The positive impact of art on health & wellbeing
“Making and consuming art lifts our spirits and keeps us sane. Art, like science and religion, helps us make meaning from our lives, and to make meaning is to make us feel better.” Grayson Perry
Did you know art can have a highly positive impact on your health and wellbeing? Between 2015 and 2017, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing conducted a study into the benefits of the arts within health and social care. A major finding of their inquiry was that the arts can keep us well, aid recovery if we do become unwell and improve our general quality of life. One service user interviewed as part of the study described how joining an art group was the key to managing her medical condition; for her, art now represents freedom. Her confidence grew as she gained experience and found she was developing skills in drawing.
Art-making creates a safe space to try things out, to take risks, to make mistakes, to learn through trial and error, and to play. When we engage with our creativity, we have a chance to lose ourselves in the multi-sensory process and forget about everything else. We can solve practical, manageable problems as they emerge within the task and this boosts our self-esteem. We can make choices; what kind of mark to make or what colour ink to use, for example. When we create something tangible with our own hands, we are exerting an amount of control over our environment and connecting with what’s around us, which can help us to be empowered in a world that can feel so chaotic. Sometimes it is difficult to translate our complex human feelings into words; creativity offers a different way to process our emotions and express ourselves. And nothing beats the very special sense of achievement that arises when you hold your artwork in your hands and acknowledge, “I made this!”
Artist Louise Bourgeios used art as a form of therapy. Her work spanned drawing, sculpture, embroidery and etching (a form of printmaking where a drawing is etched into a printing plate). She said “When I draw it means that something bothers me, but I don’t know what it is. So it is the treatment of anxiety.”
Not feeling up to making your own art? Just looking at art can raise your mood. Whether its admiring a pretty painting, viewing challenging images that make us feel understood by the artist, marvelling at the ability of the artist or getting curious about how an artwork was made and what it is about, a mindful moment with an artwork will enhance your life! The Tate advocates ‘slow looking,’ and recommends spending 10 minutes with an artwork to really allow yourself to get to know it. Drop into the Globe studio to see our latest exhibition, Heads and Tales, by Metal sculptor Mick Kirkby-Geddes. We’re open on Monday to Thursday, and Saturdays 10am to 3pm and would love to see you. The show runs until Saturday 18th June.
