Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The High Museum of Art and Bronw University
have partnered for a two year well being study examining
the social, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual effects of art
museum visitation on diverse adult populations. This funding launches the
first major research project of the highs new Institutional Research Division.
(00:30):
To conduct the study, the High and Barnow will conduct
surveys and interviews with visitors who participate in three of
the High's signature art education programs, each design for specific audiences.
Today we're at the High Museum with our guest, doctor
Barbara Steinhaus, renounced Chair of Music and Professor and co
principal investigator on the study, Doctor Andrew Westover, Eleanor M
(00:52):
Storgia Deputy Director for Learning in Civic Engagement, and Julia Forbes,
Associate Director of Institutional Research. We'll begin with doctor Barbara Stile.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I've been involved in arts and health and well being
for a number of years and was delighted when the
grant opportunity came up for Burnow University and a partner
with a High Museum of Art and what Burnow will
be doing as participation in the two year study will
be to provide faculty and students to facilitate the information
(01:24):
gathering as well as discernment from our IRB or Institutional
Review Board for the actual proposal itself, which is a
certification that any proposal that deals with human subjects research.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Even though this will be rather.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Non avace, but we will be asking people for different things,
and I'm sure my colleagues will describe all of that.
But first you might want to know why the arts
and healthcare, or why the arts and the advancing good health?
And I would say that there was a research study
(02:05):
completed in two thousand and nine by the Society for
the Arts and Health, the Joint Commission, and Americans for
the Arts that identified very real impacts arts in healthcare
programs and creative arts therapies improved patients overall health outcomes
and treatment compliance and quality of life. Data showed that
(02:28):
such programs resulted in patients requiring shorter hospital stays, less medication,
and having fewer complications and all of this translates to
a reduction in health care costs.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So people who are part of the study, the study
would show visually that it does that for people. Is
that the outcome you hope to see it?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, let me pass it to one of my colleagues
who are who are involved in museum research and impact.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
On public health.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Thanks for having us on this. Actually, we really appreciate
your time and your interest in this. My name is
Andrew Westover and the Eleanor MacDonald stores a deputy director
for Learning and Civic Engagement here at the High Museum
of Art, and we're really excited to be partnering with
Brenow in this research study that I think is going
(03:25):
to be transformative. I think there is real potential for
this to change how we understand the impact of coming
to a museum of engaging with works of art on
people's bodies, on people's minds, on people's spirits. And that's
what this research project is designed to do. So your
(03:48):
question was asking what are we trying to prove? And
in some ways we're not totally sure yet, but we have.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
A hypothesis, okay.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And our hypothesis is that we think that engaging with
real works of art gives people a couple of key
opportunities to grow that they can begin to develop across
five capacities. We've sort of developed our own sense of
five capacities for human growth and that it also provides
(04:22):
opportunities for people to connect, to connect with themselves, one another,
and the wider world. And that's what this study is
trying to drill down on, because like I think most
of us have a sense when I think about museums
and it's like, oh, that's a good thing. You know,
it's nice to go there. I'm sure, what a nice activity.
We believe that, yes, it is a good thing, and
(04:42):
it's actually that there are material benefits to that good
that we need to better understand. So that's what we're ming.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Oh, okay, who are the people that you will go
to first to begin to learn from the study? Who's
the groups of people?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
So we are going to be doing data collection and at
three of our major programs for the museum. One is
ups second Sunday, so that's a free day for all
sorts of folks. Oftentimes it's families, intergenerational groups. One is
Access for All, which is a newer free day happens
during the week on a Wednesday, so it's a slightly
(05:18):
different crowd, usually skews a bit older. And then Finally,
a program called Oasis. This is the third Saturday of
the month. We love our regular repeat right, right, and
that one is organized around thinking about the museum as
a sanctuary, as a space for respite. There's yoga, there's
sound bowls. So each of these programs have distinct audiences.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
And then it's not so much that we're going out
into the world and pulling people in. Rather we're talking
to people who are already here and seeing what value
or benefit they're getting from being in this space.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, so you'll know then that that space is working
or that's not working. That's something like that. Right, we're hoping,
you're hoping. Okay, my name is Julia Forbes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I am the Highs Associate Director for Institutional Research and
just so excited about this partnership that we've created. You know,
there's just been so much research, and I think people
are probably aware of the kind of research that they
know if you physically do something right, if you dance,
if you make art right, I think people think about that,
They know that that is something that stimulates their brain
(06:25):
in a creative way. We want to take it a
step further, Right, what is the experience of being in
the presence being engaged with the visual art something someone
else made. What's that message that you receive and how
are you being impacted by the experience of being at
the museum engaging with that. We're super excited about that.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How long will this continue to go? It is just
starting now, right, so.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We're just getting started. Barbara mentioned that we're going after
our institutional research sort of support to make sure that
the study that we're doing is ethical and caring. But
we're going to do this for about two years, so
we'll hopefully be ready and all our protocols in place
so that we can start collecting data from all those
great audiences. Andrew mentioned in the fall, did.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The people even know they're part of the study?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
They will know, yes, yeah, yeah. That's part of the
reason we have to have our little approval from our
institutional research board. People have to know we have to
be honest and we have to say to them, hey,
would you be willing to answer some questions. You've had
this amazing experience at the museum today, you've engaged, say,
maybe you went to a great lecture at Access for All.
