Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing public awareness, both in the arts and medical communities, that art—along with sleep, good nutrition, and exercise—may play a role in promoting physical and mental health. Now an initiative launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and medical journal The Lancet will show scientific evidence for the idea.
According to a statement on the WHO’s website, “Including the arts in health care delivery has been shown to support positive clinical outcomes for patients while also supporting other stakeholders, including health care providers, the patient’s loved ones and the wider community. Benefits are seen across several markers, including health promotion, the management of health conditions and illness, and disease prevention.”
In 2023, the WHO and the Jameel Arts & Health Lab announced a forthcoming Lancet Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts. A series of research papers and commissions to be published by leading medical journal The Lancet, the project is headed by Professor Nisha Sajnani, co-director at the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and director of drama therapy and arts and health at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and Dr Nils Fietje, co-director at the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and technical officer at the WHO regional office for Europe.
On the Jameel Arts & Health Lab website Sajnani and Fietje write, “A growing body of evidence, including a 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.”
The first article in the Lancet Global Health series has just been published, and it is a photo essay—the first in The Lancet’s 202-year history. The 32 photographs, selected by Stephen Stapleton, co-director at the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and his team, illustrate what can be accomplished by integrating art into often challenging institutional and clinical settings. They include images of a clown school at a refugee camp in Turkey; a movement program at a nursing home in Singapore; and a project by street artist JR at Tehachapi maximum security prison in California.
More articles in the series are scheduled for publication later this year.
