Lancet Photo Essay Regional Launch, Riyadh

The Jameel Arts & Health Lab-Lancet photo essay had its regional debut on 27 October 2025, presented at the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh. Running at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Center until 30 October, this was the essay's first outing in the Middle East, following its global launch at the Guggenheim Museum in New York during UNGA Healing Arts Week.

The regional launch was also accompanied by a discussion hosted by Lammat at Aimes at the Jax District in Riyadh. Lab Co-Director, Stephen Stapleton was joined by Solkem N’Gangbe (Photo essay co-curator, and Head of Office of the Arts, KAUST).

The photo essay, Visualising Relationships Between the Arts and Health, is the opening instalment of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab-Lancet Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts, which will culminate in a full academic series in The Lancet launching at the 2026 edition of UNGA Healing Arts Week. Built on a 2019 WHO scoping review into how the arts support health, prevent illness and aid treatment across the life course, it translates that evidence into 30 photographs, each carrying the story of the person or programme behind it. The wider series is led by Prof. Nisha Sajnani (co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and director of Drama Therapy and Arts and Health at NYU Steinhardt), Dr. Nils Fietje (co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and technical officer at WHO's Regional Office for Europe) and Stephen Stapleton (founding co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab), who curated the photo essay itself with an international team of co-curators.