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Former Director Grade Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
www.daylife.page
After you get tired in the evening, a trip to the art museum, art exhibitions and art galleries can give a serious boost to mental health and wellbeing. It turns out that visiting museums, galleries and art institutions, or even discussion on art can be good for you. Scientific studies have shown in recent surveys that these visits can help people lessen loneliness, fight stress and find meaning in their lives.
Art and Mental Health
Art, through its visual means and symbolic implications, elicits our unconscious thoughts and feelings freely. It is basic human nature to express the self visually, and viewing art helps individuals get in touch with their emotions better, said Ikuko Acosta, the renowned clinician and associate professor at New York University.
Visiting art museums has also been shown to decrease systolic blood pressure and self-reported measures of stress. The physical boundaries, carefully curated displays, lighting, and subdued sound of a museum or gallery signal a distinct difference from the outside world and may offer viewers a safe space. “Various studies have shown that viewing art can heighten our mood, reduce anxiety and stress, and increase our overall sense of wellness and contentment,” “We might also experience decreased loneliness after a museum or gallery visit because they provide a space for social engagement.”
Looking at paintings has been found to cause a similar pattern of brain activity as other pleasurable experiences, like eating food or having sex. What's more, visual art exposure can activate the reward system in the brain, which is demonstrated to modulate survival behaviours by reducing stress levels. Viewing art is a contemplative experience that encourages people to slow down, catch their breath, and be fully present; sometimes it also provides an opportunity for people to learn and find meaning or inspiration in their lives.
According to the recent Frontiers in Psychology study, the benefits of art viewing aren’t necessarily limited to in-person experiences, even briefly viewing cultural interventions online led to improvements in mood, anxiety, loneliness and wellbeing. In the study the authors noted that if the stimulus inspires positive emotions in the viewer, and is considered beautiful and meaningful, an average of one to two minutes are more than enough. But other study suggests that some parts of the experience just don't translate. Online art viewing cannot replace an in-person experience, as the scale, colour, and immediacy of an art piece cannot be reproduced digitally.
Resonance of Fine Art
Not all art or art viewers are created equal. It’s not necessary that all forms of art can improve one’s well-being, since some pieces can negatively affect a viewers state of mind. The benefits of viewing art still depend on the “synchronicity between the kind and the nature of the art and the emotional state of the viewer at the particular time of looking at the specific piece of art.
People are often drawn to certain art pieces for a reason. If you are entranced by one in particular, think about the underlying reasons for the attraction, be mindful of whatever holds your attention, as well as of your physical and emotional responses to the art. Maybe it makes you think about your identity, evokes certain memories or elicits different sensations. This may allow you to learn new things about yourself and make the art-viewing experience something transformative.
Despite these benefits, the number of people visiting such places including libraries which have books on art collection, museums, art galleries and exhibitions over the globe are getting less attention in recent decades. The largest dip occurred between 1982 to 2012, where the rates fell more than 17 percent among the younger generation. The number of visitors shrunk even more during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. (The author has his own study and views)
P.D. Gupta
The author has seen magnified life from virus to human through electron microscopy
