Sixty seconds on . . . art galleries and health

Picassos on prescription?Maybe they should be. Looking at art in galleries produces measurable benefits for health and wellbeing, according to new research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London.1Meditate at the Tate?The study actually took place at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Fifty volunteers aged 18-40 viewed either original artworks or reproductions of the same paintings in a matched, non-gallery environment. Participants were monitored for their heart rate and skin temperature while looking at the paintings. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol and pro-inflammatory cytokines were sampled before and after viewing.Sounds art-fully doneThe study hasn’t yet been peer reviewed but a preprint shows that cortisol levels fell by an average of 22% in the gallery group compared with 8% for those looking at reproductions. The pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α dropped by 30% and 28% for those looking at original art, with no change observed…