[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-3258894.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA new study published in the journal Innovation in Aging<\/em> suggests that engaging with art and culture can help slow down the biological clock and improve overall health.<\/p>\n \n\tAs reported in the Guardian<\/em>, the UK-based study\u2019s \u201cresults demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level.\u201d That\u2019s according to Daisy Fancourt, lead author of the study and the head of the social biobehavioral research group at University College London, who added: \u201cThey provide evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe paper accompanying the study reads, \u201cArts and cultural engagement (ACEng) is increasingly recognised as a health behaviour in its own right, comprising diverse \u2018active ingredients\u2019 that are beneficial to health (e.g., social interaction, cognitive stimulation, multi-sensory stimulation, creativity, etc.) and activating complex psychological, biological, social and behavioural mechanisms of action that relate to mental and physical health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSo-called ACEng was assessed by measuring participation in four kinds of activities: \u201c1) participatory arts (e.g., singing, dancing, painting, photographing, crafting), 2) receptive arts (e.g., attending art exhibitions\/events), 3) visiting heritage sites (e.g., historic parks, historic buildings, monuments), 4) other cultural activities (e.g., going to museums, libraries or archives).\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSlower aging does not necessarily equate to longer life. As the Guardian <\/em>notes, \u201cThe \u2018epigenetic clocks\u2019 used in the study to assess biological ageing are predictive of future morbidity and mortality, and previous studies have suggested a link between arts engagement and longer lifespan, but much more research would be needed to establish potential causal effects on longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut would-be culture vultures who \u201ctake part in artistic pursuits\u201d at least once a week showed signs of a four-percent slowdown in aging, while those who do so once a month slowed by three percent.<\/p>\n \n\tCompared to relaxing, the paper says, \u201clistening to music upregulates genes involved in processes such as dopamine secretion, enhanced synaptic function, and neurogenesis.\u201d Different kinds of culture also allow for social identifications that \u201ccan be crucial to psychological processes of stress-buffering, coping, and resilience. Even when leisure is not overtly social, it can bring personal identities as being part of a collective that does that activity (e.g., \u2018runner\u2019 or \u2018artist\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFurther study is encouraged by the authors of the paper, who wrote: \u201cThe evidence provides a scientific basis for integrating arts and cultural activities into public health frameworks and individual health behaviours, presenting an accessible and enriching pathway to healthy ageing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/art-cultural-engagement-slow-down-aging-1234785102\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-3258894.jpg?w=1024″] A new study published in the journal Innovation in Aging suggests that engaging with art and culture can help slow down the biological clock and improve overall health. As reported in the Guardian, the UK-based study\u2019s \u201cresults demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level.\u201d That\u2019s according to Daisy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1933065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1933065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1933065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1933065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1933065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}