10 Reasons You Should Include Visiting Art Galleries on your Travel Itinerary

Some people may define an art gallery as a "huge shed of everybody’s expensive bits and pieces."

They might be right on some point.

However, do you know that there is a study that explains how visiting art museums and galleries can help you reduce stress, combat loneliness, and make life more meaningful?

Understand that not everyone will think visiting an art gallery is a great idea, but trust me I learned a thing or two, thanks to the trustworthy mentors I’ve met over the years.

Here are some of the few benefits that you can get when visiting art galleries

1. Spending 30-minutes or so will help you reduce stress and anxiety. This place draws minimal crowd and noise compared to spending time in the shopping malls.

2. Getting you immersed with the art will help you understand the local culture and its people, the way they see and interpret things and life.

3. Visiting galleries also helps to increase your EQ (emotional quotient) and will improve your empathy skills.

4. Helps to improve your mental health, reduce loneliness, develop cognitive reserve, and reduce risk-taking behaviors.

5. Helps to have a longer and happier life.

6. It is also a great way to support the artists and spread awareness of their works.

7. Art galleries and museums offer a perfect opportunity to meet like-minded people that share your love of art & culture. It is also a great chance to meet your new social circles with new acquaintances and potential long-term friendships.

8. Visiting museums can definitely help fuel your discussions at social gatherings. Whether it’s a new exhibit or a fascinating speaker, museums offer a variety of subjects to talk about, many of which transcend cultural boundaries.

9. If you are more interested in the anthropological aspect of the gallery, you can observe the people come and go, the staff on how they manage the whole area, or learn the business side aspect of managing the gallery.

10. Art galleries and museums also offer a chance to get some inspiration for your psyche.

Allow me to share with you my experience during our visit to the Cairns Art Gallery.

This exhibition presents a selection of Indigenous works commissioned by the Gallery for a major exhibition entitled RITUAL – the past in the present.

The major exhibition extended the Gallery’s research interest in contemporary art practices within the Asia Pacific region and the world’s tropic zone. The research explored the many complex narratives, histories, traditions, beliefs, and issues which inform art produced by contemporary artists in Queensland and other cultures in these regions.

The defining characteristic of ritual, as a recurrent act based on the concept of passage and transformation to bring the past into the present, was investigated through artworks that engaged with social, divinatory, and cyclical rituals. Like history, rituals are complex and can be framed around different ways of perceiving and interpreting reality, imagination, hearsay, and fact.

Website: https://www.cairnsartgallery.com.au/

Address: Corner of Abbott & Shields Street, Cairns Queensland

Admission: FREE (donations are appreciated).

Acknowledgment of the Country:

This blog acknowledges the Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji and Yirrganydji as the Traditional Owners of the area today known as Cairns. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, names, or voices of deceased persons in photographs, film, or text.

How to experience an art museum

If you are someone who feels intimidated visiting an art museum, you should:

Participate in a guided tour. Guided tours can help provide information about a range of artworks but also provide some tips or ideas for how to look at art.

Don’t overthink it. Remember that there is no right or wrong way to look at art. Just observe an artwork and ask yourself the following questions: Do you like the artwork? Why? Does it remind you of anything or make you feel certain emotions?

A big part of enjoying art is being open to the experience and realizing that it’s okay if you don’t ‘get’ an artwork or find it confusing. I go to the museum and that happens to me all the time, and sometimes I didn’t realize I’ve been staring at a mural art for more than 15-minutes!

Going to the art museum does not require any knowledge about art or art history to have an enjoyable and meaningful visit.

@blair.villanueva #naidoc #cairns #arts #australia #travel #thisisaustralia #tiktokaustralia #tiktokphilippines #foryourpage #queensland #traveller #australiatiktok ♬ Neon Bass - Tangelene Bolton