Kaasaegne kunst ja vaimne heaolu töökeskkonnas / Contemporary Art and Mental Well-being in the Work Environment

Abstract

Teesid: Artikli eesmärk on analüüsida erafirmade kontorites toimunud kaasaegse kunsti väljapanekute mõju töötajate vaimsele heaolule. Esmalt kaardistati ettevõtete töötajate ootusi kunstile nende kontorites. Hiljem uuriti, kuidas inimesed tajusid ja mõistsid esitletud teoseid. Ettevõtete töötajate ootused kaasaegse kunsti väljapanekute osas olid laialivalguvad ja kontoris korraldatud näitusi tajuti vastuoluliselt, ent peamiselt positiivselt. Uuringu tulemused näitavad, et kunstil on töökeskkonnas potentsiaal toetada loovust ja vaimset heaolu. Samal ajal on kuraatorite jaoks väljakutseks korraldada väljapanekuid spetsiifilistele kollektiividele, püüdes vältida vääritimõistmist.

Mental well-being is becoming an increasingly significant factor in people’s lives. During the last half-century, the effect of work environment on people’s mental health and productivity has been the focus of many scientific investigations as well as documents by international organisations. These international political documents deal with the work environment primarily as a social category. However, the spatial qualities of the workplace also play a significant role in promoting the mental well-being of employees. Art has substantial potential in the design of a physical space, and thus there is an increasing need to explore the effects of art in the work environment.

The article is based on the Impact of Visual Arts on the Work Environment of Estonian Companies creative research project, financed by the Estonian Ministry of Culture. The Department of Ethnology at the University of Tartu, Kogo Gallery and the Centre of Anthropology carried out a collaborative project between 2022 and 2023. Our aim was to conduct an attitude survey project designed to develop social and creative entrepreneurship. We planned to study the attitudes of Estonian enterprises towards the visual arts and the effect of works of art on employees.

Our creative study had three overall stages. Firstly, the curators and anthropologists asked the board members and staff of three technology companies about their expectations of the art displays we had agreed to arrange in these companies’ offices. We conducted monitoring of artistic prospects by interviews, casual conversations and observation of work environments at the companies involved in the study. Secondly, the curators installed the art displays in the offices, considering ethnographic input from the first stage of our work. Thirdly, the anthropologists documented impressions and opinions of the companies’ board members and employees about the installed contemporary art displays. The board members of the selected companies’ offices did not intervene in the work of the curators and let them act freely, hoping that art would stimulate employees emotionally and give rise to a more creative work experience. A few weeks after opening the exhibitions, the team of anthropologists conducted interviews and carried out observation in the offices. Several employees claimed that they had not noticed any change in their work environment. However, the majority of the interviewed staff had paid attention to the exhibitions and admitted that even if they did not think about the artworks intensely, these pieces of art had influenced people in a silent way, and that if these works were removed, the offices would look disturbingly empty. The majority of interviews and spontaneous conversations indicated that employees did not delve much into the ideas behind the artworks, were not interested in background information and did not perceive the displays as a complex element of interior design. However, several people did assume that the art had an effect but that it was subconscious.

In fact, positive feelings towards the art displays were more numerous. Staff and employees considered artworks as adjusting mental well-being and creativity and enabling relaxed and smooth switching between different work tasks. Art displays also evoked discussion among the employees on different topics and encouraged people to express their opinions. Endorsing creativity and supporting mental well-being at work through contemporary art displays is very much a guessing game, because people’s expectations are rather vague and their reactions unpredictable. When starting the study, we hypothesised that commitment to technological innovation supports positive perception of contemporary art displays among the office employees, and this assumption was partially confirmed. The most severe but intriguing setback of the project was connected to the potentially ambivalent effect of one display on the office workers. People expected that their complex work should be balanced by simple, straightforward and peaceful art. Therefore, employees perceived artworks involving bold humour and the grotesque as stereotypical parodies of their work experience. The research, carried out with funding from the Ministry of Culture, will enable Kogo Gallery to better plan the provision of art rental services to institutions and companies in the future. The completed project covered a wider thematic area, and mental health issues formed only one part of the creative research. The effect of art on mental health needs more focused research in the future, for which this cooperation project provided an effective basis.