Well-Being in the Museums: The ASBA Project Research Protocol

The ASBA (Anxiety, Stress, Brain-friendly Museum, Approach) project aims at assessing a group of methodologies (Mindfulness, Art Therapy, VTS, Art Up, and Green Art) that can be offered by both Art and Science museums to valorize their collections and improve visitors' well-being. It also tries to involve audiences that are not familiar with museums. This project has been developed based on a research protocol approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Milano-Bicocca. This paper describes the experimental design of the study which involves the methods listed above, assessed in two different environments: a fine arts museum and a scientific museum. The construct of well-being is operationalized as a state of anxiety. So, the main measure that is used to test the effect of the procedures is the change in the state of anxiety measured through the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). As an exploratory variable, the participants' electrocortical profile is also recorded through the use of a wearable, wireless BCI.