Healing Arts is a global campaign by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization
Healing Arts is a global campaign by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization
Friday 17 July | 6PM Kenneth C. Griffin Sidewalk Studio, David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NY 10023
Bringing together voices from the arts, sports, public health, and policy, this event examines how creative participation can advance World Health Organization global health targets while aligning with NYC's priorities around prevention, equity, and neighborhood-level wellbeing.
What if arts engagement were treated like exercise and sport—as a core public health strategy? Against the backdrop of the world’s celebration of soccer, this conversation explores how creativity can be understood as a health-creating behavior alongside physical activity, supporting not only individual wellbeing, but the health of our cities. While sport and exercise are widely recognized for protecting physical and mental health, growing evidence shows that engagement in music, dance, storytelling, and the visual arts also strengthens stress regulation, emotional wellbeing, social connection, and community resilience.
Bringing together voices from the arts, sports, public health, and policy, this event examines how creative participation can advance World Health Organization (WHO) global health targets while aligning with New York City’s priorities around prevention, equity, and neighborhood-level wellbeing. The conversation highlights how arts engagement can support mental health, reduce health disparities, and foster the social cohesion that underpins healthy, thriving communities. We are invited to reimagine creativity not as a luxury, but as essential civic infrastructure, one that supports healthier bodies, stronger social bonds, and more resilient neighborhoods long after the final whistle.
This event will begin with members of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center playing a selection from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's String Quartet in E-flat major.
Dr. Nisha Sajnani, curator and moderator - Professor and Director of the NYU Steinhardt Graduate Program in Drama Therapy, Founding Director of the Arts & Health @ NYU, and Co-Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established in collaboration with the World Health Organization.
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, panelist - Sternberg Family Professor and Founding Director of the Health & Opportunity Leadership Institute at City College of New York, Chair of the Common Health Coalition, Co-Chair of the Health and Political Economy Project, and a practicing physician.
Dr. Kate Mulligan, panelist - Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow, founding Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing, Co-Chair of the International Social Prescribing Collaborative, and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.
Jill Sonke, PhD, panelist - US Cultural Policy Fellow with Stanford University, Co-Director of the EpiArts Lab, and Director of Research Initiatives and Research Professor in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida.
Tanya Dusevic Witek, PhD, panelist - Second Flute player in the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, member of the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater Orchestras, faculty member at Montclair University, and Co-Artistic Director of BridgeMusik.