(07:32):
Now would you come and answer some questions for us
about how you felt about that experience or what you
take away from that experience, So they will absolutely know.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So it'll be like lectures, it'll be dances, are go
go and things like that, any or anything. It might
be that the.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Person says today, I came and I went to the
Georgia O'Keefe exhibition, and I'd be happy to talk to
you about my experience at the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit. So
it's any experience that they have within our walls with
the arts and the programs we're offering.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And you just and then you ask them at that
in the end when they finished, you asked me if
they do the study, and then if they do it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I mean the idea will be we'll have a protocol
for sort of each of our different capacities that Andrew mentioned,
so the social, the intellectual, the spiritual, and will approach
those questions with different tools to get at how people
experience them.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
How's it been going so far? Have you have you
done enough?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, we haven't started our data collection yet. First we
have to get our approval, okay, so you know we're
we're we're about to turn in our big application, okay
to the Institutional Review Board at Brunow to make sure
that we are being ethical.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
In our efforts and would down then takes it that
and preusses it. How do they how does it make
the cut?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, there's an overarching international body, okay that tells anyone
who's going to do research on human subjects that they
have to be prepared. And then they have to stay
out loud who's doing the asking what are they going
to ask of the person? Be able to explain it
(09:10):
in common language to the people that are involved and
get their voluntary approval to be a part of it
before anything can start. And so the Board of BRENEW
is just going to help us with this grant to
make sure that we follow all of the protocols that
are required of required of us so that this is
(09:31):
an ethical project and that's not going to be something
that's going to be difficult. It's just one of those
hoops that has to be done. But one of the
things I'd also like to point out is that Brenew
has had a working relationship with the High Museum of
Arts for fifteen years and so my colleagues in the
(09:53):
art department at Barnow owe a great deal I owe
a great deal of thanks to because they have kept
this partner ship alive. We've been bringing students. I bring
my music students down to the high every year, but
their students in art sometimes exhibit here. But it's a
cultural icon for those of us in the Southeast region
(10:15):
of the United States to share our notions and be
inspired by one another. And it's just so important that
for now has felt this was a value to our
students and that we've kept it alive.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
How you bringing music shooters down here? How's it helped
them music shoodents.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That is a great question. One of the things that
the artists do that I feel my students gained from
is trying to understand different perspectives. And we had a
gallery director at one time that would lead some of
our students through the notion how to look at a painting,
(10:54):
you know, how to look at the different parts of it,
how to understand when you don't agree on what you
see right. And for the study of our students in
the medical areas, it's so important that they see a
painting and go, well, maybe there's not a right and
a wrong answer. This is something that we can negotiate
(11:18):
or talk about and try to explain why I feel
this way and I feel that way. And these are
such interesting things for art students in particular to understand,
because no one person is going to see whatever our
creative expression is in the same way we might as
the creator.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Right, right, Have you done this before at with Burnow
or any other university before it was your first time.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
So at the High we are building this new institutional
research dificient, which you're really excited about. So this is
actually the first major research project to grow out of this,
but we also are work can concurrently on several other
research projects as well. Why are we doing this because
(12:07):
so much of the arts, especially in the South, the
arts here are seen as part of life, and the
people who are already invested are fully with us. And
then there are other people who might say, ugh, there's
a lot of needs in the world. Why support the arts?
And so part of this is to help us be
(12:28):
able to respond when folks say, well, give me some data,
let me see the hard facts of it, because up
until now we haven't necessarily been asked to support our
work in that way. And times change, values shift, and
in a very metrics driven policy orientation, we've realized that
(12:49):
for us to sit at the right tables, we need
to be able to speak the right language. That's not
to say that I think the way to understand art
is just quantify it and make it numb and put
them on a spreadsheet. I think that's a pretty shallow
understanding of art. But I think if we don't consider
what are the impacts of art and how can we
(13:10):
best communicate that, how can we best see that and
understand it, then we're doing ourselves a bit of a disservice.
