Date

19-23 August 2024

Location

Events across Scotland

Price

Free and paid events. Booking required.

Healing Arts is the global outreach campaign of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Healing Arts Scotland is the first ever countrywide Healing Arts Week, following previous city-wide celebrations around the world, including New York, Paris, London, Venice and Jaipur.

Every day in Scotland, arts and health initiatives take place all across the country that help improve people’s wellbeing. Healing Arts Scotland is a week-long celebration of these events, hosted in collaboration with Scottish Ballet, highlighting the joy they bring to those who take part, and their importance to the nation’s physical, mental and social health.

What’s Happening 

  • Healing Arts Scotland Opening Celebration: Taking place outside the Scottish Parliament on Monday 19 August at 4pm, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and Festival of Politics. This opening event features over 250 performers and participants from across Scotland in an energetic celebration of music and dance that captures the spirit and healing power of coming together through the performing arts.
  • Healing Arts Scotland Conference: Edinburgh, 19 – 20 August | Glasgow, 21 August. The HAS Conference features Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Gregor Smith, as well as leading international arts and health figures. Four specially curated panels as part of the Festival of Politics at Scottish Parliament will focus on Healing Arts Scotland’s key themes of loneliness and isolation, dementia, young peoples’ mental health, social prescribing and arts in confined spaces.
  • Healing Arts Scotland, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, NHS Grampian and local cultural and community partners will lead a day of performances, workshops and events on 22 August.
  • Healing Arts Scotland Islands Day: 19 – 20 August | Orkney, Lewis and Shetland. HAS Islands Day will act as a platform to amplify the voices of Scottish Island communities with a particular interest on their experiences surrounding the arts in health and wellbeing. This will include community-based events by NHS Orkney, An Lanntair, Lewis and other organisations.

The Healing Arts Scotland website features an interactive map showing all the Healing Arts activities happening across the country: https://www.healingartsscotland.org/

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