Healing Arts Ukraine
Building on the success of Healing Arts Lviv 2025, the initiative was scaled up to become Healing Arts Ukraine — an arts and health campaign to support military health, veteran recovery and civilian resilience in times of conflict.
The project took place in Lviv from 23 to 30 June and brought together government and international institutions, healthcare professionals, educators, artists, and mental health practitioners to exchange knowledge, share evidence and practices, and explore ways of integrating arts-based approaches into Ukraine’s healthcare, education, and social protection systems.
The initiative combined capacity building activities with a sustained national advocacy campaign aimed at institutionalizing arts and health practices across Ukraine’s healthcare, education, and social protection sectors.
Why arts & health?
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country has faced an unprecedented mental health crisis affecting millions — including children, military personnel, veterans, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and civilian populations. The war has created an urgent need for accessible, effective, and culturally appropriate approaches to psychosocial support and mental health care.
The arts offer a way to respond to this crisis. Creative practices provide innovative pathways to process trauma, restore agency, rebuild social connections, and foster resilience. However, despite growing recognition of the arts’ value for health, the sector in Ukraine faces persistent challenges:
- Fragmentation: Practitioners and organizations work in isolation with limited coordination.
- Lack of integration: Arts-based interventions remain largely outside formal healthcare and social protection systems.
- Limited capacity: There is a shortage of trained specialists in trauma-informed arts approaches.
- Insufficient advocacy: Policymakers and funders are not yet fully aware of the evidence base and potential impact.
Healing Arts Ukraine laid the groundwork for a permanent national platform and awareness campaign by:
- Advocating for the integration of arts interventions into Ukraine’s mental health infrastructure through a sustained national campaign.
- Showcasing leading existing arts-for-health initiatives to a broader public through curated presentations and public events, increasing the visibility and accessibility of proven practices in the field.
- Facilitating cross-sector collaboration between cultural, health, and educational institutions.
- Providing capacity-building activities, policy development sessions, and the Trauma-Attuned Arts School for professionals.
Components
Trauma-Attuned Arts School — June 23–26
The school aimed to deepen understanding of the role of art in dealing with trauma and to create a network of artists, mental health professionals, educators, healthcare and social workers who can promote a trauma-attuned approach in their fields, strengthening society’s ability to respond to trauma.
The school brought together 35 artists, psychologists, educators, and health and social care professionals from different regions of Ukraine. The programme included lectures by Ukrainian and international experts, practical workshops, facilitated discussions, and collaborative work.
Congress on Arts and Health — June 27–30
The Congress brought together around 100 representatives of government and international organisations, healthcare, cultural and educational institutions, researchers, and other professionals working at the intersection of arts and health. Its aim was to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, share existing research and practical experience from Ukraine and abroad, and develop recommendations for the Ministries of Culture, Health, and Social Policy on integrating arts-based approaches, including arts on prescription, into healthcare and psychosocial support systems.
The programme included talks, presentations, panel discussions, and facilitated group work. Participants explored international experience and its potential adaptation to the Ukrainian context, approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of arts programmes, and the development of arts and health policy.
Showcase — June 23–30
Throughout the week, Lviv hosted concerts, performances, exhibitions, workshops, and other events highlighting the role of arts and culture in supporting and restoring mental health. The programme showcased a diverse range of artistic practices addressing trauma, memory, resilience, and recovery, engaging around 5,000 visitors and participants across its events.
Healing Arts Ukraine was spearheaded by Art Therapy Force as part of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab’s global Healing Arts initiative. The campaign was supported by the WHO Regional Office for Europe through the EU-funded Health Resilience in the Eastern Partnership Programme and co-produced by a national coalition of organisations working at the intersection of culture, healthcare, education, and policy, including the Lviv City Council, LME ‘Lviv radio’, the Institute for Cultural Strategy, the UNBROKEN Rehabilitation Centre, and King’s College London.
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