Should we be prescribing art?
My father is a professional artist and art teacher, which means that when I was a kid, instead of going to an amusement park on the weekend, I found myself at art museums and galleries throughout New England. While he did not, sadly, pass on any of his genetic gifts to me, I spent my childhood constantly sculpting, painting, or drawing something.
Once I became an adult, my consumption and creation of art stopped. For decades really.
Lucky for me, I became a mom to a very artistically-curious 9-year-old. Together, we have roamed galleries and art museums in San Diego and beyond. We also host “art parties” where we both get to experience the joy of creating something together: typically still lives of fruit or vegetables for me, and comic books about animal adventures for Ramona. Every time we go together to see art in the wild, I leave inspired, and I feel my stress dissipating.
Turns out, this isn’t just me! In a nationally representative UK panel study, people who made art or attended cultural events more often reported lower mental distress and higher life satisfaction, even after accounting for socioeconomic status, personality, and prior mental health.1
Structured museum programs show a similar pattern. In one small, uncontrolled program, participants’ distress, depression, anxiety, and well-being all improved afterward, with the largest reductions in distress and anxiety among people aged 41 to 60 compared with those aged 18 to 24,2 an age range that overlaps with perimenopause and menopause. In a randomized trial at London’s National Gallery, viewing art was followed by better mood and lower anxiety regardless of the viewing strategy people were given.3 On the making side, a meta-analysis of randomized trials found that creative arts therapies were associated with improvements in anxiety, depression, and quality of life in people with cancer.4
Perhaps we in the health profession should prescribe art? Whether creating or consuming it, art appears to influence mood, anxiety, and emotional regulation. While certainly not effective for everyone, for many it may be a complementary approach alongside standard care. Indeed, narrative reviews describe art therapy as an add-on for conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and dementia.5
So don’t be surprised if, next time you’re in an appointment with me, I ask: “When was the last time you consumed art?”
Recommended further reading: Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.
Your prescription: Find a gallery or museum near you and wander through it.
References
1. Wang S, Mak HW, Fancourt D. Arts, mental distress, mental health functioning & life satisfaction: fixed-effects analyses of a nationally-representative panel study. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):208. doi:10.1186/s12889-019-8109-y
2. Nosè M, Compri B, Cristofalo D, et al. From art to mental health: exploring the impact of a museum-based intervention on psychological well-being. Front Psychol. 2025;16:1591056. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1591056
3. Trupp MD, Yin S, Landau R, et al. Evaluating guided viewing strategies to enhance well-being effects of art viewing: a three-arm randomised controlled trial. Sci Rep. 2026. doi:10.1038/s41598-026-56034-2
4. Chou ASL, McKechnie T, Arora V, et al. Creative arts therapy for anxiety, depression, and quality of life in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychooncology. 2026;35(3):e70425. doi:10.1002/pon.70425
5. Hu J, Zhang J, Hu L, Yu H, Xu J. Art therapy: a complementary treatment for mental disorders. Front Psychol. 2021;12:686005. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.686005