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How art therapy prescriptions for free museum visits help stressed and sick in Swiss town

A novel medical option encourages patients to get physical and intellectual exercise, while the arts have been shown to boost mental health

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Marianne de Reynier Nevsky (left), the cultural mediation manager in Neuchâtel, and town council member Julie Courcier Delafontaine, chat about a new “museum prescription” programme outside the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on March 19, 2025. Photo: AP
Associated Press

The world’s woes got you down? Feeling burnt out at work? Need a little something extra to fight illness or prep for surgery? The Swiss town of Neuchâtel is offering its residents a novel medical option: expose yourself to art and get a doctor’s note to do it for free.

Under a new two-year pilot project, local and regional authorities are covering the costs of “museum prescriptions” issued by doctors who believe their patients could benefit from visits to any of the town’s four museums as part of their treatment.

The project is based on a 2019 World Health Organization report that found the arts can boost mental health, reduce the impact of trauma, and lower the risk of cognitive decline, frailty and “premature mortality”, among other upsides.
Art can help relax the mind – as a sort of preventive medicine – and visits to museums require getting up and out of the house with physical activity like walking and standing for long periods.
Feather headdresses on display at the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Photo: Wikipedia
Feather headdresses on display at the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Photo: Wikipedia

Neuchâtel council member Julie Courcier Delafontaine said the Covid crisis also played a role in the programme’s genesis.

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