It’s a Tuesday night in February. The dinner plates have been cleared, the glow of the TV remote feels uninspiring, and the winter chill outside makes staying in seem like the easy choice. You and your partner sit on the couch, scrolling through your phones, each lost in your own little world. Another quiet evening, another missed opportunity to connect.

Now, imagine this instead: The two of you wander into a softly lit gallery at the Academy Art Museum. A striking painting catches your eye—bold, unfamiliar, something about it stirs you. You turn to your partner and ask, “What do you see?” They hesitate, then offer an answer that surprises you. You hadn’t thought of it that way. The conversation unfolds, ideas are exchanged, and suddenly, you’re learning something new—not just about the art, but about each other.

The idea that museums can strengthen relationships isn’t just anecdotal—it’s backed by science. Engaging with art in a shared space has been shown to increase intimacy, communication, and even attraction between partners. A study published in Museum Management and Curatorship found that couples who participated in cultural activities together, such as visiting a museum, reported a greater sense of closeness and relationship satisfaction than those who did not. Another report in The Journal of Positive Psychology revealed that engaging in novel and intellectually stimulating experiences with a partner enhances overall relationship quality by promoting shared meaning and increasing emotional bonds.

There’s a well-documented psychological phenomenon known as the “novelty effect”—when couples engage in new and stimulating activities, their brains release dopamine, the same neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of love and attraction. Studies have found that couples who experience novelty together—whether through travel, trying new activities, or engaging in cultural events—report higher levels of relationship satisfaction than those who fall into predictable routines.

Research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that shared aesthetic experiences, such as looking at art together, enhance emotional synchrony. This means that when couples observe and discuss artwork, their emotional responses align, deepening their sense of connection. Another study, published in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, found that mutual engagement with artistic and cultural activities fosters a sense of unity, reducing stress and promoting feelings of well-being.

Moreover, art has been shown to activate areas of the brain linked to pleasure and reward. A 2011 study in Brain and Cognition demonstrated that viewing art stimulates the same neural pathways as love and desire, making a museum visit a surprisingly potent tool for rekindling passion.

If you’re looking for a way to break free from the monotony of daily life and bring fresh energy into your relationship, here are a few ways to make the Academy Art Museum part of your next date night:

Walk Through an Exhibition Together

Museums provide a perfect environment for slow, thoughtful conversation—an antidote to the digital distractions that often interrupt our daily interactions. Unlike watching a film, where the experience is passive, engaging with an art exhibition encourages discussion. A study in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts found that sharing interpretations of artwork fosters intellectual intimacy and helps couples appreciate each other’s perspectives. Next time you visit an exhibition, challenge yourselves to find a piece you both love—or one you completely disagree on—and talk about why.

Experience Live Music at the Museum

Live music is uniquely powerful in creating emotional bonds. A 2017 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that shared musical experiences enhance empathy and social bonding. The recent Roaring Rhythms jazz concert at the museum was a perfect example—couples swayed to the music, exchanged knowing smiles, and found themselves caught up in the shared experience of melody and rhythm. Attending a live performance together creates lasting sensory memories that become part of a couple’s shared history.

Catch a Film at the Museum’s New Film Series

Film screenings at the museum offer more than just a night out—they provide a structured yet intimate way to engage with storytelling together. A study in The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found that couples who watch and discuss films that explore relationship dynamics report better conflict resolution skills and deeper emotional understanding of their partners. Whether it’s an art-house film, a classic, or a contemporary drama, watching and discussing a movie together allows couples to reflect on themes that resonate with their own experiences.

Share a Love for Literature at a ShoreLit Book Talk

Books open up entire worlds, and discussing them with a partner can reveal surprising insights about each other. The Journal of Applied Social Psychology reports that engaging in literary discussions strengthens cognitive empathy—the ability to understand and share another’s emotions. The museum’s ShoreLit book talks introduce fresh voices in literature, giving you the chance to discover new ideas together. Whether you agree or disagree on an author’s perspective, the conversation will bring depth to your interactions

Get Creative Together in a Studio Class

Creative collaboration is one of the most effective ways to strengthen a relationship. A landmark study in The Creativity Research Journal found that couples who engage in artistic activities together report higher levels of relationship satisfaction, largely due to the cooperative problem-solving and emotional expression required in creative tasks. Taking an art class at the museum—whether it’s painting, pottery, or printmaking—provides a fun, low-pressure environment to experiment, make mistakes, and support each other. It’s about the process, not the product—and about creating something together, both literally and metaphorically.

