Art. Good for Your Soul and, Apparently, Your Health
It turns out, art is about more than aesthetics. But you read this newsletter, so you knew that already.
Greetings from the Swiss Alps,
I am currently on vacation, spending a few days in my happy place.
The view from my Airbnb’s balcony, looking out over the valley of Saanen.
I first visited Switzerland in 2023 when my employer offered me the opportunity to take a paid sabbatical and recharge. Being fond of mountains and of Swiss descent (in case the surname “Reichenbach” didn’t give anything away), I decided to make a pilgrimage to my family’s ancestral hometown, Saanen.
Throughout that first trip, I ricocheted across Switzerland by train. My journey started in Lugano, then Zurich, then Luzern, then Bern. For each city I stayed in, I made a point to go out and hike through the region or visit local museums.
On this trip, I happen to be here at a time of the year when the weather isn’t particularly conducive to hiking. It’s rainy and cool, which means that for this visit, I will double down on visiting more museums. Today, after I hit send on this newsletter, I’ll be off to the Museum Der Landschaft Saanen, and tomorrow will be the Alimentarium, or food museum.
Aside: there’s an oft-used expression in Switzerland along the lines of “Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur schlechte Kleidung,” which means "There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.” If I were a good Swiss boy, I’d just put on my cool, rainy weather clothing and go hiking anyway. Perhaps a few generations in the US have made my bloodline too weak– I’d prefer to stay dry.
It turns out, spending time in these museums and art galleries may actually be the right choice for my health.
The Culture-Health Connection
According to the World Health Organization,
Research by the WHO Regional Office for Europe has shown that the use of artistic media in health care and in communities can have a variety of benefits for health outcomes. They can be used to communicate valuable messages across cultures and political divides, help affected communities understand the risks of certain diseases or behaviours and provide ways for affected populations to process and learn from their individual and collective experience to improve their wellbeing among other benefits.
https://www.who.int/initiatives/arts-and-health
While communicating across various divides, helping people understand risk, and learning from experiences are all valuable and important, I found the WHO’s summary of art, culture, and health to be a bit… underwhelming.
These outcomes, while valuable, are also somewhat ephemeral. Perhaps I’ve been corrupted by living in the US for so long, but I find that they’re somewhat easy to dismiss as idealistic rather than tangible, measurable outcomes that express the benefits of art for society.
But I had a gut feeling that there was something there, so I dug a little bit deeper.
A 2024 study coming out of the UK found that interacting with “culture and heritage” (which encompasses visiting museums, viewing art, listening to music, watching plays or musicals, playing an instrument, or engaging in creating art) has a significant impact on individuals that:
Reduced costs to the NHS
Increased productivity at work
Improved quality of life.
Between the reduced NHS costs and increased productivity, the study conservatively estimates that the arts and heritage contribute a whopping £8 billion to the UK economy.
Why?
Well, it turns out that engaging with art and culture as little as once a month positively impacts mood and dopamine levels, improves prosocial behaviors, and even reduces one’s sense of chronic pain.
These same outcomes are why art therapy has become a powerful tool in treating conditions as varied as dementia and PTSD. Engaging with art in this way helps patients process emotions, spend time with others, and reduce anxiety, all of which contribute to living a longer, happier life.
David Foster Wallace Brought me Down this Rabbit Hole
As I’ve been traveling, I’ve been finishing up David Lipsky’s book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace.
In it, Lipsky is asking Wallace about his “TV addiction” and what value he gets from watching television versus his perceived frustrations with watching too much tv or movies.
As part of a lengthy response, Wallace replies in part:
Like, at a certain point, we’re gonna have to build some machinery, inside our guts, to help us deal with this. Because the technology is just gonna get better and better and better and better. And it’s gonne get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money. Which is alreight. In low doses, right? But if that’s the basic main staple of your diet, you’re gonna die. In a meaningful way, you’re going to die.
David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest
He then goes on to clarify that he thinks each generation has different struggles or forces that require the generation to “grow up.” For his grandparents, it was WWII; for his generation, it would be learning to do things that aren’t quick, convenient, and commodified.
This got me thinking about another book on my TBR pile, Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsaman and Ivy Ross. It’s now bumped up to the top of that queue, and I’ll dive in once I’m back home and nearer my overstuffed bookshelves.
See Some Art. Your Body Will Thank You.
Fun fact: as I walk around Saanen, I see the name Reichenbach on everything. While uncommon in the US, in this part of Switzerland, it’s nearly as common as a name like “Smith” back home. If I visit the local church’s cemetery, it would seem that half of those interred within are distant cousins.
It’s time for me to go pop into my first museum of the day, and I would encourage you to do similarly. Find a museum or art gallery you can stop by. Go buy a sketch book and some good pencils. Enroll in an art class!
Or, just sit down and start writing. Doctor’s orders.