Art as medicine: VAG launches first prescription-to-gallery program in Canada

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In a landmark move for health and the arts, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the BC Parks Foundation have joined forces to champion a new kind of prescription, one that includes time with trees and time with paintings. Launched on World Health Day (April 7), the collaboration ties into PaRx, Canada’s first national nature prescription program, by offering free gallery admission to individuals prescribed time in nature by healthcare professionals.

The Gallery’s latest exhibition, Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape, will now be part of that prescription. Visitors are encouraged to return as many times as they’d like during the program’s pilot year, allowing for repeated doses of both culture and calm.

Described as the first formal prescription to an indoor nature-inspired experience in Canada, the pilot aims to reach around 4,000 people in its inaugural year. The idea is simple but powerful: combine the science-backed mental health benefits of both nature and art to combat stress, anxiety and social isolation, issues that have been recognised as major contributors to declining public health.

Co-designed by Sirish Rao, the Gallery’s interim co-CEO, and wellbeing consultant Paula Toledo, the experience leans into mindfulness. A printed guide prompts visitors to move slowly through the exhibition, focus on their emotional responses and draw connections between the art and the landscapes that inspired them. Curated by Dr. Richard Hill, the show explores Carr’s relationship to BC’s wild terrain and reflects on how distance and closeness to nature influenced her work.

“Nature offers itself to our imagination. If we listen, as great artists do, we hear the cedar trees whispering wisdom for living, the sedge grasses soothing our sorrows with their songs, the humpback whales breathing wealth into our mind’s dwindling reserves, the Canadian geese startling awake our sleeping spirits. We behold the sky and stars, our awe lifting us beyond our grief, our limitations, and our struggles,” shares Andrew Day, CEO of BC Parks, in a release. “This partnership celebrates the power that is British Columbia, and British Columbians. It celebrates how artists like Emily Carr have passed along a deep, shared truth through their great works: experiencing our nature is to be inspired, healed, and joined into the family of life.”

And for those who want to take a bit of Carr’s world home, Colouring Carr, a nature-themed colouring book featuring her sketches and paintings, is now available for pre-order at the Gallery Store. It’s a fitting companion to the exhibition and a way to continue the meditative benefits of slow art appreciation—one crayon stroke at a time.