What makes you want to visit a gallery? Perhaps it is curiosity, a favourite artist, a quiet hour to yourself, or the chance to see something you would not normally encounter in everyday life. We often talk about galleries as places of learning, inspiration and care of collections. But there is another reason a gallery visit can matter too: the way it can make us feel, and the impact it can have on our wellbeing.

Many of us know, almost instinctively, that looking at art can affect our mood. A painting might lift us, calm us, remind us of something, or help us see the world a little differently. Even if we do not always think of gallery-going as a wellbeing activity, it can offer a gentle moment of pause, reflection and connection. These feelings suggest that looking at art can have a real effect on us, even if we don’t always have the language or evidence to explain why. 

These experiences have prompted medical and scientific communities to explore the impact creativity can have on our health. Recent research led by UCL is discussed by Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology, Daisy Fancourt in her popular recently-published book Art Cure. In the book, Fancourt writes that ‘if you dedicate 30-60mins once a week to engaging in arts, studies suggest you can expect to see improvements in your wellbeing within around 6 weeks.’1 This and other findings are significant, particularly when 1 in 4 adults² in England experiences mental health difficulties each year. Whilst galleries can’t guarantee improvements in mental health and should never be seen as a replacement for professional care and medication it would also be foolish to dismiss the evidence that creativity can be beneficial for us.

This area of work is known as Creative Health: creative activity that seeks to support health and wellbeing. Creative Health is increasingly being introduced and supported by NHS services and healthcare services.

Why? 

If gallery visits can support our wellbeing, why don’t more of us think about them in this way?

This raises questions about awareness, access and confidence, as well as how galleries communicate their role not only as cultural spaces, but also as places that can contribute to public wellbeing.

This area of academic study is crucial for our work at Pallant House Gallery. While we should never be seen as a healthcare service or as mental health professionals, we can play an active role in supporting people’s mental health and wellbeing.

‘Modern medicine is moving towards treating the whole person, not just the illness. Healing your body – or preventing diseases in the first place – is far more than addressing symptoms. The arts and aesthetics are increasingly being used as medicine around the world precisely because they have the capacity to engage multiple physiological and neural systems that not only help the body to heal but that also mend the mind and lift the spirit’ 2 

What does this mean for Pallant House Gallery?

The Gallery offers a welcoming and creative space that supports wellbeing. The Gallery’s Community Programme, which was set up in 2002, gives adults with a wide range of support needs access to long-term, accessible creative opportunities. People often stay part of the programme for many years with Community Programme participants reporting that it ‘keeps them well’. Referrals to the programme usually come from local support organisations such as care providers, social prescribers, family and friends or directly from the individual. The programme currently supports over 200 people to access a creative life.

Creative Health as a concept is helping us explore new ways to support wellbeing through creative experiences at the Gallery. Our established Community Programme has shown us the power of long-term, inclusive creative opportunities but there is also a need for a programme that offers something lighter, more occasional and open to all. That is why we are developing a new wellbeing programme, generously supported by the Hugo Burge Fund. The Wellbeing Programme is designed to offer gentle, creative opportunities for people to connect with art, with themselves and with others.

Galleries don’t need to be formal or intimidating places. They can be spaces where we slow down, notice, make, talk, reflect and take a breath. Perhaps that is reason enough to visit a gallery, or maybe even to pick up a paintbrush.

1. Fancourt, Daisy. Art Cure, Cornerstone Press, 2026
2. Key facts and statistics about mental health | Mind
3. Magsamen, Susan and Ivy Rose, Your Brain on Art – How the Arts Transform Us, (Canongate, 2025) p.132