The Jameel Arts & Health Lab, a global initiative to measurably improve health and wellbeing through the arts, today announced preliminary findings from its Healing Arts Scotland campaign. The results were shared by Cléa Daridan, head of arts and culture at Community Jameel, one of the lab’s founding partners, while speaking on a panel at the World Cities Culture Summit in Dubai.
Organised during the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2024 by the Jameel Arts and Health Lab and Scottish Ballet, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, Healing Arts Scotland was the first nationwide festival highlighting the role cultural engagement can play in public health. The campaign comprised 376 events, more than 120 partners, including five universities, and eight government-level meetings.
The Jameel Arts & Health Lab’s preliminary assessment found that Healing Arts Scotland had a positive impact on national health policy, including a motion in the Scottish Parliament that acknowledged the role of the campaign to advancing understanding of the effects of the arts in the health, and a statement of support for Healing Arts Scotland and the role of the arts in health by the chief medical officer for Scotland in his annual report.
Following the campaign, other public health bodies in Scotland are engaging with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab to adapt their strategies and incorporate the arts.
Healing Arts Scotland aimed to catalyse and strengthen a network of communities that can positively address current health concerns and inequalities across Scotland and the United Kingdom, with a focus on five priority areas where the arts can have a measurable impact: loneliness and isolation; mental health in younger people; dementia; creativity in confinement; and social prescribing.
In one of two in-depth evaluations of Healing Arts Scotland, the University of Edinburgh concluded that 88% of participants believed the arts can play a role in holistic care.
Healing Arts Scotland teams are now advising city leaders in Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States on establishing their own Healing Arts weeks.
Planning has begun for Healing Arts Scotland to take place every two years, hosted as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, with days in Glasgow, Aberdeen and the island communities.
Cléa Daridan, head of arts and culture at Community Jameel, said: “The success of Healing Arts Scotland, a nationwide campaign spearheaded by Scottish Ballet and the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, and anchored by the Edinburgh International Festival, attests to the role cultural engagement and city leaders can play in public health – and the potential for these efforts to change policy.”
The Jameel Arts & Health Lab was launched in 2023 as a collaboration between the World Health Organisation’s regional office for Europe, the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel and CULTURUNNERS.
With a focus on overlooked and underserved communities, the lab leverages scientific evidence, artist-led advocacy and capacity building to drive the integration of the arts into mainstream healthcare.
