e01: Art Museums & Flourishing
April 12th, 2022
18:00-19:00 CET (Europe) • 1:00-2:00 EST (North America, Eastern)
This month we’ll discuss a recent paper out of the Humanities and Human Flourishing project, “Art museums as Institutions for Human Flourishing” (Cotter & Pawelski, 2021). This review article presents evidence for the positive well-being impacts of museum visits, the possible mechanisms underlying these effects, and explores the implications for treatment programs (eg. social prescribing).
This meeting has passed, but we would love for you to join us next time!
📄 Cotter & Pawelski, 2021:
Art museums as Institutions for Human Flourishing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-15.
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Visiting art museums is a common activity that a wide variety of people choose to engage in for many reasons. Increasingly, communities, nations, and societies are turning to art museums as institutions to enhance flourishing (i.e., reducing ill-being factors, such as depression, and increasing well-being factors, such as feelings of belonging). In this paper, we review the psychological literature examining art museum visitation and museum program participation and their associations with flourishing-related outcomes. The literature suggests art museum visitation is associated with reductions in ill-being outcomes and increases in well-being outcomes. Additionally, programs targeting flourishing outcomes in clinical or at-risk populations (e.g. people living with dementia, older adults) show benefits to participants, with visits to art museums being socially prescribed across the globe to address a variety of ill-being conditions. Implications for existing knowledge and avenues for future research are discussed.