[Article] Vancouver Art Gallery launches first indoor-nature art prescription program

IN THE FIRST COLLABORATION of its kind in Canada, and possibly the world, the Vancouver Art Gallery has joined forces with BC Parks Foundation’s PaRx to allow healthcare professionals to prescribe visits to the exhibition Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape.

The idea is that a trip to the show to view the artist’s expressive images of towering cedars and serene B.C. landscapes can be just as healing to mental health as a trip out to West Coast forests and oceanfronts. It’s being billed as “an immersive indoor art and nature experience in an urban setting” that may be more accessible to those unable to make a full trip out into the wild.

“This couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the world,” said Sirish Rao, interim co-CEO of the VAG, remarking on the unique bridge between science and medicine, nature, and visual art in the project.

The initiative builds on the PaRx program, which has seen more than 17,000 healthcare providers country-wide issuing a million-plus prescriptions for people to go out into nature for their mental well-being.

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