Fancy a refreshing dip in the Fountain of Youth?
aka: Voila, your Summer Fix of Wright History courses!
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Der Jungbrunnen (The Fountain of Youth), 1546
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 593
This image, Volker-H. Schneider, at: https://id.smb.museum/object/863713/der-jungbrunnen
George Keate, The Manner of Passing Mont Cenis, August 1755
London, British Museum, 1878,0209.304: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1878-0209-304
It is axiomatic that travel broadens the mind.
Alas, however, for many and various reasons, not all of us can travel as much as we might like to.
And others simply choose to eschew travel because of its corollaries (e.g. driving, flying, train timetables, queuing, the M62/M1/M25/<insert your bête noire road of choice here>, enforced proximity to Other People, the life admin of renewing one’s passports/jabs/visas, etc…), in the interests of sanity, happiness, and general well-being.
For as long as Wright History has officially been Wright History, we’ve offered a reduced programme of courses over summer, especially for those of you who like to ‘travel’ with us virtually… and of course we’re continuing the tradition this year.
But stop press ….
It transpires that we may also be offering you the means to slow down biological ageing!*
*[Don’t worry. I don’t mean in the extreme biohacking sense - i.e. entailing infinite financial resources, no other demands on one’s day, ridiculous and invasive tech measuring devices, or routines which would make even the most stalwart and ascetic of medieval saints waver, e.g. hardcore cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen pods, not eating after 11am, or a son willing to donate his blood to a blood transfusion for you.]
A hot-off-the-press study from UCL suggests that we can improve our health - and thereby potentially increase our longevity - via regular engagement with arts and culture.
It transpires that people who undertook such activities on a weekly basis aged 4% slower than those who rarely did - which is roughly equivalent to the difference between those in the dataset who exercised once a week and those who didn’t.
No really!*
*[Inevitably and understandably, MSM reports of the study (and of course my co-opting of it here) simplify the academic article’s findings, but the actual report is unusually readable, so see here if you’re interested in more nuance.]
…And it gets even better…
I for one am increasingly aware of the inevitable march of time, and I confess that I sometimes find myself regretting that I didn’t appreciate the benefits which youth conferred upon me at the time.
But in this instance, it seems that being older = more bang for your cultural engagement buck, because the study’s findings were more marked in the participants over 40! It’s not often that something health-related works out better for middle age and beyond, is it?!
So with all that in mind, it’s time to unleash the drum-rolling hound…
First up, our now-traditional 7-week Summer Spectacular, offering an opportunity to explore some gorgeous artistic gems from the comfort of your own home*
* [No passport, packing, or jabs required - plus now with added youthfulness (and no hyperbaric oxygen pods/offspring plasma necessary)!]
Next, our Short & Sweet adventures in nineteenth-century art continue with…
Next up, something for our Denizens who like their old stuff to be really old (because of course we’ve not forgotten you!)…
And finally, from one Etruria to another (and as a heartfelt homage to the about-to-be late, lamented Denby Pottery…)
So there we are.
We hope that you’ll find something of interest there!
NB If you are lucky enough to be travelling this summer, all sessions will, as ever, be recorded, so you can watch the edited versions on catch-up at your convenience
Legal disclaimer:
I can’t, alas, promise you that we can rejuvenate you unto feeling up to emulating the funky moves of these young whippersnappers, but hopefully we’ve got something here which may at least provide some welcome summer entertainment. And hey - if it helps you to feel more broad-minded and/or a little less world-weary along the way so much the better, non?!