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
Monday 21 September 2026 | 1:30 - 4PM Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 33 Maiden Lane, New York, 10045
Photo Credit: Panorama of the City of New York, Courtesy of the Queens Museum.
The inaugural Economics of Arts & Health roundtable, held during UNGA Healing Arts Week 2025 at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, brought together 40 global leaders to explore how arts and health can move from fragmented funding toward sustainable financing. The discussion examined emerging economic evidence and approaches including social prescribing, public investment, and health financing.
Building on this work, a second closed-door roundtable during UNGA Healing Arts Week 2026 will bring together leaders across health, culture, economics, policy, labor, and financing to inform the NYC Arts and Health Task Force, citywide Arts and Health Strategy, and related international efforts. The exchange will explore how investment in arts and health can advance health and economic justice, create and sustain good jobs, strengthen the cultural and care workforce, and expand equitable access to wellbeing and care. It will examine what should be financed, by whom, and through which mechanisms, from public investment and reimbursement to cross-sector financing, with the aim of identifying actionable priorities for a more equitable and sustainable arts and health ecosystem in New York City.
Javier Silva is senior associate director of community engagement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Dr. Jill Sonke, PhD is a US Cultural Policy Fellow, Stanford University, and the Founding Director of the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida
Nisha Sajnani, PhD., RDT-BCT is a Professor at NYU Steinhardt, Director of the NYU Program in Drama Therapy and Theatre & Health Lab; Director of the Arts & Health @ NYU, and Founding Co-Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab. She leads a global network of researchers engaged at the intersection of arts, culture, and health and led the Lab-Lancet Collection on Arts and Health.
Larissa Trinder is the Assistant Vice President of NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine. She is responsible for stewarding NYC Health + Hospitals’ collection of more than 8,000 works of art, the largest such collection in New York City, as well as creating and implementing programs for patients, staff and the community that utilize the arts as a tool in healing.
Ha Nguyen, MA, MPH is the CEO and Founder, Ubiequity Partners. She is a healthcare policy and strategic leader whose work sits at the intersection of health, education, community, and equity.
Nils Fietje, PhD is a founder of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and Technical Officer within the Behavioural and Cultural Insights (BCI) Unit at the WHO Regional Office for Europe where he is leading efforts to understand how cultural contexts affect and interact with health and wellbeing across the lifespan and throughout the continuum of care. Dr. Fietje co-led the Lab-Lancet Collection on Arts and Health.
Nikos C. Stefanis MD, PhD, FRANZCP, is the Chairman of the First Dep/ment of Psychiatry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School (NKUA-MS) at Eginition Teaching Hospital
Agustín Ibáñez, PhD is a psychologist trained in electrophysiology at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Daisy Fancourt is a British researcher who is a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London. Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing.
