Want to live to a ripe old age? Personally, I’m very keen on the idea. So I’m intrigued by a new study from University College London, which found that singing, painting, visiting galleries and attending cultural events actually slow your biological ageing. Not metaphorically. Not anecdotally. At a cellular level, measurable in your blood.
The research, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, found that people who took part in arts and cultural activities at least once a week were, on average, a year younger biologically than those who rarely engaged. Those who exercised once a week? Only six months younger by the same measure. The arts, in short, outperform the gym.
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What’s stopping us?
The study covers singing, dancing, painting, photography, crafting, attending exhibitions, visiting museums, libraries and heritage sites. The kinds of things that most of us creatives love… and yet most of us don’t do nearly enough of.
But why is that, exactly? It’s not that we didn’t already know these things are good for us.
Ask any designer, illustrator or photographer when they last felt truly creatively alive, and the answer is unlikely to be: “during a client call” or “while checking Instagram“. It’s more likely to be the last time they were in a gallery, down the front at a gig, taking part in a life-drawing class, or having a stroll around a craft market full of life and colour.
And yet, given a free evening, most of us simply crash on the sofa. We’re tired. We’ll go next week. Then we open our phones “for five minutes” and resurface an hour later. Having learned nothing, felt nothing and gained nothing, other than a sense of vague disorientation and emptiness.
The gap between knowing and doing
If we’re honest, the problem isn’t access to culture; at least not for most of the people reading this. It’s inertia.
The algorithm is designed to keep you scrolling, and it’s as addictive as crack cocaine (seriously). Culture, in contrast, requires you to get up, get out and show up. It creates friction. And friction, in the age of infinite on-demand content, can feel like a huge mountain to climb.
But that friction is precisely the point. The effort of turning up, being present, engaging with something made by human hands and human minds, is what makes life worthwhile. And now it turns out, it could also help you reach your 90s… and beyond.
Make it a practice, not a treat
As the UK’s largest arts centre, London’s Southbank was described at its 1951 founding as “a tonic for the nation”. That shows that governments have long known, instinctively, what’s this 2026 study has just proven. That people need the arts the way they need food, air and rest.
So my key takeaway? Treat the arts like exercise. Schedule stuff in the diary. Go to the exhibition you’ve been meaning to see for months. Book the life-drawing class. Join the choir. Say yes to the thing outside your comfort zone.
Life is short, and you only get one of them. The clock is ticking. But culture, it turns out, is one of the most effective ways to slow it down.
