Consuming arts and culture is good for people’s health, new research finds
A study out of the U.K. has found that taking in the arts boosts people’s well-being and saves society money
Belle Spirale Dance Projects. Photo by Four Eyes Portraits
STIR READERS MIGHT have a sense that taking in arts and culture is good for them. Now, it’s official, with new research out of the U.K. finding that consuming arts and culture benefits people’s health and well-being. It also generates about $144 billion a year worth of improvements in people’s quality of life and higher productivity.
“Culture and Heritage Capital: Monetising the Impact of Culture and Heritage on Health and Wellbeing” is the name of the 2024 report prepared for the British government’s department for culture, media, and sport by Frontier Economics.
The study found that going to an arts event or taking part in a cultural activity, even only occasionally such as every few months, confers an array of “significant” benefits that can include alleviating pain, frailty, depression, and dependence on medication. The findings echo those from a 2019 World Health Organization report, which found that the arts can help people experiencing mental illness; support care for people with acute conditions; help to support people with neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders; assist with the management of noncommunicable diseases; and support end-of-life care.
“It is good to see this kind of research coming out and continues to substantiate what those of us who are artists, performers, musicians, dancers, poets, creatives, and arts-based researchers have been saying all along, that the arts are a place of deep transformation and access our entire beings—mind, body, soul, spirit, so there is a space to foster the visceral imagination,” says Celeste Nazeli Snowber, a dancer, poet, writer, and professor in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University. “The arts have long been a place of ceremony, ritual, and ultimately a place to bring wellness. This research along with so much more brings it to the public eye and it is great to see going out to wider communities. Particularly, it is great that it is in the U.K., when so many programs connected to the arts have been cut.”
The British research found that engaging in the arts has diverse and tangible effects on health, including supporting cognitive development and protecting against cognitive decline; reducing symptoms of mental illness; lowering pain and stress via the same neurological and physiological pathways activated by medication; diminishing loneliness; and maintaining physical functioning, thereby reducing frailty and age-related physical decline.
“From visiting museums and galleries to participating in choirs and watching theatre performances, these activities enrich our lives in countless ways,” writes Gus O’Donnell in the study’s foreword. “The study highlights how cultural engagement can benefit adults’ general health, how arts activities can improve children’s selfesteem [sic], and how singing in choirs can improve the health of older adults.”
The research consisted of an in-depth literature review encompassing approximately 3,500 abstracts and 160 full papers, focusing on studies that used high-quality, quantitative research methods to investigate causal relationships.
In terms of monetary value, the study found that participating in the arts led to a savings of $1,263 to $2,342 per person per year in terms of visiting their doctor less often and feeling better about their lives, while the benefit to wider society, through health-care costs averted and productivity impact, led to savings of $360 million to $144 billion per year.
The report includes 13 different groups of people whose health and well-being improved when they took part in artistic pursuits. People over age 65 who participated in drawing classes every week for three months at their local museum, for instance, yielded a financial dividend of an average $2,360 each. Meanwhile, a study of 3,333 young adults aged 18 to 28 found that those taking part in organized artistic, musical, or theatrical activities felt happier than those who didn’t and that their lives had more meaning and value as a result.
The study suggests that accessibility to arts and culture could lead to widespread benefits, says SFU psychology professor Lara Aknin, who runs the Helping and Happiness Lab.
“This review look promising,” Aknin says, “and it appears to offer a valuable, community-based strategy to greater well-being. In our lab we have found that when people are happy, they are more likely to engage in kind and generous behaviour, such as volunteering or donating to charity.”
Santa Aloi, professor emerita of dance at SFU, was pleased by the findings.
“We’ve all known intuitively that the arts are beneficial,” Aloi tells Stir. “Sadly, however, the first to have budgets cut by government and other institutions, arts seem to be in a continual fight to justify their existence. Having studies confirm not only the physical and mental benefits that come with participating but also the specific monetary benefit to health costs might just get some attention or at least add to the arguments.
“The physical benefits of, say, dance, are obvious: strength, flexibility, spatial and rhythmic intelligence to name a few,” Aloi adds. “How the body moves affects the mind, and vice versa. So I believe it nurtures emotional intelligence as well the physical and mental. There are differences between actually doing art oneself and consuming, watching, or listening. But in any case, all the arts are expressions of our common humanity, our ability to cooperate, to connect, and to create together in ways that are unique, satisfying, and quintessentially human.” 
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