️

This partnership, which began earlier this year, is a powerful step in ensuring that museum and gallery professionals have access to the support they need to navigate the unique challenges of their industry. It’s no secret that the arts sector is full of passionate, dedicated individuals—but passion alone isn’t enough to sustain a healthy career. Workplace wellbeing is essential.

The Mental Health Crisis in the Arts & Cultural Sector

Studies have shown that those working in the creative industries face alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges:

🔹 Arts workers are twice as likely to experience anxiety and depression compared to the general population (Entertainment Assist & Victoria University, 2016).
🔹 A 2022 report found that 62% of Australian cultural workers reported high or very high psychological distress—far above the national average (Support Act, 2022).
🔹 Financial instability, job precarity, and long hours contribute to significant stress, with many creative professionals juggling multiple jobs to stay afloat.

The Psychosocial Hazards in Museums & Galleries

Like many areas of the arts, the museum and gallery sector comes with industry-specific challenges that can impact mental health, including:

📌 Emotional Load: Engaging with difficult or sensitive historical narratives can take a toll, especially for staff working in exhibitions related to trauma, loss, or social justice.

📌 Job Insecurity: Many arts professionals rely on short-term contracts or project-based work, creating financial and career uncertainty.

📌 High Expectations, Low Resources: Staff are often expected to do more with less—curating exhibitions, developing education programs, managing volunteers, and handling public engagement, all while underfunded and overstretched.

📌 Public & Stakeholder Pressure: From dealing with visitors to managing donor and funding expectations, museum professionals often navigate high-pressure environments with little room for error.

How Hey Mate is Supporting Museum of Brisbane

Museum of Brisbane is leading the way in acknowledging these challenges and taking proactive steps to support their team. Through our partnership, Hey Mate is delivering specialist mental health support tailored for cultural workers, ensuring that those who bring Brisbane’s stories to life feel valued, heard, and supported.

Our collaboration includes:

✅ Tailored Wellbeing Resources – Equipping staff with practical strategies for managing stress, emotional fatigue, and workload pressures.
✅ Access to Mental Health Support – Ensuring staff have a safe and confidential space to seek help when needed.
✅ Workplace Wellbeing Integration – Supporting Museum of Brisbane in fostering a culture that prioritizes health, safety, and resilience.

This is Just the Beginning!

We are so excited to see this partnership grow and hope it inspires other museums and galleries to take similar steps toward building a mentally healthy workplace. The arts and cultural sectors are essential to our communities, and the people who work in them deserve the same level of care and support that they provide to audiences every day.

A huge thank you to Museum of Brisbane for being a leader in this space and prioritizing the health and wellbeing of cultural workers. If your organization is looking for ways to support your team’s mental health, let’s chat.

💙 Let’s make wellbeing in the arts the norm, not the exception.

Want to learn more about Hey Mate’s wellbeing support for the arts? Get in touch with us here!