海角大神

Prescription art: Take in two museums and call me in the morning

The five pavilions that comprise the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, one of Canada鈥檚 most prominent institutions, draw their share of art lovers, of tourists, and of ragtag school groups.

But they aren鈥檛 the only visitors inspecting the fall foliage depicted by聽Tom Thomson and Canada鈥檚 鈥淕roup of Seven鈥� artists or experiencing works of French painters from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot to Henri Matisse.

During any given week, there are deaf teens and young adults viewing the works as part of their education in how to overcome obstacles to communication through art. Women with eating disorders listen as guides share points about works that might encourage expression of their emotions around body image. Visitors diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 explore themes such as nature and family to stimulate conversation that can sometimes help to evoke memories.

Those efforts were so successful that the MMFA has expanded them in an unusual way: by partnering with the M茅decins francophones du Canada, a membership association for French-speaking doctors, who can use their prescription pads to order visits to the museum for patients in lieu of perhaps medicine or a follow-up doctor鈥檚 appointment.

At a time when the health community is grasping for solutions to over-prescribing and over-testing, 鈥渟ocial prescribing鈥� 鈥� in which practitioners look at community activities and nonclinical services as a more holistic approach to wellness 鈥� is gaining renewed attention. In the case of art museums in particular, supporters say doctor-ordered visits can carve out crucial space for stillness and observation and provide an antidote to social exclusion.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just doctors prescribing pills but patients taking action and putting in their own hands their own healing,鈥� says Yan Yee Poon, an art therapist working at the MMFA on a recent day. 鈥淎rt speaks to everyone. We can all find something in it we need.鈥�

The year-long experiment, which allows each doctor to issue up to 50 prescriptions that give patients free admission to the MMFA, comes as social prescribing, which took off in Britain, is growing. Doctors increasingly see the role of choirs, sports teams, and arts programs as a key to social inclusion and health outcomes for everyone from patients diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 to those with anxiety or depression. British studies have also measured a decline in use of the national health system when social prescribing is utilized.

This month the Royal Ontario Museum announced that health-care and social service providers can prescribe visits to the Toronto institution to promote health and well-being. It begins in January.

鈥楢 solution they didn鈥檛 know was there鈥�

The MMFA has a long commitment to fostering wellness through arts, of which the project, the first of its kind in Canada, is just the latest expression. Marilyn Lajeunesse, educational programs officer, says the health component grew out of the 鈥淪haring the Museum鈥� initiative to make the museum more inclusive. In its 19th year, the program revealed how much populations in need benefited from being part of the museum community. 鈥淲e started realizing that visits to the museum were quite beneficial to not only people with psychological issues but people who are fragile in the first place,鈥� she says.

Today the MMFA estimates some 300,000 people partake in their educational, cultural, community-based, and art therapy programs. They employ a full-time art therapist, which they say is the first for any museum. To measure it all, the museum is currently participating in 10 clinical studies supervised by its Art and Health Advisory Committee, chaired by R茅mi Quirion, chief scientist of Quebec. They have housed an Art Hive, a twice-weekly session allowing the community to drop in to make art, since 2017.

Robert Kertesz, a retired Montrealer, is at the Art Hive on recent Sunday afternoon, applying India ink to the base of a clay structure of fanciful characters. He says it was inspired by a Tom Petty video, 鈥淒on鈥檛 Come Around Here No More,鈥� based on 鈥淎lice in Wonderland.鈥� Mr. Kertesz, who learned about the Art Hive through a seniors program he joined, says even though he doesn鈥檛 consider himself a nervous person, it鈥檚 still calming to be here聽鈥撀爐o get out of the house and spend time with people, listening to music, and creating. For those who are depressed or can鈥檛 sleep well, he adds, art can be an enormous aid.

鈥淭hey might be prompted to find a solution they didn鈥檛 know was there,鈥� he says.

Ms. Poon, who is working at the Art Hive this day, says that creating art allows people to explore their feelings at a certain distance that often feels safer. But prescriptions to the museum, she says, are an empowerment tool too.

Nicole Parent, the director general of M茅decins francophones du Canada, says the healing process of art is not prescriptive. 鈥淚t might be a moment to step away from stress and anxiety.鈥� Contemplating a piece of art might generate positive feelings as a patient reflects on his or her life, Dr. Parent, an聽epidemiologist, says, 鈥渙r it could be a dark piece in which they recognize themselves.鈥� In either case, she says, it can provide an awakening.

The MMFA says that art鈥檚 role in healing might be viewed the way mindfulness or meditation is today, or exercise and diet in the past. Upon the unveiling of the plan, Nathalie Bondil, the MMFA director general, said, 鈥淚n the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century.鈥�

Or as Kertesz puts it, 鈥淚t feels good to be creative. It鈥檚 been therapeutic. I鈥檓 not afraid to use the word. ... It鈥檚 just a very positive place.鈥