So this project is the beginning of many and we're
excited to learn more about the impact of visual art.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
One thing I noticed this morning coming in was all
the school shultly came up in Yes, and that's phenomenal.
You know they're there to learn about art. And you
have all these buildings in all here now and it's
grown high, and that tells you this right here is
going to fit them somehow.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Absolutely, we are thrilled to welcome over thirty five thousand
school kids to the High every year pre K through
twelve thousands more university students and graduate students. And we
have partnerships. Julia works on partnerships with our colleagues also
at Georgia State and Georgia Tech and Emery. So there
(14:04):
are Spellmen auc There's so many young people who are
learning about visual arts and culture in our region, and
the high is really excited to be a venue for
that and a vehicle for that, and we welcome people
from all across the state.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, talk about that. What is some of the other
partnerships you have.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, you know, we have had a wonderful and long
standing partnership with our colleagues at Spellman and Clark Atlanta University.
We have had them participate here. They have a new
ish degree in curatorial studies, and we've been able to
give them some real life, you know, on site practice
(14:47):
and what it means to be a curator. And so
we have students come here almost every summer who are
in high school and thinking about what they want to
do with their lives, and we try to help them
understand the careers that are available to them in the
art museum. And it's been a really wonderful relationship to
have with them, helping young people, you know, figure out
what they want to do. I think that's one of
the great things about this grant too. Is that students
(15:08):
that for now are going to get to have a
real world experience here at the high in collecting data.
And so it's not just the opportunity to work with
our colleagues that for now who are professors, but to
have the opportunity to work with students who can really
participate in a really meaningful, impactful way in this research
by learning what it means to collect data and getting
(15:29):
out there on the field and doing it. And I
guess you all are going to make a class of it.
I mean it's a pretty really yeah, pretty cool opportunity.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Some of that is still on the drawing board in
specifics right now. But what is important not only for
our finance students, but also for our healthcare students outright,
health students or all of our students is to understand
(15:58):
how creative imagination plays a role in their lives and
the notion that they can participate in this and see
data that's collected on things that sort of has been
in the methos area of our thinking, something that you know,
(16:19):
maybe happened once, but it happens all the time, so
that when anyone looks at a certain piece of art,
they can go I can see that happened to me,
or that makes me feel a certain way that I
really feel often, or my mother does that all the time.
Something you know that they all can find and appreciate
(16:40):
in their own arts, in their own lives, and then
see that actually there's data that shows that this impacts
not only the brain, but also the systems in our
body that the blood system, the heart system, the underconsystem.
All of these have little vibratory rhythms that they're own.
(17:00):
And we won't go into color theory, but color theory
has its own vibrational patterns that affect the human body,
just as music and rhythm do.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So this will be how health is affected by the art.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Is that come man? This is about advocating for public health.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Okay, for public health. Okay, you're really going to do
a lot of stuff. Then it's really going to do
some things here that really I like the fact that
you're doing it to help somebody's the health. I think
it's great because I think the health does depend on
a lot of music. Especially. I think it helps a lot.
I say that because I know music, but other stuff
(17:43):
can probably help them too.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The researcher Daisy Fancourt from the United Kingdom did part
of a research that was published in the World Health
Organization twenty nineteen study which said that isolation and the
press and were two of the leading killers and that
in older adults, they found that their depression was relieved
(18:10):
nineteen percent if they went to a concert, an art museum,
or some kind of cultural activity once.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Every three months.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That is real, hardcore, core fact and can change somebody's life.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Has a lot of that too, then, right.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Well, I mean we're certainly offering, you know, almost a
dozen exhibitions every year, all of these amazing programs that
Andrew described, and I think it's important to realize that
twice a month we're offering those programs free to our
entire community. And it's a real value of the High
Museum to be essential to Atlanta, to really engage with
the people of this city and to be meaningful in
(18:51):
their lives. And I hope that this study will help
us proved, as Andrew said, more of them, that this
is a valuable experience for them to have. We want
them to see this place is a place for them
that is life changing for them, affirming for them and
makes their lives better. On these five different capacities.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
What are some of the powerful What are some of
the things that you'll see if you come to visit
high on any particular day.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Well, you know, it's a pretty amazing permanent collection, so
which I think is exciting for people of Atlanta to
keep in mind that while we bring in great art
from all over the world, we own art that is
here every single day, and so people can develop their
favorite things and be able to come back and see
those and engage with those regularly. I mean, we have
probably one of the most important collections of self taught
(19:37):
art in the country. A lot of it is Southern,
and so it's very regional. It's connects to people's lives
and families. We've got really incredible European art, a world
class photography collection that we change out all the time,
contemporary art that I think a lot of young people
are really drawn to that changes very regularly. So those
(19:58):
things are here all the time. If people can sort
of develop their favorite locations. I know, I have a
friend who loves the herd or bed and every time
she comes to the museum, she wants to go and
visit that beautiful wooden marketry. Intricately carved, gorgeous, you know,
piece of furniture. Oh, piece of furniture, really amazing pieces
of furniture.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's amazing for everyone. So it is music too, So well,
it's great, this is great, You're going to do this
and where do you go? Now? What do you do
next in this process?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
So you know, once we get approval, we'll begin to
develop the protocols, make sure that we know exactly how
we will ask the questions and engage people in these
different capacities at these programs. And then once we finish
the data collection, which should be I hope by the
end of this calendar year twenty twenty five, then it
will be time to analyze it. What have we learned?
