Quotes About The Benefits of Art & Art-Making

Statements from Medical Professionals, Healthcare Leaders, Famous Artists and More

As you know I believe in the healing power of art. My quotes about art and healing have appeared in many books, websites and other online resources. This one especially is well known: “The medical profession has come a long way in recognizing the healing benefits of art. My hope is that someday the arts will be considered as significant in everyone’s lives as breathing fresh air, eating clean foods, and performing physical exercise.”

Enjoy and share this collection of positive quotes about the benefits of art from a wide variety of artists and leaders who share our beliefs and vision..

As you know The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS website was founded on the belief that ART & ARTISTS are positive catalysts for enhancing the well-being of individuals, society and the environment. ART & ARTISTS have the power to bring positive change to the world.

“Variety of form and brilliancy of color in the object presented to patients are an actual means of recovery.” ~ Florence Nightingale

“During my 30 years at Americans for the Arts, I have had the great privilege to visit and learn about a different community nearly every week. While they differ vastly from one another, there is one common strength I have observed: the arts have made a profound impact on the health of each community.” ~ Robert L. Lynch, President, Americans for the Arts

“Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world.” ~ Andre Maurois, French Author

“Art is a wound turned into light.” ~ Georges Braque

“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don’t see a different purpose for it now.” ~ Dorothea Tanning

“The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.” ~ Paracelsus

“We share the importance of the arts, not only in society but also in building one’s self-esteem. And the kids really grasp that: They’re confident and proud of themselves and share art with the people in their lives.” ~ Agnes Gund, founder of Studio in a School

“The mood changes when our beautiful nature photos are placed on the walls, providing color, comfort, and hope to patients, caregivers, and loved ones.” ~ Elaine Poggi, founder of The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals (Read article.)

“The arts are a critical component of healthcare. Expressive art is a tool to explore, develop and practice creativity as a means to wellness.” ~ Wellarts Association

The arts empower. The arts give a voice to the voiceless. The arts help transform American communities and, as I often say, the result can be a better child, a better town, a better nation and certainly a better world. Let’s champion our arts action heroes, emulate them and make our communities everything we want them to be. We are in a time once again where our need for the arts is growing more and more apparent. Controversy and anger and fear seem to swirl around us these days in large supply. This has happened plenty of times in our history. We have needed and sought the healing and teaching power of the arts for a long time, perhaps forever.” ~ Robert Lynch, Americans For The Arts

Meg Black created the three paintings to represent the rootedness of life. The water is symbolic of ephemeral nature, another visual and spiritual symbol recognized in many cultures throughout history. She wrote, “It is my hope that visitors to the Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln will find peace and serenity as they rest in front of these paintings, whose story mimics those of the people they have come to visit.”

“At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.” ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

“A new study called ‘Positive Affect and Markers of Inflammation: Discrete Positive Emotions Predict Lower Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines,’ published in the journal Emotion, found that activities that inspire awe may actually boost the immune system.” ~ Laura C. Mallonee, hyperallergic.com

“Participants provided saliva samples to assess cortisol levels before and after 45 minutes of art making. Participants also provided written responses about the experience at the end of the session. Results indicate that art making resulted in statistically significant lowering of cortisol levels.” ~ Journal of the American Art Therapy Association

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him… We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.” ~ John F. Kennedy

“The systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional, and motor capacities, are, in fact, the driving forces behind all other learning.” ~ Eric Jensen, author of Arts with the Brain in Mind

“When artists give form to revelation, their art can advance, deepen and potentially transform the consciousness of their community.” ~ Alex Grey

“Awe has many important implications for our well-being. Experiencing awe can give us a sense of hope and provide a feeling of fulfillment.” ~ Shilagh Mirgain, PhD, Psychologist, University of Wisconsin Health. Read Increase Your Well-Being With Awe-Inspiring Art

“The country is so wounded, bleeding, and hurt right now. The country needs to be healed—it’s not going to be healed from the top, politically. How are we going to heal? Art is the healing force.” ~ Robert Redford, National Arts Policy Roundtable 2012

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The medical profession has come a long way in recognizing the healing benefits of art. My hope is that someday the arts will be considered as significant and essential in everyone’s lives as breathing fresh air, eating clean foods, and engaging in physical exercise.” ~ Renée Phillips

“Art holds the power to ignite the flame in our hearts and transform our minds. Art reveals the beauty as well as the horror of the human condition. Through art we are given the key to connect to a higher purpose.” ~ Renee Phillips

“The investments we are making here won’t just help our students explore music, dance and the arts. They will help these children grow in a way that helps them succeed in school and in life.” ~ Bill de Blasio

“Art making has the ability to move people along their journey of grief and loss into a more balanced place of healing and hope. In the face of tragedy, the creative process can help re-calibrate a mourner’s life.” ~ The Chandler Gallery at Maud Morgan Arts

“Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.” ~ John Lubbock (1834-1913), “The Pleasures of Life”

“Arts and culture make considerable and necessary contributions to the well-being of communities. Arts and culture are powerful tools with which to engage communities in various levels of change. They are a means to public dialogue, contribute to the development of a community’s creative learning, create healthy communities capable of action, provide a powerful tool for community mobilization and activism, and help build community capacity and leadership.” ~ Creative City Network of Canada

More

“That awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests the things we do to experience these emotions – a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art – has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy.” Psychologist Dr. Dacher Keltner, of California University in Berkeley, said in an article in The Telegraph:  “Art Does Heal”: scientists say appreciating creative works can fight off disease, telegraph.co.uk

The experience of viewing awe-inspiring art has a positive effect on the physical body and mental state. In an article on the University of Wisconsin Health website, psychologist Shilagh Mirgain, PhD was quoted, “Awe has many important implications for our well-being.” Mirgain explained, “Experiencing awe can give us a sense of hope and provide a feeling of fulfillment.”

Many medical related articles also provide evidence that points to the physical benefits derived from experiencing awe-inspiring moments on a routine basis. A study from the University of California-Berkeley found that “participants who experienced more awe-struck moments had the lowest levels of interleukin-6, a marker of inflammation.”

In his article on the Natural Blaze website Jacob Devaney wrote “When you observe a profound piece of art you are potentially firing the same neurons as the artist did when they created it thus making new neural pathways and stimulating a state of inspiration. This sense of being drawn into a painting is called “embodied cognition”.

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