Artworks encompassed in the review included famous pieces such as The Scream by Edvard Munch, The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, and other modern and contemporary art. The authors advocate integrating art into mental health strategies ‘as a low-cost and easily-accessible resource’.
The review – of 38 previously published studies covering 6,805 participants – was conducted by psychologists from the University of Vienna, Trinity College Dublin, and Humboldt University of Berlin. The resulting paper, ‘The impact of viewing art on well-being – a systematic review of the evidence base and suggested mechanisms’, was published in mid-April in The Journal of Positive Psychology (see https://tinyurl.com/5xx9pxsn).
According to the researchers, ‘previous research has suggested that viewing art might influence mood or stress, but the research was limited and inconsistent’. This study examined ‘decades of scattered research, providing for the first time a clear and comprehensive overview of when, where, and why, art viewing is used to promote wellbeing’. It found that viewing art can improve eudemonic wellbeing – that associated with meaning in life and personal growth.
The benefits were observed in locations including museums and galleries, clinics and hospital settings, and through ‘virtual reality’. Art types including figurative, abstract, modern, and contemporary paintings, photography, sculpture, and installations, were all found to boost wellbeing.
“People often think of art as a luxury, but our research suggests that viewing art – whether as a hobby, or as a targeted health intervention – can meaningfully support wellbeing,” said MacKenzie Trupp, lead author, and researcher at the University of Vienna and Radboud UMC, Donders Institute (pictured). “By reframing art as a low-cost, accessible, wellbeing resource, this research opens up exciting possibilities for integrating art into everyday environments and public health strategies.”
The study, funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 ART*IS project, also found ‘a lack of methodological inconsistency’ across previous studies, prompting the creation of a new set of guidelines – Receptive Art Activity Research Reporting Guidelines (RAARR), ‘to standardise future research’.