Doctors in Brussels will be prescribing museum visits as part of a three month trial designed to rebuild mental health as a result of the Covid pandemic. Patients will be offered free visits to five public museums. It’s known that art can be beneficial for health, both mental and physical. So, if successful in alleviating symptoms of poor mental health, burnout and stress, the initiative will be expanded. It was inspired by a similar project in Quebec where doctors can prescribe up to 50 museum visits a year to patients. Brussels offers an interesting mix of public museums, including one for ‘Fashion and Lace’, a ‘Sewer Museum’ and the Manneken-Pis’s Wardrobe (the statue of the urinating child).
The recent winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021 in the UK was ‘Firstsite’ in Colchester. Housed in a distinctive crescent shaped building, the contemporary art gallery acknowledges the diversity, innovation, ingenuity and creativity of the people of East Anglia. It has a mission to empower that community to lead healthier and happier lives. It sounds exactly the sort of place we should all be visiting.
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