Does Art Really Support Greater Wellbeing? Here’s What the Research Says
What does the word “wellbeing” mean to you?
It often brings to mind a spa day or some other treat, and other experiences that make us feel nice.
But there is a lot more to it than that.
Evidence is growing that art workshops can have a positive effect on mental and physical health as well. (No wonder it feels good!)
In studies carried out over the last twenty years by universities, hospitals and workplaces, researchers have measured stress hormones before and after art sessions. Public health bodies have also reviewed thousands of studies on the subject.
The findings all suggest the same thing: making something with your hands, even for a short period of time, can reduce how stressed people feel — and not just in a surface-level, “nice to have a break” way, but by creating positive changes at a deeper, biological level.
This is exactly the aim of our stART Therapeutic Art Workshops.
Here’s a look at the research behind them and why we built the workshops the way we did.
The Headline Finding: Thousands of Studies Point the Same Way
The biggest piece of evidence is a comprehensive review undertaken by the World Health Organization’s European office (WHO).
In 2019, the WHO published a huge review of the evidence linking art and health. It covered nearly two decades of academic research, spanning over 900 publications in total, including more than 200 existing reviews covering upwards of 3,000 individual studies. It’s still the largest piece of work of its kind.
Their conclusion was that art genuinely supports both mental and physical health.
Not as a replacement for other interventions, but as a useful activity for keeping people well in the first place and for helping people recover when things have already become difficult.
The review looked at two broad areas.
The first was prevention — using creative activity to keep people well before problems take hold, in the same way exercise or a good diet can. The evidence pointed to reduced anxiety, lower rates of depression, and people generally reporting a stronger sense of purpose and connection when creative activity was part of their routine.
The second was treatment and recovery — using the arts alongside conventional care to help people manage conditions they already had, from chronic stress through to more serious mental health difficulties.
The evidence was strong in both areas.
For us as wellness advocates, that’s a fairly big deal.
This wasn’t a one-off study with a small sample size. It was the WHO, sifting through the whole field and concluding that art supports wellness.
The 45-Minute Study
One of the best-known individual studies was from Drexel University in the United States.
Researchers took 39 adults from all walks of life and gave them 45 minutes to make something using whatever materials they liked: modelling clay, collage, even marker pens.
Before and after the session, they tested all participants’ saliva for cortisol — the hormone released in response to stress.
The result: cortisol levels dropped in three out of every four participants.
Best of all, it made no difference whether someone had any artistic experience.
People who hadn’t drawn anything since school got the same benefit as people who painted as a hobby.
They concluded that the benefit wasn’t in being good at art, but came from engaging in creative activity.
Afterwards, participants described the experience in similar terms: relaxing, absorbing and a bit of a relief.
Several said they had stopped thinking about their to-do list entirely for a while. They had simply got lost in what they were making.
Psychologists have a name for that state: “flow”, first described by the researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who spent decades studying what happens when people become so absorbed in an activity that time seems to slip by unnoticed.
It’s the same feeling people describe when they’re completely wrapped up in a hobby, a sport or a piece of music.
It doesn’t require the activity to be difficult or high-stakes — just engaging enough to hold your attention.
And it’s very hard to feel anxious and be in flow at the same time.
A Study on Workplace Art Sessions
A Latvian study from 2010 followed a group of employees through a nine-week programme of art-based sessions, again tracking cortisol levels alongside how anxious people said they felt.
Both cortisol and feelings of anxiety dropped significantly over the course of the programme.
This was a smaller, older study than the WHO review, but it is especially relevant because it tested the idea in a setting that we deliver ourselves: ordinary working adults, over a realistic stretch of time.
Researchers reviewing the wider field since have pointed to it repeatedly as one of the clearer examples of art-based approaches doing genuine, measurable work on stress at the individual employee level, not just in theory.
Putting the Three Pieces of Evidence Together
- A global review spanning thousands of studies.
- A single 45-minute session producing a measurable physical change.
- A longer programme producing the same effect specifically in employees.
And the evidence speaks for itself.
How Does stART Wellbeing Actually Work?
1. It Gives Your Brain Something Else to Do
Worrying is a wordy, looping kind of thinking — the same mental “channel” you use for planning, replaying conversations and running through tomorrow’s to-do list.
Making something visual uses a different channel almost entirely: choosing colours, judging shapes and working out how one part of a picture relates to another.
When that channel is busy, there’s simply less capacity left over for the anxious chatter to run in the background.
2. It Brings People Together Without Forcing Conversation
Done as a group, there’s a particular kind of bonding that happens when people are quietly absorbed in the same activity, side by side, rather than facing each other across a meeting table.
Nobody has to perform. Nobody has to fill silences. And yet conversation tends to happen naturally anyway, because it isn’t the point of the exercise.
It’s a gentler, low-pressure way for teams to connect compared to the daily work environment or conventional “team building”.
3. Control
Much of the stress at work comes from things you genuinely can’t control — other people’s deadlines, shifting priorities and decisions made several pay grades above you.
A blank page is the opposite of that.
Every mark on it, every colour choice, is entirely yours to make, and with no consequences!
That might sound like a small thing, but psychologically it isn’t.
Taking some space where you’re fully in charge, even for an hour, seems to help the brain psychologically “reset”.
4. It Doesn’t Need Words
Not every feeling is easy to explain out loud, especially at work, where there’s pressure to stay composed and professional.
Creative activities offer a relaxing environment where processing can happen through the activity itself, with no expectations.
5. Employees Feel Cared For
Feeling supported by their employer often results in employees feeling more connected and loyal to their organisation.
Our stART sessions are a great way to demonstrate to participants that their employer acknowledges the importance of their personal wellbeing and is prepared to invest in and support them to manage their stress levels.
Why Wellness in the Workplace Is a Growing Issue
Work-related stress, anxiety and depression are now a genuinely serious and growing problem for UK employers.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, 22.1 million working days were lost in 2024/25 because of work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
That’s an average of almost 23 days per affected employee.
Close to a million workers were affected.
Stress-related conditions now account for more than half of all work-related ill health in Britain — more than double since records began in the early 2000s.
Against that backdrop, it’s easy to see why more HR teams and directors are looking for ways to support their workforce.
What Art for Wellness offers is unique because it ticks several boxes at once:
- No skill or experience required.
- A measurable effect over a short period.
- A naturally social format that builds team connection as a side effect.
Conclusion
The research confirms that the benefits from art aren’t related to artistic ability, but simply from sitting down, focusing on something tactile and visual, and letting the mind quieten for a while.
A single workshop cannot fix the entire experience of workplace stress on its own.
But the research suggests that a well-run art session can lower stress levels, support the “reset” of a frazzled nervous system and bring a team together in a way that feels easy and relaxing.
If that’s something worth trying with your own team, this is exactly what our stART Therapeutic Art Workshops are built for.
Get in touch to check availability and find a session that fits your team.
Bibliography
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).
Fancourt, D. and Finn, S., What Is the Evidence on the Role of the Arts in Improving Health and Well-Being? A Scoping Review, Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67 (Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2019).
Health and Safety Executive, Work-Related Stress, Depression or Anxiety Statistics in Great Britain, 2025 (London: HSE, 2025).
Kaimal, G., Ray, K., and Muñiz, J., ‘Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants’ Responses Following Art Making’, Art Therapy, 33.2 (2016), 74–80.
Visnola, D., Sprūdža, D., Bāķe, M. A., and Piķe, A., ‘Effects of Art Therapy on Stress and Anxiety of Employees’, Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Section B, 64.1–2 (2010), 85–91.