Flowers wilt, chocolates disappear, but a shared experience at the Academy Art Museum? That’s something you’ll carry with you. This February, instead of the usual dinner-and-a-movie routine, consider a date night that deepens your connection in ways both scientifically proven and emotionally felt. Whether it’s standing side by side in front of a breathtaking painting, hearing live music together, or getting your hands messy in a ceramics class, museums provide an unparalleled setting for meaningful interaction.

After all, love is an art. And like any masterpiece, it needs time, attention, and the right environment to flourish.

Daedelus Hoffman is the director of education and interpretation at the Academy Art Museum. 

Looking for a creative way to spend time with your partner this month? Visit the Academy Art Museum and explore our exhibitions, events, and studio classes at academyartmuseum.org.

The cast of “Noises Off” at the Garfield Center for the Arts. The show opens February 21st.

While observing a performance of his play, “The Two Of Us,” from backstage in 1975, English playwright Michael Frayn decided he found the play much funnier and satisfying from that perspective than from up front. In 1977, he wrote a one-act backstage comedy titled “Exits,” demonstrating what happens when things go wrong. Eventually, “Exits” was expanded into a Three-Act play and re-titled “Noises Off,” and it opened at London’s Lyric Theatre in 1982. It jumped the pond to Broadway in 1983. It is well-loved by professional and community theatre audiences, even though it requires a huge, two-story set that rotates between acts to show both the front and backstage areas of a touring play. Because the comedy is so outrageous and hilarious, producing theatres feel the effort is well worth the undertaking.

The upcoming production at the Garfield Center, which opens February 21st, is sponsored by Hanson and Linda Robbins, Sara Grosvenor, Chips and Liz Moore, and Harry and Sandy Sears.

In the play, a troupe of American actors are preparing to tour throughout England of a farce titled “Nothing On.” Act One of “Noises Off” depicts the turbulent final dress rehearsal. Act Two occurs a month later, and we are now backstage behind the set for “Nothing On.” The cast has settled into quarrelsome relationships and outright hostility, resulting in a silent backstage ballet of struggle and sabotage, even as the play is somehow still being performed on the other side of the set. Act Three happens 2 months later, where we are once again on the set of “Nothing On.” By now, things have gotten so terrible among the cast that their arguments, dirty tricks, and intentional interference has spilled out onto the stage and into the show.

Performing the show is a cast populated by some of the area’s most talented actors. In order of appearance, Melissa McGlynn plays the roles of Dotty Otley/Mrs. Clackett. Melissa, well known on our stage, has been in many GCA productions, including her wonderful turn as Miss Hannigan in “Annie,” and her incredible turn as Rita in “Lucky Stiff.” Playing Lloyd Dallas is Matt Folker. Matt appeared as Judge Turpin in the GCA production of “Sweeney Todd,” and the Beadle in “Mrs.

Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge,” The role of Garry Lejeune/Roger Tramplemain is played by Dylan Lyles, who recently appeared as Gomez in “The Addams Family Musical,” and the White Rabbit in “Shrek the Musical.” New to the Garfield Center stage is Maya Barkus playing Brooke Ashton/Vicki. Maya is a resident of Delaware and a student at Washington College.