(20:52):
What can we truly say about how people engage with
art and how it affects them in these various capacities intellectuals, social, spiritual,
And hopefully we learn something really great and we prove
that it makes a big difference and we can write
some papers and make some presentations and shout it out
to the world.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What is your role in next? Your niche role? What
do you what are your next steps?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
So the next steps, like Julia said, is this collecting
the data, learning what we can from it, and then
sharing it out. And so I think as we're thinking
about the museum, a lot of what we're trying to
do is to become more essential to people's lives. So
much of what the museum is is a community resource,
(21:38):
and I think some people see it as oh, I'll
go there every once in a while, or maybe if
I've got family in town, it's a thing to do.
But what we are seeing more often now is as
our membership increases, the amount of times our members visit
is also increasing. We started out with something like you
know two two and a half times a year, it's
(21:59):
creeping up three and a half four times a year.
And so for us, this research is part and parcel
of what it means for this institution to become more
a part of the fabric of people's lives. I don't
know about you. I grew up in a religious space,
and so in that space, there's a sense of showing
up with regularity is part of what community can be.
(22:20):
And I think here at the Museum we have really
turned in that direction. To say, for so many people,
this is a place where they can show up regularly
and find community, and that has the health and well
being benefits, but it also kind of has the sole
benefits of just you know, you're going to a place
where you're going to be welcomed and affirmed, might also
(22:40):
be challenged. You might meet someone new or something outside
your experience. And I think when we're working with Brenow
and thinking about the wellness benefits of this, that's where
it's so broad and exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
What is we're now going to do now?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm hopeful that the university at large will begin to
appreciate more oddly and more deeply how it is that
arts can play a role in their life on a
daily basis. They don't have to go to the art
museum to be enrich. We have marvelous galleries at Brunell
(23:14):
University that can be appreciated for that. We have concerts,
and there are other concerts around, and not everybody's concert
is going to be my concert. Certain there certainly are
things that if you look back in the human record,
arts artifacts have been found since way back in history. Obviously,
(23:38):
making things what they sometimes refer to as making special,
doing something out of the norm that still is a
part of your every day have been looked at as
survival techniques that build community. They help us relate to
the things that are most important to us, rituals to
(23:58):
celebrate births and deaths, and then more other things as
we've developed as a society.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And what you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Want your student to do also from this is pick
up that in letting yourself be engaged in this is
a form of self care. You know, there is so
much burnout in too many professions, and even students in
academic settings can feel burned out by the amount of
(24:27):
work they're doing. We want them to get Their creative
imagination is one of the tools in their toolbox that
they can use for their own self care. And being
able to appreciate what other people have produced in the
way of a creative expression can help them understand more
about doing that for themselves and for our students. I
(24:49):
think that is a survival technique.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Well, thank you all for taking time to do this
and for the grant, and it's going to be fun
to watch. Thanks a lot, well, thanks you so.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yes, thank you, and come to the museum soon.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That's doctor Barbara Steinhaus, Burnow's Chair of Music and a
professor and co principal investigator on the study. Doctor Andrew Westover,
Eleanor M. Storge, a Deputy Director for Learning and Civic Engagement,
and Julia Forbes, Associate Director of Institutional Research. To find
out more about the High Museum of Art, visit High
dot org. To find out about Bernow University, you can
visit them at Brenow dot edu. And if you have
(25:27):
questions or comments on today's program, you can email me
John Clark at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening. I'll
talk to you next week right here on your local
radio station on Georgia Focus
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The High Museum of Art and Bronw University
have partnered for a two year well being study examining
the social, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual effects of art
museum visitation on diverse adult populations. This funding launches the
first major research project of the highs new Institutional Research Division.
