Community and a Culture of Well Being

A growing body of research shows that art museums are more than cultural destinations—they are essential community resources that promote mental, emotional, and social well-being. Since the height of the pandemic, especially on college campuses, there is an increased need for the kind of connection and comfort that a museum can provide.

Our spaces are vital counterpoints to feelings of social isolation, proven to enhance mood, affect, and experience—so much so that psychiatrists and clinicians in countries around the world are prescribing museums as part of their treatment plans for patients.

Smith students had the opportunity to explore this affirming research in MUX 222hf Topics in Museums Studies: Art Museums as Institutions of Human Flourishing, an interterm course in January 2024 taught by SCMA’s Director and Chief Curator Jessica Nicoll, Educator for Academic Programs Charlene Shang Miller, and Lecturer in Psychology Michele Wick. This two-week intensive course explored how art museums contribute to human flourishing through education and an audience-centered practice.

The course attracted 15 students from all four class years and across academic disciplines—a number of whom had little to no prior experience with the museum. Combining psychology and museum studies, they engaged with readings, discussions, guest speakers, and applied experiences in the galleries to examine how museums reduce stress, foster social connection, and promote overall well-being. A field trip to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a collaborative final project, designing a museum-based, flourishing initiative, provided opportunities to connect theory with practice.

The students reported many significant takeaways, notably a clear understanding that investing in one’s own wellness aligns with the pursuit of academic excellence and that, while SCMA is a valuable space for teaching and learning, it is also a valuable space to come and think, to decompress, or to hang out with a friend.

The museum has been developing our in-person programming to create those kinds of opportunities for students and the community. We also recognize that we are welcoming a generation of young people who have come of age in a time of unprecedented social and emotional challenges. SCMA has pursued and fortified collaborations with a range of campus organizations and affinity groups in order to evolve our work in service to students to best meet them where they are.

Our Museum Advisory Collective, begun in 2022, met regularly to share and gather insights that shape SCMA’s programs. This group of about 30 student volunteers has informed initiatives from the third-floor reinstallation to helping our Visitor Experience team think through ways to make the museum’s spaces more welcoming and comfortable for students. Among the outcomes of this work is Art After Hours, a popular new program designed for and by Smith students in collaboration with groups across campus. These theme-oriented evenings—Autumn Soirée, Museum Mixtape, Smithies in the Wild, and Scented Serenity, for example—bring people together through music, art making, and social connection.

Another wonderful and well-attended program, this one for the community at large, is Second Fridays, a partnership with Arts Night Out Northampton. The program began in 2005 as a way to welcome visitors free of charge one evening a month for art-making and exploration. The program was canceled in March 2020 with the onset of the pandemic and made its return in October 2023, when more than 400 people showed up with enthusiasm and gratitude, ready to roll up their sleeves to try their hand at printmaking. Now that the museum no longer charges admission fees, it’s especially clear that the program’s value lies in creating space, literally and symbolically, to bring people together.

In all of our work in and with the community, the museum is fortunate to have the support of STRIDE (Student Research In Departments) Scholars, research positions offered to first-year Smith students in their area of choice, and Student Museum Educators (SMEs), who lead young visitors—mostly preK–12 students from area schools—in close looking and thinking about art through guided conversation, multisensory engagement, writing, drawing, and other participatory activities in the galleries