The artistic prescription: how 60 minutes in a gallery every month could transform your life | Health and wellness

Name: Art.

Age: Art has been around for thousands of years. Drawings from Blombos Cave in South Africa, for example, are estimated to be around 73,000 years old. But it’s less about age and more about frequency and duration.

OK, how often and for how long? Sixty minutes per month.

Cave painting? No. Well, if you want, of course (but ask the owner and check for bears first). But this is about experiencing art.

Like going to a gallery? Exactly. Or a museum.

One hour per month? Minimum.

To make myself more cultured and interesting? Maybe. But above all because it’s good for you.

Who said? A study carried out by the charity Art Fund, and more specifically by Daisy Fancourt, professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, who wrote the foreword to the report, as well as the book Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health.

And what does it do Fancourt has something to say? “Regular engagement and meaningful encounters with art are now recognized as an important contributor to our health and well-being. »

He TO DOit’s art that looks like your five fruits and vegetables per day, or 10,000 steps. It’s supposed to. This is called RDA – recommended dose of art. Fancourt says of visiting museums and galleries: “Evidence suggests that they should be considered health-promoting behaviors, alongside a balanced diet, regular physical activity and time spent outdoors. »

OK, but a study, carried out by a charity which exists to encourage people to go to galleries… Another study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, looking at data from 2,148 adults in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, found a 48% lower risk of depression for people who went to museums, theaters and cinemas once a month. Want more?

Do you have more? Another study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, found “evidence that authentic viewing of art engages biological processes related to stress reduction and immune modulation.”

“Authentic” – is that relevant? Yes, what’s interesting about this study is that it compares the physiological impact of viewing original works of art in a gallery to that of reproductions in a laboratory.

And? Positive effects were “not observed when the same works were considered reproductions.”

SO the Starry Night phone wallpaper, which I see about 17,000 times a month, does not count like my RDA? No.

Say: “Thank you, I’ve been feeling great since my GP prescribed the Barbara Hepworth show.”

Don’t say: “And they make great donuts at the gallery cafe.”