About the Lab
The Jameel Arts & Health Lab is a global initiative to measurably improve health and wellbeing through the arts. 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.
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Jameel Arts & Health Lab Launch
The Art Newspaper
Could the Arts be Good for your Health?
World Health Organization
Lancet Series Announcement
The Jameel Arts & Health Lab was launched in January 2023 by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and Culturunners. Established to measurably improve health and wellbeing through the arts, it is the first major initiative of its kind to be supported by WHO.
Jameel Arts & Health Lab Launch - Trailer
Over the last 20 years, the evidence base for the impact of the arts on health has grown significantly. A 2019 WHO scoping review included over 3,000 research papers that identified a range of ways that arts-based approaches could improve health and wellbeing, from prevention and promotion, to treatment and management. A subsequent report, focusing on noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory illness, neurological conditions, and mental health, affirmed the value of arts interventions as low-risk, cost-effective initiatives to enhance health and wellbeing in ways that traditional biomedical interventions cannot. Each publication emphasizes the need for greater awareness, investment, cross-sectoral collaboration, and implementation of arts interventions to support physical, mental and social health across the lifespan.
Against this backdrop, the Lab was established to coordinate and amplify scientific research into the effectiveness of the arts in improving health and wellbeing; initiate ambitious arts and health studies; and produce a global advocacy campaign to drive policy implementation across 193 UN member states.
Jameel Arts & Health Lab Model
The Lab's unique model combines research, outreach, policy, and capacity building.
Research
- Generating, coordinating, disseminating, and evaluating robust interventions and studies that advance our understanding of the impact of the arts on health, and identifying which practices are suitable to scale.
Policy
- Driving impact through local, national, and international policy to scale the impact of evidence-based arts and health interventions across 193 UN member states, with an emphasis on the most underserved populations.
Outreach
- Socializing arts and health research, demonstrating best practice, and increasing public engagement through online campaigns, artists’ projects, media engagement, and live events.
Capacity building
- Growing the arts and health field by developing international communities of practice, and opportunities for training for artists, cultural organizations, healthcare practitioners, and administrators.
"The arts can be a powerful ally in our quest to improve health for all. I have seen the impact of the arts on community wellbeing, and I'm very pleased that this collaboration with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab will help us understand the science of that impact in order to improve the lives of people from all backgrounds."
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Director-General, WHO
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Event
JAHL Global Launch
The Lab’s global launch was held at the National Arts Club in New York, inaugurating its goal to coordinate and amplify scientific research, and drive policy into the effectiveness of the arts in improving health and wellbeing.
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Event
WHO75 Healing Arts Concert
Co-organized by the Lab, this historic concert included dance, music, and spoken word performances by world-leading talents. It signified WHO's gratitude to the people of Geneva, the organization’s generous hosts for 75 years.
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Event
Creative Brain Week 2024
By bringing together leading scientists, health practitioners, and researchers in lively discussion and debate, Creative Brain Week was designed to strengthen and propagate the significance of the arts on health and wellbeing.
