It’s so easy to place art on the back burner to think it is important but not as worthwhile as some other aspect of our society. That it can be a boon to our well being and that of society is not something we associate with art, yet a new study and a new program show us art not only benefits us as individuals but also as a society.
The study comes from Kings College in the UK where they measured people’s reaction to seeing original art, including taking samples of saliva. What they found is that the emotional experience affects our hormones and that affects our immune system. Hence our wellbeing is enhanced. It’s much less so when people are exposed to copies of original works of art, yet the point is the same going to a gallery or a museum benefits us physically and emotionally.
The program is one in Ireland which is instituting a basic income for artists. The program began as a result of the pandemic because many artists needed financial help. From that came a pilot program and now that the results are in the program will become permanent in 2026. Not only did giving a basic income to artists increase their income, it increased their income from practicing their art, thus decreasing the need for income from other sources and also decreasing their reliance on social services. What happened they discovered is that the economy benefited as well as the individual artist. The program includes not only visual artists, but musicians and other performers, composers, writers, movie makers and architects. The issues are not criticism of the program but who can be counted as an artist, as well as debate around how to select the artists to be chosen whether they should be selected based on need, merit or randomness.
For us the answer is plain, let’s expose ourselves to art!
*reposted from GGID page
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