Keywords: mental health, well-being, museums, Italy.
Over the past two decades, a growing body of evidence supporting the link between museums and health has emerged, including demonstrating the role of arts programs in supporting mental health (Chatterjee & Camic, 2015). However, alongside the role of programs offered by museum institutions, it is interesting to explore how the museum environment, including its physical space, can impact the well-being of individuals. What material and intangible spatial characteristics should museums take into account to adopt a new idea of accessibility linked to societal well-being? And ultimately, what intersectoral strategies should they pursue to become key players in social and health policies?
It is no coincidence that innovative experiments studying the influence of cultural spaces on mental health emerged simultaneously with or after the pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact in redefining the relationship between museums and the public, highlighting the vulnerability of this relationship.
In light of international evidence presented in the 2019 WHO report, “What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?” » (Fancourt and Finn, 2019), in Italy, particularly in Piedmont, pioneering projects have been initiated with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin. These Italian projects aimed to assess not only the health benefits of artistic practices – such as the DanzArte project, which translates emotional responses to art into physical movements through the use of multimodal and interactive technologies – but also, more specifically , the link between the quality of the architectural spaces of museums and the well-being felt by visitors. In this article I will present the Luoghi Comuni project, a multidisciplinary and participatory project developed by MinD Mad in Design, an association focused on improving the mental health of young adults through cultural activities.
Luoghi Comuni: museums as “everyday places” for vulnerable communities
The Luoghi Comuni (Common Places) project was created in response to a call for ideas with the aim of studying how tangible and intangible aspects of cultural spaces positively impact mental well-being. The project was born from the need to promote the social inclusion of people with mental health vulnerabilities by encouraging their participation in museums and cultural institutions. This also stems from the need to sensitize cultural institutions to certain vulnerable groups who often face societal stigma.
The project was implemented through a series of participatory initiatives involving cultural institutions in the city of Turin, with a strong emphasis on the active engagement of individuals facing mental health problems. It is based around a series of guided cultural tours, offering people in situations of mental fragility, as well as their family members and health professionals interested in the development of new approaches to care, the opportunity to move away from places that are often unwelcoming and poorly maintained. where mental health services are provided, this can often cause self-stigma.
The project aims to encourage them to engage more frequently in cultural places known for their attention to detail and aesthetic places, characterized by care and beauty. Visits thus become an opportunity to convey to patients the value generated by the sense of care given to the place and the beauty of the architecture. They were also an opportunity for patients, their families and health professionals to ask themselves if and how these places would be able to put mentally fragile people at ease and welcome them regularly among their audiences, to finally consider museums as “common places”. ‘. For this project, cultural centers and museums were carefully selected for their various environmental and spatial characteristics: institutional museums located in closed buildings (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Camera Italian Center for Photography) to urban green spaces (PAV Parco Arte Vivente) to new open centers for socio-cultural aggregation of young people (Off topic). This approach made it possible to evaluate, measure and report the level of well-being generated by cultural experiences, taking advantage of collectively established tools, guidelines and criteria.
Assessing the inclusiveness of museums through participatory activities
The project took place through a series of actions structured according to different levels of commitment aimed at promoting social inclusion and intersectoral actions. A first co-design workshop brought together representatives of museums and cultural institutions, as well as people facing mental health problems, with the aim of deepening the concept of a “gentle place”. This was achieved through co-mapping the city’s cultural “well-being” locations, where a sense of well-being is experienced, and identifying their spatial characteristics. The assessment looked at elements such as hospitality, spatial planning, accessibility, engagement, communication and internal organization.
Fig. 1. Map of cultural places and mental health indicators from co-mapping activities. @MinD Crazy for design
The results aimed to identify the key aspects to be studied through a digital observation tool: a survey, based on various measurement criteria (accessibility, sensory perception, hospitality, communication, etc.). The survey questions were answered on a scale of 1 to 4 (1. not at all, 2. slightly, 3. moderately, 4. a lot) and were introduced with a statement encouraging respondents to observe and pay attention. focus on distinctive and specific aspects. environmental indicators. A matrix was then used to process the category scores, allowing for further analysis of the data.
Fig. 2. Luoghi Comuni digital survey. @MinD Crazy for design
Once the questionnaire and the data collection and processing methods had been established, 8 different on-site surveys were launched in museums and cultural centers by a group of visitors with direct or indirect experience of mental fragility. They were guided by museum professionals and supported by a team of psychologists who observed and monitored indicators of individual and collective well-being. An app called “Luoghi Comuni” was created to provide instructions on how to easily complete the visit and complete the digital questionnaire. Finally, a culminating event on the results of the visits was an opportunity to build networks between representatives of cultural and health institutions. This event served as a starting point to consider new cross-sector collaborations and synergies.
Could being in a museum environment improve mental well-being?
As a main result, Luoghi Comuni provided cultural institutions with a clear and quantitative indication of the “softness” of their spaces, understood as the ability to put fragile individuals at ease. We hope that these results will lead to a reconsideration and improvement of certain characteristics of museum spaces.
Recent years have seen an increase in participatory and interactive programs within museums, with the specific aim of improving wellbeing and engaging visitors facing various challenges, including mental health issues.
The Luoghi Comuni project raised awareness among patients and mental health professionals of the idea that a museum or cultural center can become a place of mental well-being, effectively complementing traditional health facilities. The project also contributed to reducing stigma and prejudice surrounding the topic of mental health, providing valuable information to improve the quality of services within cultural organizations.
Developing new indicators to measure well-being in museum environments is the first step toward reimagining cultural spaces as mental health hubs. Is it really utopian to think that one day psychologists and psychiatrists might recommend a museum visit instead of traditional healing in mental health centers?(1)? The concept of “museum prescription,” an idea first introduced by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in 2018 and more recently adopted by five Brussels museums, does not seem so far-fetched, even in Turin.
http://www.madindesign.com/projects/luoghi-comuni
Chatterjee H. and Camic P. (2015) The health and well-being potential of museums and art galleriesArts and health, 7:3, 183-186
Fancourt, D. and Finn, S. (2019) What is the evidence for the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? World Health Organization.
(1) In Italy, there are public day centers where educators and mental health professionals welcome patients with a significant degree of autonomy and offer them support in various rehabilitation activities (gym, art therapy, etc.). ).
