Jameel Arts & Health Lab - Lancet Global Collection on Arts and Health

The Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, has convened a landmark Lancet Global Collection to highlight the growing scientific evidence supporting the role of the arts in health and well-being. The collection synthesizes the evidence on how the arts contribute to mental, physical, and social health and provides roadmaps for translating that evidence into research, policy, and practice.

Scope

This collection examines the arts as a necessary global health resource, rather than a luxury, and presents the conditions that support integrating cultural assets into health policies and practices. A growing body of evidence, including the landmark 2019 WHO report of over 900 studies from 2000 to 2019, shows that engaging in the arts, including music, theatre, dance, and visual arts, offers wide-ranging mental, physical, and social health benefits. These include fostering resilience, supporting healthy development, improving clinical outcomes, and aiding psychosocial recovery.

Arts practices are increasingly recognized across medicine, nursing, psychology, rehabilitation, and public health, reflecting a broader understanding of health as shaped by biological, psychological, social, cultural, and environmental factors. Despite strong evidence and the low-risk, cost-effective nature of many arts interventions, they remain under-utilized in mainstream healthcare. Commercial priorities and lack of awareness have limited policy support and funding, leading to cuts in arts budgets worldwide and restricting access.

The Collection comprises four components: a Comment by Dr. Michelle Bachelet, “The Arts Belong at the Heart of Health Policy,” which calls on governments to recognize equitable cultural participation as part of the social infrastructure of health; a Viewpoint, “The Arts as a Global Health Resource: Key Priorities for Future Research,” which examines the evidence, challenges, and research priorities shaping the field; a Review, “Developing Roadmaps for Advancing Practice, Research, and Policy in the Arts and Health,” which sets out pathways for integrating the arts across health and wellbeing systems; and a photo essay, “Visualising Relationships Between the Arts and Health,” featuring 32 examples of arts and health practice from around the world. 

The photo essay was launched at the Guggenheim on September 24, 2025 as part of UNGA Healing Arts Week 2025. The Comment, Viewpoint, and Review were launched at UNGA Healing Arts Week 2026 at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

Project team

Led by Dr Nisha Sajnani (JA&HL, NYU Steinhardt) with the support of Dr Nils Fietje (JA&HL, WHO Europe), Dr Daisy Fancourt (UCL), and Stephen Stapleton (CULTURUNNERS), the project team consists of researchers and artists from Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malawi, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the US, and the UK.

Support for this project is provided by Community Jameel.

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