To see your life from the outside, find a way out of a difficult situation, heal spiritual wounds and simply perk up — going to a museum can change our life for the better if you know how to visit museums correctly.
At the entrance to any major museum — be it the Hermitage or the Louvre — we usually grab a map and spend the next two or three hours flying like an arrow from one masterpiece to another, making our way through the crowd of connoisseurs to the Mona Lisa and courageously fighting hunger and fatigue. . What if you slow down? Spend a little more time with a painting or sculpture that somehow caught our eye, even if it is not a famous masterpiece that is customary to admire?
Going to the museum, we look forward to the pleasure — no one has the desire to storm it like a fortress. However, according to the observations of researchers*, visitors spend about one piece of art on average only 15-30 seconds. The crazy rhythm of life has taught us to think that this is normal.
“Imagine walking along the bookshelves in the library, looking at the spines of the books, and along the way posting something like “Today I read 100 books!” to your social media page, says psychology professor James O. Pavelski (James O. . Pawelski) from the Center for Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). – In fact, this is how many people behave in the museum. There is as much art in front of them as there are book spines in a library. But you can’t really see a painting if you just glance at it as you run by.»
Of course, there is no single right way to «feel» a museum. Some people like to quickly see everything at once, while others want to see and photograph only world masterpieces. Professor Pavelski and his colleagues, who study the connection between positive psychology and the humanities, offer another way: to slow down.
- Art therapy and arts therapy
Choose one wing of a museum or art gallery and start walking around, mentally noting which paintings attract you and which, on the contrary, repel or do not arouse interest. Then return to the picture that insistently calls to itself. Let’s say, if you have an hour to spare, you can wander around the museum for 30 minutes, and then spend the remaining 20-30 minutes near the picture or sculpture that was remembered more than others. “Twenty minutes these days is like three hours,” Pavelski notes. “An amazing thing happens – you start to really see what you’re looking at.”
Julie Haizlip, professor of pediatrics at the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia (USA), admits that the “slow” trip to the museum turned her whole life upside down. At first, she was skeptical — a whole twenty minutes for one picture ?! – and not a single piece of art in the Barnes Foundation Museum, where she went with Pavelski, caught her attention. Then she noticed a beautiful, melancholy-looking woman with red hair, just like hers. It was a portrait of a prostitute “Montrouge. Red Rose» by Toulouse-Lautrec.
“I wanted to understand why she has such a stern look in the picture.” As the minutes ticked by, Professor Hazelip found herself concocting the story of this woman in her mind. It seemed to her that she felt trapped and unhappy, but at the same time — determined to find a way out. Behind her shoulder, Toulouse-Lautrec wrote a window — as an opportunity for salvation, just turn around.
“In fact, standing in front of the picture, I was projecting onto it a lot of what was happening in my life at that time, and what I kept in myself,” says Hazlip. “In the end, she helped me to know myself and find a way out.” An intensive care pediatrician by training, Hazlip was looking for an opportunity to change jobs at the time, but didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do. Three months after her encounter with the painting at the museum, she changed jobs, accepting an offer to become a teacher at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. “There really was a window behind me that I didn’t know about, and that I never would have seen if I hadn’t started to look at things differently.”
It is still difficult for researchers to explain what happened from a scientific point of view, but it is clear that leisurely contemplation in a museum can positively affect our well-being, helping to reconnect with ourselves, to feel renewed, not empty. “The feeling of happiness, fullness of life, elation that surrounds us when we concentrate on a work of art is akin to the effect of meditation,” says Pavelski.
- Donna Tartt «Goldfinch»
The main thing is not to be afraid to look for your own way to spend time in the museum, to try new things. For example, you can take headphones with you and wander around the hall to the accompaniment of your favorite music so that the empty chatter of other visitors is not annoying or distracting. Or browse the museum’s online catalog in advance and select departments that match your hobbies, interests, be it music or horses. “For some reason, many people believe that in the museum everyone is obliged to behave in a certain way,” Sandra Jackson-Dumont, curator of educational programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, shares her observations. “Nothing like that, you can just be yourself.”
For example, in recent years, museums have begun to hold a «Selfie Day» — any visitor can take a picture next to a painting or sculpture and post it on social networks. At the same time, most try to take the pose of the sculpture or the hero of the picture, near which they are standing. “Perhaps to some this will seem vulgar and a sign of disrespect,” says Jackson-Dumont. – In fact, this is a great way to re-evaluate a work of art, to let it pass through you. When blind or partially sighted visitors come to visit us at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we invite them to do the same so that the blind person can better understand the work of art in question.”
Let your intuition, instincts and curiosity guide you the next time you go to a museum. Who knows what discoveries you will make for yourself.
* See website for details