Place for healing
MENARD ART MUSEUM is a place for healing.
ー Result of endocrine test and psychological analysis ー
MENARD ART MUSEUM and Nippon MENARD Cosmetics Co., Ltd had clarified that art appreciation at MENARD ART MUSEUM lowers psychological and physiological stress and presented the results at The Japanese Association of Health Psychology on 3rd and 4th of November, 2001.
In today's society with lots of stress, 'healing' plays a very important role and various healing methods are being proposed recently. Visitors always praise MENARD ART MUSEUM, "Whenever I come here, I feel relaxed." "The atmosphere of this museum calms down my mind." "I feel totally refreshed." "I like the moderate space and the number of works displayed here." So we measured the healing effect of MENARD museum.
We asked visitors to be monitors in three different exhibitions hold in 2001.
- MARC CHAGALL Lithographs : 94pcs of Chagall's lithographs that expressed love and dream with vivid colors.
- Women lived in Paris: 71pcs of landscapes of Paris and women lived in Paris. (PICASSO, MATISSE, LAUTREC, SAEKI Yuzo and FUJITA Tsuguharu etc.)
- The secret of great pictures 3~Japanese Style Paintings and Applied Arts~: 71pcs of works that show the techniques and expressions of Japanese Style Paintings and Applied Arts. (OGATA Korin, YOKOYAMA Taikan, YASUDA Yukihiko, TOMIMOTO Kenkichi and KURODA Tatsuaki etc.)
| ◇Date | ◇Number of monitors | ◇Measuring method |
|---|---|---|
| 1. 2001/ 3/ 9 ∼ 15 | 43 | Ａ |
| 2. 2001/ 6/12 ∼ 17 | 30 | Ａ |
| 3. 2001/ 7/ 6 ∼ 21 | 31 | Ａ/Ｂ |
Ａ.Measurement of salivary cortisol, a stress hormone.
We took samples of the saliva from visitors and measured them before and after the appreciation of exhibition.
Ｂ.Psychological questionnaire
We asked the visitors to complete the evaluation form before and after the appreciation. The measuring method is to evaluate their multiple moods (depression, boredom, hostility, well-being, liveliness, concentration and friendliness ) on a scale of one to four. We also asked them to state their degree of stress, mental burden and physical burden.
Ａ.Measure of salivary cortisol, a stress hormone.
The salivary cortisol decreased after the appreciation in every exhibition. This means that the stress was relieved.
Ｂ.Psychological questionnaire
The degree of mental stress and negative mood (depression, boredom, hostility) became low. This means that they were psychologically healed.
The healing effect was found regardless of age or sex, particularly in women and those who are less than 40 years old.
The physiological index
| Exhibition | 1 | 2 | 3 | total | |
| Age | 10's | 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 20's | 7 | 5 | 2 | 14 | |
| 30's | 17 | 7 | 8 | 32 | |
| 40's | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 | |
| 50's | 9 | 4 | 12 | 25 | |
| 60's | 1 | 8 | 2 | 11 | |
| 70's | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| Sex | M | 19 | 12 | 13 | 44 |
|
F |
24 | 18 | 18 | 60 | |
| Times of visit | First | 22 | 15 | 15 | 52 |
| 2-3times | 11 | 9 | 7 | 27 | |
| 4 times or more | 10 | 6 | 9 | 25 | |
| Before the appreciation | 3.96 | 3.59 | 4.00 | ||
| After the appreciation | 3.18 | 2.80 | 3.10 | ||
| Increase | 9 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Same | 4 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Decrease | 30 | 19 | 26 | ||
| * Paired T | <0.01 | <0.01 | <0.01 | ||
* Paired T : The figure of difference of a monitor before and after the appreciation.
We can say it is apparently effective when the figure is less than 0.05.
The psychological index ⟨ The result of the multiple mood scale ⟩
With the calm atmosphere, the art appreciation at MENARD ART MUSEUM physiologically and psychologically heals visitors.
* This experiment does not aim to evaluate each work's healing effect. Some arts can be called as 'healing arts' such as the pictures of HIGASHIYAMA Kaii and MATISSE but some are not. The results of this experiment are not necessarily applicable for any other museums.
This was the first time to measure the healing effect at a museum in Japan and also very rare in overseas.
* MENARD Cosmetic Co., Ltd. has proved and presented the healing effect of makeup with the evaluation like this.