(00:30):
To conduct the study, the High and Barnow will conduct
surveys and interviews with visitors who participate in three of
the High's signature art education programs, each design for specific audiences.
Today we're at the High Museum with our guest, doctor
Barbara Steinhaus, renounced Chair of Music and Professor and co
principal investigator on the study, Doctor Andrew Westover, Eleanor M
(00:52):
Storgia Deputy Director for Learning in Civic Engagement, and Julia Forbes,
Associate Director of Institutional Research. We'll begin with doctor Barbara Stile.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I've been involved in arts and health and well being
for a number of years and was delighted when the
grant opportunity came up for Burnow University and a partner
with a High Museum of Art and what Burnow will
be doing as participation in the two year study will
be to provide faculty and students to facilitate the information
(01:24):
gathering as well as discernment from our IRB or Institutional
Review Board for the actual proposal itself, which is a
certification that any proposal that deals with human subjects research.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Even though this will be rather.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Non avace, but we will be asking people for different things,
and I'm sure my colleagues will describe all of that.
But first you might want to know why the arts
and healthcare, or why the arts and the advancing good health?
And I would say that there was a research study
(02:05):
completed in two thousand and nine by the Society for
the Arts and Health, the Joint Commission, and Americans for
the Arts that identified very real impacts arts in healthcare
programs and creative arts therapies improved patients overall health outcomes
and treatment compliance and quality of life. Data showed that
(02:28):
such programs resulted in patients requiring shorter hospital stays, less medication,
and having fewer complications and all of this translates to
a reduction in health care costs.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So people who are part of the study, the study
would show visually that it does that for people. Is
that the outcome you hope to see it?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, let me pass it to one of my colleagues
who are who are involved in museum research and impact.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
On public health.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Thanks for having us on this. Actually, we really appreciate
your time and your interest in this. My name is
Andrew Westover and the Eleanor MacDonald stores a deputy director
for Learning and Civic Engagement here at the High Museum
of Art, and we're really excited to be partnering with
Brenow in this research study that I think is going
(03:25):
to be transformative. I think there is real potential for
this to change how we understand the impact of coming
to a museum of engaging with works of art on
people's bodies, on people's minds, on people's spirits. And that's
what this research project is designed to do. So your
(03:48):
question was asking what are we trying to prove? And
in some ways we're not totally sure yet, but we have.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
A hypothesis, okay.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And our hypothesis is that we think that engaging with
real works of art gives people a couple of key
opportunities to grow that they can begin to develop across
five capacities. We've sort of developed our own sense of
five capacities for human growth and that it also provides
(04:22):
opportunities for people to connect, to connect with themselves, one another,
and the wider world. And that's what this study is
trying to drill down on, because like I think most
of us have a sense when I think about museums
and it's like, oh, that's a good thing. You know,
it's nice to go there. I'm sure, what a nice activity.
We believe that, yes, it is a good thing, and
(04:42):
it's actually that there are material benefits to that good
that we need to better understand. So that's what we're ming.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Oh, okay, who are the people that you will go
to first to begin to learn from the study? Who's
the groups of people?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
So we are going to be doing data collection and at
three of our major programs for the museum. One is
ups second Sunday, so that's a free day for all
sorts of folks. Oftentimes it's families, intergenerational groups. One is
Access for All, which is a newer free day happens
during the week on a Wednesday, so it's a slightly
(05:18):
different crowd, usually skews a bit older. And then Finally,
a program called Oasis. This is the third Saturday of
the month. We love our regular repeat right, right, and
that one is organized around thinking about the museum as
a sanctuary, as a space for respite. There's yoga, there's
sound bowls. So each of these programs have distinct audiences.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
And then it's not so much that we're going out
into the world and pulling people in. Rather we're talking
to people who are already here and seeing what value
or benefit they're getting from being in this space.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, so you'll know then that that space is working
or that's not working. That's something like that. Right, we're hoping,
you're hoping. Okay, my name is Julia Forbes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I am the Highs Associate Director for Institutional Research and
just so excited about this partnership that we've created. You know,
there's just been so much research, and I think people
are probably aware of the kind of research that they
know if you physically do something right, if you dance,
if you make art right, I think people think about that,
They know that that is something that stimulates their brain
(06:25):
in a creative way. We want to take it a
step further, Right, what is the experience of being in
the presence being engaged with the visual art something someone
else made. What's that message that you receive and how
are you being impacted by the experience of being at
the museum engaging with that. We're super excited about that.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How long will this continue to go? It is just
starting now, right, so.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We're just getting started. Barbara mentioned that we're going after
our institutional research sort of support to make sure that
the study that we're doing is ethical and caring. But
we're going to do this for about two years, so
we'll hopefully be ready and all our protocols in place
so that we can start collecting data from all those
great audiences. Andrew mentioned in the fall, did.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The people even know they're part of the study?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
They will know, yes, yeah, yeah. That's part of the
reason we have to have our little approval from our
institutional research board. People have to know we have to
be honest and we have to say to them, hey,
would you be willing to answer some questions. You've had
this amazing experience at the museum today, you've engaged, say,
maybe you went to a great lecture at Access for All.
