Wellness
What is wellness?
Wellness is:
- An enhancement of overall health that creates a feeling of having a balanced, fulfilling life;
- An important factor in improving quality of life.
Wellness at the MMFA
Always responsive to the needs of the public, with various partners we jointly develop and create projects for wellness through art. The objective is to draw on the expertise of all involved in order to better impact individuals’ wellness.
Would you like to submit a proposal for a project to us? Fill out the online form today!
Photo Caroline Hayeur (Collectifs stock photo)
Necessary prerequisites for wellness projects:
- 1Projects should generally have 12 participants, in addition to responsible project leads from the Museum and partner organization. The roles, responsibilities, aspirations and expertise of each partner are called upon to serve the participants.
- 2They should be directly connected to the Museum’s collections and artistic creation. Participants should have a direct and meaningful aesthetic experience contributing to wellness through their encounters with, discussions on and creation of art.
- 3Projects mainly take place at the Museum. However, depending upon the nature of the group or type of service offered, the Museum will go to the location of participants to conduct a project.
- 4Partnered projects will vary in terms of time and frequency on the basis of objectives, feasibility and the resources available. Please note: Once we receive your proposal, a committee will evaluate the request and we will contact you for a meeting, either to pursue the development of the project or steer you towards other Museum services and activities.
Some wellness projects
Fondation du Dr Julien (children living in situations of high vulnerability);
Art in Motion (adults living with Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder);
Priority Youth of Montréal-Nord (vulnerable communities often experiencing social exclusion);
École Irénée Lussier (young people with disabilities or autism spectrum disorder [ASD]);
Gold Centre (adults with disabilities or ASD);
SHERPA (various vulnerable groups, immigration, radicalization, socio-economic issues).
Research into wellness
At the École du Louvre, Colette Dufresne Tassé will compile visitor experience data to measure the impact of immersive experiences on wellness. We will attempt to isolate the variables that point towards the key factors contributing to it.
This tool will allow for the gathering of data from people who have already taken part in a wellness project or are involved in one at the time of this research study. Many correlations could be established with wellness.
Bruno Wicker is trying to determine how individuals with Asperger syndrome change the way they look at an artwork after a ten-week project involving three separate groups, each with eight to ten participants, that meet once a week for two hours. The three groups receive, with the same facilitator, an identical program, which pairs a one-hour gallery visit using a dialogic, instructional approach with a subsequent hour-long art workshop.
Quebec’s Inclusive Society initiative has a mandate to make the content of three gallery labels more understandable for adults with aphasia. A digital application could be designed that would not only foster inclusion and accessibility for them, but for everyone.
Accessibility and inclusion are factors that contribute to subjective wellness, which, according to the OECD, is one of the indicators for evaluating quality of life.