To expand the tools available to arts researchers in psychology, we present the Open Gallery for Arts Research (OGAR), a free, open-source tool for studying visitor behavior within an online gallery environment. OGAR is highly extensible, allowing researchers to modify the environment to test different hypotheses, and it affords assessing a wide range of outcome variables. After describing the tool and its development, we present a proof-of-concept study that evaluates OGAR’s usability and performance and illustrates some ways that it can be used to study the psychology of virtual visits. With a sample of 44 adults from an online participant panel who freely explored OGAR, we observed that OGAR had good usability based on high scores on the System Usability Scale and rare instances of self-reported nausea, among other usability markers. Furthermore, using position and viewing data provided by OGAR, we found that participants navigated the gallery and interacted with the artwork in predictable and coherent ways that resembled visitor behavior in real-world art museums. OGAR appears to be a useful tool for researchers and art professionals interested in how people navigate and experience virtual and real art spaces.

To expand the tools available to arts researchers in psychology, we present the Open Gallery for Arts Research (OGAR), a free, open-source tool for studying visitor behavior within an online gallery environment. OGAR is highly extensible, allowing researchers to modify the environment to test different hypotheses, and it affords assessing a wide range of outcome variables. After describing the tool and its development, we present a proof-of-concept study that evaluates OGAR’s usability and performance and illustrates some ways that it can be used to study the psychology of virtual visits. With a sample of 44 adults from an online participant panel who freely explored OGAR, we observed that OGAR had good usability based on high scores on the System Usability Scale and rare instances of self-reported nausea, among other usability markers. Furthermore, using position and viewing data provided by OGAR, we found that participants navigated the gallery and interacted with the artwork in predictable and coherent ways that resembled visitor behavior in real-world art museums. OGAR appears to be a promising tool for researchers and art professionals interested in how people navigate and experience virtual and real art spaces.

Throughout history, visual art has helped people feel connected to each other, experience a deep sense of belonging to their communities, and enhance their own well-being. In recent years, many museums have increased their digital presence to engage with the public in new ways, including curating unique virtual experiences. The present research examines the well-being effects of a virtual art gallery visit and the role of immersion in facilitating these well-being effects. Participants were 155 adults from the United States recruited via Prolific. Participants completed a 15-minute virtual gallery experience and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) To spend 5 minutes selecting one work and then spend 10 minutes engaging in mindful looking; (2) To spend 5 minutes selecting one work and then spend 10 minutes engaging in curious looking; or (3) To spend 15 minutes viewing the art however they wished. Participants completed measures of well-being and emotional state before and after their gallery experience. Although the three conditions did not differ in their levels of immersion or in their well-being and emotional experiences, participants did experience a range of well-being increases following their virtual art experience. Further, the level of immersion participants reported during the visit, regardless of condition, predicted post-visit well-being and emotional state. This suggests that virtual art engagement, like in-person art engagement, may hold well-being benefits for those who engage in these experiences.

Visiting art museums has been associated with a range of flourishing outcomes. However, there have been recent shifts towards increasing digital engagement with art, leading to a radical change in how people experience visual art. Given the now expansive virtual art viewing options, it is important to understand whether digital engagement can also lead to greater flourishing, and, if so, under what conditions. We examined the flourishing effects of viewing art in a virtual gallery in a pre-registered experiment comprising four sessions over four weeks, with varying viewing instructions designed to increase immersion. Participants were recruited from a USA representative sample on Prolific, resulting in a final sample of 687 participants. People were randomly assigned to one of nine experimental conditions. Eight art viewing conditions involved four 15 min virtual gallery visits with viewing instructions varying on two factors: slow-looking and immersive mindset framing. An active control condition involved reading about (but not viewing) art. Participants completed a battery of baseline flourishing measures in week 1, completed experimental art engagement sessions during weeks 1–4, and completed the battery again in week 5. While immersion levels were greater in the viewing conditions than the reading condition, growth in flourishing did not differ across condition. Exploratory analyses, however, showed that immersion during the gallery visits did predict some changes in specific facets of flourishing (e.g., engagement, meaning, autonomy satisfaction). We suggest a number of possible explanations for these null results and point to what is needed in future research.

Throughout history, visual art has helped people feel connected to each other, experience a deep sense of belonging to their communities, and enhance their own well-being. In recent years, many museums have increased their digital presence to engage with the public in new ways, including curating unique virtual experiences. The present research examines the well-being effects of a virtual art gallery visit and the role of immersion in facilitating these well-being effects. Participants were 155 adults from the United States recruited via Prolific. Participants completed a 15-min virtual gallery experience and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) To spend 5 min selecting one work and then spend 10 min engaging in mindful looking; (b) To spend 5 min selecting one work and then spend 10 min engaging in curious looking; or (c) To spend 15 min viewing the art however they wished. Participants completed measures of wellbeing and emotional state before and after their gallery experience. Although the three conditions did not differ in their levels of immersion or in their well-being and emotional experiences, participants did experience a range of well-being increases following their virtual art experience. Further, the level of immersion participants reported during the visit, regardless of condition, predicted postvisit well-being and emotional state. This suggests that virtual art engagement, like in-person art engagement, may hold well-being benefits for those who engage in these experiences.