Artistic expression grew in lockstep with human cultural development and has long played an integral part in how we teach, learn, communicate and heal. Since our earliest ancestors began telling stories to make sense of the world, we have evolved to learn from narrative, be it through visual media, song or performance. The arts are uniquely suited to help us understand and communicate concepts and emotions by drawing on all our senses and capacity for empathy. In recent decades, we have come to understand the intrinsic health benefits to artistic and leisure activities. Art can help us to emotionally navigate the journey of battling an illness or injury, to process difficult emotions in times of emergency and challenging events. The creation and enjoyment of the arts helps promote holistic wellness and can be a motivating factor in recovery. Including the arts in health care delivery has been shown to support positive clinical outcomes for patients while also supporting other stakeholders, including health care providers, the patient’s loved ones and the wider community. Benefits are seen across several markers, including health promotion, the management of health conditions and illness, and disease prevention.

Research by the WHO Regional Office for Europe has shown that the use of artistic media in health care and in communities can have a variety of benefits for health outcomes. They can be used to communicate valuable messages across cultures and political divides, help affected communities understand the risks of certain diseases or behaviours and provide ways for affected populations to process and learn from their individual and collective experience to improve their wellbeing among other benefits.

The 1947 Constitution of the World Health Organization states, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” With this in mind, WHO has always long used the arts in its work on health promotion and communication. Anthropology has shown that in early human history, art, religion and healing evolved in the same social space. In 2019, WHO began testing arts interventions to advance specific health goals, including universal health coverage (UHC), mental health and suicide prevention, maternal health, blindness prevention and quality of care, in addition to historic efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention. Collaborations with global media companies provide local-language programming on health issues in many areas of the world. Over the past two decades, innovations incorporating the arts and health have been used to enhance physical and emotional support for resilience and wellbeing in communities, complementing and supporting therapeutic, rehabilitative and preventive efforts, increasing awareness of health and contributing to emergency preparedness. WHO’s Regional Office for Europe is leading work into research on the effect of art in health through its Behavioural and Cultural Insights program.