Most people know that exercise, sleep and eating well are important for good health. Now a group of medical professionals and artists are hoping to ensure engagement with the arts is similarly recognised as a positive health behaviour around the world.
This was the theme of the Healing Arts Week festival in New York this month, run by Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation. And to illustrate the fusion of art and health, The Lancet medical journal has published a photo essay for the first time in its 202-year history, showcasing how the arts can boost physical, mental and social health.
“We are at a turning point in how we understand what keeps us well,” says Nisha Sajnani, the co-director of Jameel Arts & Health Lab and a professor at New York University. “Engaging with the arts is not an indulgence or an afterthought—it is part of the infrastructure of health. Just as we invest in clean water, nutrition and safe housing, we must invest in cultural participation as a determinant of wellbeing.”
Healing power
One of the 32 photographs in The Lancet is by the French street artist JR. It consists of portraits of inmates and security guards from the Tehachapi maximum-security prison in California pasted onto the prison yard. The artist tells The Art Newspaper: “My hope is that this image of our project sparks important questions and dialogue about the role of the arts in creating healthier communities. This series on the health benefits of the arts marks an important opportunity for us to deepen the conversation about the ways art can create wellbeing in unique and meaningful ways, even in the most complex of spaces.”
Other images in the photo essay include people giving blood in the Museum of Fine Arts in Orléans, France, a breakdancing boy in Gaza and the Aids memorial quilt in Washington, DC, designed in 1987 to end the stigma around the disease.
Ahmed Alghariz’s Camps Breakerz (2023), depicting a breakdancer in Gaza, is in The Lancet photo essay
Courtesy Ahmed Alghariz
“This isn’t just a photo essay, it is a visual manifesto,” says Solkem N’Gangbet, the head of the office of the arts at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science & Technology and a member of the curatorial team for the photo essay. “It speaks to what the scientific data now confirms: the arts heal. And for the first time, The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, gives space to the image, to the story, to the lived experience, including those from communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions too often left outside the frame.”
Disease prevention
It is not only The Lancet highlighting the health impacts the arts can have. Last month, the journal Nature Medicine published a review of 95 arts programmes addressing non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer in 27 countries. The authors conclude that there is evidence of the arts supporting disease prevention and health promotion by “generating cultural relevance, providing opportunities for increased physical activity and social connectedness”.
Jill Sonke, the lead author on the study and the director of research initiatives at the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine, says the arts could even receive health funding, such is its effectiveness. “We don’t want to just treat these diseases, we want to prevent them,” she says. “We would love to see funding and interventions move upstream from treatment toward prevention, and the arts should be part of that prevention strategy, because they really can help.”
Sticky habits
Research has shown that participation in the arts can help protect against cognitive decline and reduce the risk of dementia, Sajnani says. Strengthening social connections through co-operative arts activities can also tackle loneliness and mental health problems while creating “sticky” habits. In a study undertaken last year for the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, older participants who attended drawing classes at a “Thursday at the Museum” event reported feeling better and therefore visited their doctor less frequently, creating a financial dividend worth £1,310 per person.
Stephen Stapleton, the founding co-director of Jameel Arts & Health Lab, tells The Art Newspaper the issue is beginning to be recognised in political circles. The EU Commissioner for Culture attended the Healing Arts Week and suggested a convening of European policy leaders on the subject.
“All these data points are starting to frame the arts as a health behaviour,” Stapleton says. “Sixty years ago, it wasn’t a given that exercise, or sleep, or even nutrition were good for you. But as all the evidence built up, medical professionals realised their role. Based on the science, the arts are increasingly being recognised for their impact on wellbeing, and their essential role in living a full and healthy life.”
