After Hours in the Galleries
Cultural institutions are experimenting with an unfamiliar format: inviting visitors to lie on the floor, close their eyes and breathe. Oslo's Vigeland Museum recently hosted a session combining live opera and guided breathing exercises beneath its white plaster sculptures. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery schedules early-morning pilates among its Pre-Raphaelite paintings. At the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, yoga classes take place after the last daytime visitor has left, with works by Matisse and Dufy as backdrop.
The format varies - some venues offer sound baths with gongs and singing bowls, others lead participants through stretches or controlled breathing - but the premise is consistent. Rather than walking through galleries at the usual pace, visitors book timed sessions that require them to stay in one room, often for an hour or longer.
Fredrik Fernando Austad, a breathwork therapist who leads sessions at the Vigeland Museum, points out that performers and visual artists have used these techniques for generations. What has shifted is public interest, amplified by social media and a broader appetite for activities that blend self-care with cultural outings. He suggests that wellness programming can function as an entry point for people who feel uncertain about visiting museums on their own terms.
Filling Quiet Hours
For the institutions themselves, the programming addresses a practical challenge. Many museums have periods when galleries sit nearly empty, particularly on weekday evenings or early weekend mornings. Scheduling a yoga class or sound bath during those windows brings people through the doors at times they would not normally come.
Jennifer Lockley of Birmingham Museums Trust notes that the sessions frequently sell out, drawing individuals who attend alone alongside groups of friends. The format upends some of the unwritten rules that govern museum visits - no need to whisper or tiptoe, and no pressure to keep moving from room to room. Participants are encouraged to settle in, lower their shoulders and let the surroundings do some of the work.
Marte Grette, Curator of Education at the Vigeland Museum, observes that visitors typically move quickly through exhibitions. Slowing down does not necessarily make someone more skilled at interpreting art, she adds, but it does create a different kind of encounter. The sculptures at Vigeland, which explore the human form in monumental scale, suit the pairing with breathwork and music. The building's acoustics amplify the effect.
What the Research Suggests
There is emerging evidence that spending time with art in a deliberate, unhurried way can affect mood and stress levels. Corinna Christiane Kühnapfel of Technische Universität Berlin's Arts and Minds Lab has studied how even brief exposure to visual art can influence emotional states. One study found that viewing a Monet painting online was linked to reductions in anxiety and feelings of isolation. Another, conducted at Manchester Art Gallery, showed that visitors felt calmer and more engaged when paintings were displayed in a quieter, more thoughtfully arranged space compared to a busier gallery setting.
In Japan, researchers at Kyushu Sangyo University are exploring a concept called museum bathing, influenced by the practice of forest bathing. The idea is to test whether slow, focused time with artworks can produce measurable restorative effects. The research examines both psychological and physiological responses, adding to a growing body of work on what happens when people give art sustained, undivided attention.
The format does not work equally well for everyone. A Danish journalist who attended a breathwork session at Copenhagen's Thorvaldsens Museum alongside around 150 other participants found the large group size made it difficult to relax. A Norwegian editor who tried a gong bath in a fresco-covered mausoleum in Oslo initially found the experience transporting, but the cold floor and enclosed space eventually became uncomfortable. She would consider attending another session if the venue had more natural light and ventilation.
A Different Kind of Souvenir
For travellers, the sessions offer a way to visit a museum without the usual pressure to cover as much ground as possible. Once a ticket is booked and a time set aside, there is no option to rush ahead or check what is in the next room. The structure of the session imposes a slower pace.
One participant at the Vigeland Museum noticed hours later that she was still practising one of the breathing techniques she had learned, an effect that lingered well after leaving the building. Another recalled the atmosphere after a gong bath in Oslo, when strangers exchanged more smiles on their way out than they had on arrival. The sessions seem to create a sense of shared experience, even among people who do not speak to one another.
The programming remains a niche offering, concentrated in a handful of cities and typically scheduled once or twice a month. But the institutions running these sessions report consistent demand, and several have expanded their schedules over the past year.
Where to Find Them
The Courtauld in London offers morning yoga classes that draw on folklore and philosophy, led by instructor Leyla Bumbra. At the Emanuel Vigeland Museum in Oslo, gong master Anne Siri Langelandsvik leads sessions beneath a vast fresco in a mausoleum kept at around 14 degrees Celsius - participants are advised to bring warm layers. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery schedules Sunday morning vinyasa yoga in its Enlightenment Gallery, while KMSKA in Antwerp pairs yoga with sound in one of its permanent collection galleries.
In Tokyo, the National Museum of Western Art has introduced museum bathing sessions, inviting visitors to spend extended, attentive time with individual works. The approach draws directly from forest bathing principles, exploring whether the museum visit itself - independent of any specific wellness activity - can offer benefits beyond the encounter with art.
The format is still evolving, and institutions are testing different combinations of activity, group size and gallery setting. What seems consistent is the willingness to rethink how people spend time in museums, and a recognition that not every visit needs to follow the same script.