(07:32):
Now would you come and answer some questions for us
about how you felt about that experience or what you
take away from that experience, So they will absolutely know.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So it'll be like lectures, it'll be dances, are go
go and things like that, any or anything. It might
be that the.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Person says today, I came and I went to the
Georgia O'Keefe exhibition, and I'd be happy to talk to
you about my experience at the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit. So
it's any experience that they have within our walls with
the arts and the programs we're offering.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And you just and then you ask them at that
in the end when they finished, you asked me if
they do the study, and then if they do it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I mean the idea will be we'll have a protocol
for sort of each of our different capacities that Andrew mentioned,
so the social, the intellectual, the spiritual, and will approach
those questions with different tools to get at how people
experience them.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
How's it been going so far? Have you have you
done enough?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, we haven't started our data collection yet. First we
have to get our approval, okay, so you know we're
we're we're about to turn in our big application, okay
to the Institutional Review Board at Brunow to make sure
that we are being ethical.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
In our efforts and would down then takes it that
and preusses it. How do they how does it make
the cut?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, there's an overarching international body, okay that tells anyone
who's going to do research on human subjects that they
have to be prepared. And then they have to stay
out loud who's doing the asking what are they going
to ask of the person? Be able to explain it
(09:10):
in common language to the people that are involved and
get their voluntary approval to be a part of it
before anything can start. And so the Board of BRENEW
is just going to help us with this grant to
make sure that we follow all of the protocols that
are required of required of us so that this is
(09:31):
an ethical project and that's not going to be something
that's going to be difficult. It's just one of those
hoops that has to be done. But one of the
things I'd also like to point out is that Brenew
has had a working relationship with the High Museum of
Arts for fifteen years and so my colleagues in the
(09:53):
art department at Barnow owe a great deal I owe
a great deal of thanks to because they have kept
this partner ship alive. We've been bringing students. I bring
my music students down to the high every year, but
their students in art sometimes exhibit here. But it's a
cultural icon for those of us in the Southeast region
(10:15):
of the United States to share our notions and be
inspired by one another. And it's just so important that
for now has felt this was a value to our
students and that we've kept it alive.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
How you bringing music shooters down here? How's it helped
them music shoodents.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That is a great question. One of the things that
the artists do that I feel my students gained from
is trying to understand different perspectives. And we had a
gallery director at one time that would lead some of
our students through the notion how to look at a painting,
(10:54):
you know, how to look at the different parts of it,
how to understand when you don't agree on what you
see right. And for the study of our students in
the medical areas, it's so important that they see a
painting and go, well, maybe there's not a right and
a wrong answer. This is something that we can negotiate
(11:18):
or talk about and try to explain why I feel
this way and I feel that way. And these are
such interesting things for art students in particular to understand,
because no one person is going to see whatever our
creative expression is in the same way we might as
the creator.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Right, right, Have you done this before at with Burnow
or any other university before it was your first time.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
So at the High we are building this new institutional
research dificient, which you're really excited about. So this is
actually the first major research project to grow out of this,
but we also are work can concurrently on several other
research projects as well. Why are we doing this because
(12:07):
so much of the arts, especially in the South, the
arts here are seen as part of life, and the
people who are already invested are fully with us. And
then there are other people who might say, ugh, there's
a lot of needs in the world. Why support the arts?
And so part of this is to help us be
(12:28):
able to respond when folks say, well, give me some data,
let me see the hard facts of it, because up
until now we haven't necessarily been asked to support our
work in that way. And times change, values shift, and
in a very metrics driven policy orientation, we've realized that
(12:49):
for us to sit at the right tables, we need
to be able to speak the right language. That's not
to say that I think the way to understand art
is just quantify it and make it numb and put
them on a spreadsheet. I think that's a pretty shallow
understanding of art. But I think if we don't consider
what are the impacts of art and how can we
(13:10):
best communicate that, how can we best see that and
understand it, then we're doing ourselves a bit of a disservice.
