• What can we do with hope?
  • Delve Deeper

It might seem cheesy but when it comes to shaping the future, our capacity for hope is important.

Hope isn’t just a wish, it’s something we all have in different amounts. It’s also something that we can grow. This is called Hope Theory.

To hope, you need to be able to set goals. You need to be able to imagine ways to achieve these goals. You also need to feel agency, or be in control of the actions you take to achieve them. These three factors work together in everything from writing an essay to learning a new skill.

This exhibition has been informed by Hope Theory.  Hope is an action, and it has the following components: 

  • Hope is grounded in reality.  It is not wishful thinking, it acknowledges the problems we face.    
  • Hope involves needing to be able to set long term goals
  • We need to be able to imagine multiple pathways to reach these goals
  • We need agency – the belief and capacity to sustain actions to help us reach our goals.   
  • Emotion and Affect are important.  While hope isn’t an emotion, emotions and affect play a role in the development of hope.