The Museum as a Mindful Space: Reducing Visitors’ Stress and Anxiety Levels Through the ASBA Protocol

Active involvement in creative activities, known as creative health, has been shown to enhance wellbeing, with museums serving as unique spaces for health promotion; however, visitors often require guidance to derive significant benefits from these institutions. This study, part of the larger ASBA (Anxiety, Stress, Brain-friendly museum Approach) project, evaluates the first phase of an intervention specifically focused on a Mindfulness protocol adapted to museum contexts. It has employed a single-group pre-post design with 79 healthy adults recruited from the non-clinical population. Participants were involved in a 15 min standardized mindfulness practice adapted from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in either an art or science museum. State anxiety (SAI) and mood (VAS) were assessed at baseline and post-intervention, alongside personality traits (BFI-10) and interest measures to identify individual moderators of treatment response. The practice appeared to reduce state anxiety significantly in both settings, with large effect sizes. Specific moderators emerged: openness to experience predicted anxiety reduction in the art museum, whereas science interest predicted outcomes in the science setting. These findings suggest that brief, standardized mindfulness protocols implemented through the ASBA framework can provide promising immediate benefits for visitor wellbeing across diverse museum environments.