So this project is the beginning of many and we're
excited to learn more about the impact of visual art.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
One thing I noticed this morning coming in was all
the school shultly came up in Yes, and that's phenomenal.
You know they're there to learn about art. And you
have all these buildings in all here now and it's
grown high, and that tells you this right here is
going to fit them somehow.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Absolutely, we are thrilled to welcome over thirty five thousand
school kids to the High every year pre K through
twelve thousands more university students and graduate students. And we
have partnerships. Julia works on partnerships with our colleagues also
at Georgia State and Georgia Tech and Emery. So there
(14:04):
are Spellmen auc There's so many young people who are
learning about visual arts and culture in our region, and
the high is really excited to be a venue for
that and a vehicle for that, and we welcome people
from all across the state.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, talk about that. What is some of the other
partnerships you have.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, you know, we have had a wonderful and long
standing partnership with our colleagues at Spellman and Clark Atlanta University.
We have had them participate here. They have a new
ish degree in curatorial studies, and we've been able to
give them some real life, you know, on site practice
(14:47):
and what it means to be a curator. And so
we have students come here almost every summer who are
in high school and thinking about what they want to
do with their lives, and we try to help them
understand the careers that are available to them in the
art museum. And it's been a really wonderful relationship to
have with them, helping young people, you know, figure out
what they want to do. I think that's one of
the great things about this grant too. Is that students
(15:08):
that for now are going to get to have a
real world experience here at the high in collecting data.
And so it's not just the opportunity to work with
our colleagues that for now who are professors, but to
have the opportunity to work with students who can really
participate in a really meaningful, impactful way in this research
by learning what it means to collect data and getting
(15:29):
out there on the field and doing it. And I
guess you all are going to make a class of it.
I mean it's a pretty really yeah, pretty cool opportunity.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Some of that is still on the drawing board in
specifics right now. But what is important not only for
our finance students, but also for our healthcare students outright,
health students or all of our students is to understand
(15:58):
how creative imagination plays a role in their lives and
the notion that they can participate in this and see
data that's collected on things that sort of has been
in the methos area of our thinking, something that you know,
(16:19):
maybe happened once, but it happens all the time, so
that when anyone looks at a certain piece of art,
they can go I can see that happened to me,
or that makes me feel a certain way that I
really feel often, or my mother does that all the time.
Something you know that they all can find and appreciate
(16:40):
in their own arts, in their own lives, and then
see that actually there's data that shows that this impacts
not only the brain, but also the systems in our
body that the blood system, the heart system, the underconsystem.
All of these have little vibratory rhythms that they're own.
(17:00):
And we won't go into color theory, but color theory
has its own vibrational patterns that affect the human body,
just as music and rhythm do.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So this will be how health is affected by the art.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Is that come man? This is about advocating for public health.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Okay, for public health. Okay, you're really going to do
a lot of stuff. Then it's really going to do
some things here that really I like the fact that
you're doing it to help somebody's the health. I think
it's great because I think the health does depend on
a lot of music. Especially. I think it helps a lot.
I say that because I know music, but other stuff
(17:43):
can probably help them too.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The researcher Daisy Fancourt from the United Kingdom did part
of a research that was published in the World Health
Organization twenty nineteen study which said that isolation and the
press and were two of the leading killers and that
in older adults, they found that their depression was relieved
(18:10):
nineteen percent if they went to a concert, an art museum,
or some kind of cultural activity once.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Every three months.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That is real, hardcore, core fact and can change somebody's life.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Has a lot of that too, then, right.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Well, I mean we're certainly offering, you know, almost a
dozen exhibitions every year, all of these amazing programs that
Andrew described, and I think it's important to realize that
twice a month we're offering those programs free to our
entire community. And it's a real value of the High
Museum to be essential to Atlanta, to really engage with
the people of this city and to be meaningful in
(18:51):
their lives. And I hope that this study will help
us proved, as Andrew said, more of them, that this
is a valuable experience for them to have. We want
them to see this place is a place for them
that is life changing for them, affirming for them and
makes their lives better. On these five different capacities.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
What are some of the powerful What are some of
the things that you'll see if you come to visit
high on any particular day.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Well, you know, it's a pretty amazing permanent collection, so
which I think is exciting for people of Atlanta to
keep in mind that while we bring in great art
from all over the world, we own art that is
here every single day, and so people can develop their
favorite things and be able to come back and see
those and engage with those regularly. I mean, we have
probably one of the most important collections of self taught
(19:37):
art in the country. A lot of it is Southern,
and so it's very regional. It's connects to people's lives
and families. We've got really incredible European art, a world
class photography collection that we change out all the time,
contemporary art that I think a lot of young people
are really drawn to that changes very regularly. So those
(19:58):
things are here all the time. If people can sort
of develop their favorite locations. I know, I have a
friend who loves the herd or bed and every time
she comes to the museum, she wants to go and
visit that beautiful wooden marketry. Intricately carved, gorgeous, you know,
piece of furniture. Oh, piece of furniture, really amazing pieces
of furniture.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's amazing for everyone. So it is music too, So well,
it's great, this is great, You're going to do this
and where do you go? Now? What do you do
next in this process?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
So you know, once we get approval, we'll begin to
develop the protocols, make sure that we know exactly how
we will ask the questions and engage people in these
different capacities at these programs. And then once we finish
the data collection, which should be I hope by the
end of this calendar year twenty twenty five, then it
will be time to analyze it. What have we learned?