Playing the role of Poppy Norton-Taylor is Brianna Johnson, who appeared as Susan in the GCA production of “Prescription: Murder,” and various roles in “The Good Doctor,” and “The Laramie Project.” Patrick Pearce, who plays Frederick Fellows/Philip Brent, appeared in the lead roles of

Harold Ryan in “Happy Birthday, Wanda June,” and Dr. Roy Fleming in “Prescription: Murder.” Sharon Herz, who plays Belinda Blair/Flavia Brent, appeared as Miss Scarlet in “Clue,” and Elizabeth in “1957 Pink Thunderbird.” Playing Tim Algood is Dominic Delcoco, who played Herb in “Wanda June,” and Lucas in “Addams Family.”. Gil Rambach, who plays Selsdon Mowbray/Burglar, was the Bishop in “Shrek,” and directed “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

The Director, Steven Arnold, is also the Scenic Designer. He has assembled an incredibly talented and dedicated production staff to tackle its challenges. The Production Stage Manager is Allison Jones. Allison has been on our stage in “Little Women” and “Short Attention Span Theatre.” Carmen Grasso, who has designed and built the “Noises Off” set for three previous productions, is a Scenic Design Consultant and designed and constructed specialty pieces for the set with help from Jean Messick. Butch Clark, the GCA Technical Director, performs his typical wizardry as the Construction Chief, and he has received construction assistance from Jeff Russell, Jim Landskroener, Jim Johnson, and Benji Price. Barbi Bedell is the Costumer, Nic Carter will design the Lighting, Cory Palmer will oversee Props, Steffi Ricketts is the English Dialect Coach, Maya McGrory is the Fight and Fall Choreographer, and Benji Price is the Technical Assistant.

“Noises Off” opens Friday, February 21st and runs weekends through March 9th. Performances are at 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 PM on Sundays. Tickets are now available for purchase online anytime at www.garfieldcenter.org, or by calling us at 410-810-2060 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Austen Camille

The Kent Cultural Alliance (KCA) is excited to kick off 2025 with an engaging exhibit of art and poetry by artist Austen Camille.  The exhibit opens on First Friday, February 7 from 5-8 pm and also features an Artist Talk & Panel Discussion on Thursday, February 13, at 6 pm.  The exhibit and artist talk will take place at the Raimond Cultural Center, 101 Spring Avenue, Chestertown, MD.

Many will remember Austen Camille as being part of the inaugural team of visiting artists of KCA’s SFW Resident Artist Program.  Hailing from southeast Texas, Camille, working in several different media, wow’d audiences with her perspectives on soil health on modern agricultural farms, specifically those of Harborview Farms of Rock Hall, in partnership with owner Trey Hill.

The exhibit O-Horizon is an unedited glimpse into the process of writing a book. Austen Camille is currently working on their first manuscript, a series of poems and essays about soil health, regenerative practices and rural culture. The writing is primarily inspired by a series of interviews that Camille has been conducting with land stewards located around the upper Eastern Shore.  Here, you can see the tangle of notes, drawings, objects, and experiments that collectively add up to a book. It is a complicated and interconnected process, overwhelmingly full of different life forms: fertile ground for stories to emerge from.

Throughout the life of the exhibition, viewers will be invited to interact and contribute their stories about soil and the definition of rural.

Hours for the exhibit are Wednesday – Friday from 10 am to 4 pm and Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm through March 15, 2025.

Austen Camille (Canadian-American) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, builder and gardener. Camille primarily makes site-responsive public work that aims to both build relationships with the local environment, as well as call attention to the relationships that already exist within that environment. Camille’s work has been commissioned and exhibited in a diverse range of landscapes, from the dramatic northern Wyoming rivers to the high desert of eastern Oregon, from the rolling farmland in southern Wisconsin to the tidal estuary marshes along the Hudson River. Camille’s past projects include orchestrating an interdisciplinary conversation series across Temple University, creating and hosting a podcast called ‘Our Shared Field’ in order to bring artists into conversation with people from outside of the arts, and a collaboration between artists and oceanographers to undertake restoration work of cold water corals in the Gulf of Mexico. Camille received their MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture (Temple University) in 2020.

Kent Cultural Alliance is the designated arts council for Kent County, Maryland and works to support and grow the cultural and artistic ecology of our small rural county.  Serving as a pivotal piece of social infrastructure, KCA uses the arts to create opportunities for civic and social engagement across our diverse communities.  www.kentculture.org

This exhibit has been created with generous support from the Kent Cultural Alliance, Campbell Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Trust, Joseph Robert Foundation and AgArts.