One Museum Visit a Month: New Report Sets out ‘Recommended Dose of Art’
Regularly engaging with art at museums and galleries could have a significant impact on public health, according to Daisy Fancourt, Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.
In partnership with Art Fund, Professor Fancourt is calling for a Recommended Dose of Art (RDA) – at least 60 minutes with art in a museum or gallery every month – to improve physical and mental wellbeing.
Commissioned by Art Fund in partnership with Professor Fancourt, a new report, The Recommended Dose of Art: A Prescription for Health and Wellbeing brings together evidence of the wide-ranging benefits of engaging with art, from reducing stress hormones such as cortisol to lowering the risk of developing dementia and helping adults remain physiologically younger.
Yet new research commissioned by Art Fund and carried out among 2,000 UK adults reveals nine in 10 (89%) people currently miss out on the recommended intake, equivalent to an estimated 49.5 million adults.
It also revealed a huge knowledge gap when it comes to the benefits of consuming art, as just 17% considered supporting mental wellbeing to be a benefit of visiting museums and galleries, falling to 7% understanding it as a benefit to physical health.
The report cites evidence showing that engaging with art is deeply linked to our mental and physical wellbeing at every level, from the workings of our cells and molecules to cognition, memory and mood.
Regular visits to museums and galleries could nearly halve the risk of developing depression over the following 10 years. Research is also positive for the impact on loneliness, as older adults who go to museums, galleries or concerts have 32% lower odds of reporting loneliness 10 years later, compared to those who aren’t so culturally active.
Viewing original artworks in a gallery can have a much greater effect on our wellbeing than looking at reproductions, as in-person viewing can lead to around a 22% greater reduction in the stress hormone cortisol compared with viewing reproductions of art.
Findings also show that health span, the time that people are functionally fit and free from illness, may also be extended by engaging with art. By keeping people active and engaged, studies indicate that by the age of 80, adults who never engaged in the arts are 1.3 times more likely to be frail. And the combined mental, cognitive, and physical benefits of cultural engagement may even bring benefits for longevity, as studies have shown that culturally engaged people have a 31% lower risk of dying at any point over the next 14 years (not withstanding other variables like wealth, health, demographics and disabilities).
Main Image: Professor Daisy Fancourt and Art Fund director Jenny Waldman at the Wallace Collection with the Recommended Dose of Art report Photo: David Parry/Assignments/Press Association