(20:52):
What can we truly say about how people engage with
art and how it affects them in these various capacities intellectuals, social, spiritual,
And hopefully we learn something really great and we prove
that it makes a big difference and we can write
some papers and make some presentations and shout it out
to the world.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What is your role in next? Your niche role? What
do you what are your next steps?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
So the next steps, like Julia said, is this collecting
the data, learning what we can from it, and then
sharing it out. And so I think as we're thinking
about the museum, a lot of what we're trying to
do is to become more essential to people's lives. So
much of what the museum is is a community resource,
(21:38):
and I think some people see it as oh, I'll
go there every once in a while, or maybe if
I've got family in town, it's a thing to do.
But what we are seeing more often now is as
our membership increases, the amount of times our members visit
is also increasing. We started out with something like you
know two two and a half times a year, it's
(21:59):
creeping up three and a half four times a year.
And so for us, this research is part and parcel
of what it means for this institution to become more
a part of the fabric of people's lives. I don't
know about you. I grew up in a religious space,
and so in that space, there's a sense of showing
up with regularity is part of what community can be.
(22:20):
And I think here at the Museum we have really
turned in that direction. To say, for so many people,
this is a place where they can show up regularly
and find community, and that has the health and well
being benefits, but it also kind of has the sole
benefits of just you know, you're going to a place
where you're going to be welcomed and affirmed, might also
(22:40):
be challenged. You might meet someone new or something outside
your experience. And I think when we're working with Brenow
and thinking about the wellness benefits of this, that's where
it's so broad and exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
What is we're now going to do now?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm hopeful that the university at large will begin to
appreciate more oddly and more deeply how it is that
arts can play a role in their life on a
daily basis. They don't have to go to the art
museum to be enrich. We have marvelous galleries at Brunell
(23:14):
University that can be appreciated for that. We have concerts,
and there are other concerts around, and not everybody's concert
is going to be my concert. Certain there certainly are
things that if you look back in the human record,
arts artifacts have been found since way back in history. Obviously,
(23:38):
making things what they sometimes refer to as making special,
doing something out of the norm that still is a
part of your every day have been looked at as
survival techniques that build community. They help us relate to
the things that are most important to us, rituals to
(23:58):
celebrate births and deaths, and then more other things as
we've developed as a society.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And what you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Want your student to do also from this is pick
up that in letting yourself be engaged in this is
a form of self care. You know, there is so
much burnout in too many professions, and even students in
academic settings can feel burned out by the amount of
(24:27):
work they're doing. We want them to get Their creative
imagination is one of the tools in their toolbox that
they can use for their own self care. And being
able to appreciate what other people have produced in the
way of a creative expression can help them understand more
about doing that for themselves and for our students. I
(24:49):
think that is a survival technique.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Well, thank you all for taking time to do this
and for the grant, and it's going to be fun
to watch. Thanks a lot, well, thanks you so.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yes, thank you, and come to the museum soon.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That's doctor Barbara Steinhaus, Burnow's Chair of Music and a
professor and co principal investigator on the study. Doctor Andrew Westover,
Eleanor M. Storge, a Deputy Director for Learning and Civic Engagement,
and Julia Forbes, Associate Director of Institutional Research. To find
out more about the High Museum of Art, visit High
dot org. To find out about Bernow University, you can
visit them at Brenow dot edu. And if you have
(25:27):
questions or comments on today's program, you can email me
John Clark at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening. I'll
talk to you next week right here on your local
radio station on Georgia Focus
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