Healing Arts Scotland

Healing Arts Scotland 2024 was a nation-wide festival celebrating and advocating for improved physical, mental and social health through the arts. Spearheaded by Scottish Ballet as part of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab’s global ‘Healing Arts’ campaign in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the one-week activation was launched as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and produced in collaboration with a national coalition of organisations and communities across Scotland.

Holyrood, Scotland – 21 January 2025

Scottish Ballet and the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the “Healing Arts Scotland” impact report at the Scottish Parliament. This ground-breaking report showcases the impact of the world’s first national arts and health week which took place across Scotland in August 2024, incorporating 376 events and attracting over 11,000 attendees. The report positions Scotland as a global leader in arts and health and highlights areas in which evidence-based arts programmes can support public health.

The Healing Arts Scotland event at the Scottish Parliament was attended by key representatives of the Scottish Government, and showcased the research outcomes of the report, prepared by Edinburgh University, laying the groundwork for a new Scottish cross-parliamentary group focused on arts and health.

Speakers including Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angiolina Foster, Chair of Public Health Scotland; and Christopher Bailey – Arts & Health Lead, WHO & Founding Co-Director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab, recognised the role Healing Arts Scotland had played in ensuring that scientific evidence for the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing is informing public health policy in Scotland.

As well as the new cross-parliamentary group, policy initiatives directly informed by Healing Arts Scotland include embedding evidence-based arts and health activities in Public Health Scotland to help reduce health inequalities that affect over 5.4 million people and support the prevention and management of physical and mental health conditions.

At the end of the event, Scottish Ballet was designated by the Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organisation as the second global Jameel Arts & Health Lab Healing Arts Center of Excellence, a recognition of its outstanding leadership of Healing Arts Scotland 2024 and its ongoing commitment to improving community health through the arts. This follows the designation of Carnegie Hall in New York during the 2024 UN General Assembly as the inaugural Jameel Arts & Health Lab Healing Arts Center of Excellence.

I congratulate Scottish Ballet, the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and the World Health Organization for demonstrating how the arts might help us reimagine our national model of health and social care in a way that can measurably impact communities. Healing Arts Scotland was a celebration of how the arts can create skylights of hope and joy for those people who need it the most.

Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Gregor Smith

The Healing Arts Scotland Impact report follows the publication earlier this month of the Frontier Economics report, which has revealed the improvements to people’s health and wellbeing that come from engagement with arts and culture are worth more than £8bn a year to the UK economy.

Read HAS Report

 My main ambition for Healing Arts Scotland was to consult with, and include, as many voices and perspectives from arts and health organisations as possible, reaching groups of all sizes and across communities. Planning for the event also became a catalyst for new creative partnerships and new ways of presenting work. The impact highlighted in this report is just the beginning.

Catherine Cassidy-Dedics, Director of Organisational Culture & Engagement at Scottish Ballet 

Many cities around the world have taken part in our series of Healing Arts activations, but Scotland was the first to take a truly national approach. Scotland’s unique sense of community, its embrace of all art forms, and its commitment to health for all was an exciting combination.

Christopher Bailey, WHO Arts and Health Lead and Co-Director of the Jameel Health and Arts Lab 

 We are thrilled to bring this important conversation to the Scottish Parliament. The Healing Arts Scotland report is the result of months of collaboration with communities, artists, and healthcare professionals. Today’s launch is not just the release of a report—it is a call to action. The evidence is clear: the arts have a vital role to play in Scotland’s health and wellbeing strategy, and we hope to see further investment and policy support in this area.

Stephen Stapleton, Co-Director of Jameel Health and Arts Lab