From left, Moderator Madeleine McGirk Rutherford, with panelists Hōkū Pavao, Mariana Rosa and Nisha Sajnani, on stage through the “Artwork & Well being Panel: Exploring the Energy of the Arts in Well being – A International Perspective,” held at Lincoln Middle for the Performing Arts on July 11, 2025.
Photograph courtesy Lincoln Middle for the Performing Arts
On July 11, the Lincoln Middle for the Performing Arts (LCPA), in partnership with the Worldwide Instructing Artists Collective (ITAC), hosted the digital occasion, “Artwork & Well being Panel: Exploring the Energy of the Arts in Well being – A International Perspective,” as part of the Summer time Discussion board from July 9-12, which was included within the 2025 Summer time for the Metropolis Sequence.
Madeleine McGirk Rutherford, the present managing director of ITAC, moderated the panel. Hoku Pavao, Mariana Rosa, and Nisha Sajnani, Ph.D., RDT-BCT, have been panelists in attendance.
Pavao co-founded Hidden Narratives on the Archive for Well being Arts and Spirit (AHAS). Rosa is a educating artist and actress in ITAC. Sajnani is the director of the graduate program in Drama Remedy at New York College (NYU) Steinhardt and the co-director of the Jameel Arts & Well being Lab.
Rutherford was born and grew up within the north east of Scotland, and is now based mostly in Edinburgh, whereas Sajnani was born in Canada to oldsters of Indian heritage. She grew up in a multicultural, multi-lingual surroundings, which formed her appreciation for numerous methods of figuring out and being.
“I used to be surrounded by music, storytelling, and the performing arts — practices that have been deeply rooted in neighborhood and used not only for celebration, however for therapeutic and meaning-making. That basis has had an enduring affect on how I see the connection between tradition and wellbeing,” Sajnani added.
Rutherford’s curiosity in pursuing a profession in arts and well being began when she educated as an actor and a filmmaker, and he or she had at all times been concerned in drama teams her complete life. “It was like a window into an countless quantity of recent views and intentions, and it constructed a a lot higher degree of functionality for empathy and perception into others, which I carry with me right now,” she defined.
Her profession began after she completed college, when she additionally labored as an actor. Throughout that point, she started freelancing and educating at native youth theatres. She was additionally employed to be the educating artist for a nationwide youngsters’s charity that works in schooling, citizenship, and language studying.
“In that position, I ran a movie making challenge for younger individuals, a lot of whom had just lately arrived within the nation, some who had accomplished so underneath actually troublesome or traumatic circumstances, and a few who didn’t have any English but in any respect. We labored collectively to create quick movies which advised the tales of their perspective on citizenship, or life generally, and it was essentially the most significant work I had ever skilled,” she added.
She joined ITAC in 2018 because the Founding Managing Director, so her job is to construct the worldwide community for educating artists (TAs). Thus, she will assist ITAC’s present members with instruments, capability constructing, and connections to 1 one other.
Describing her work, Rutherford acknowledged, “I strive to verify ITAC is an area the place particular person TAs can discover one another, find out about how others are approaching Arts and Well being (amongst different issues), and have the house to broaden their apply. We accomplice with huge establishments to attempt to advance the agenda general at nationwide and worldwide ranges.”
Sajnani co-directs the Jameel Arts & Well being Lab, a worldwide collaboration with the World Well being Group, NYU Steinhardt, Culturunners, and Group Jameel, wherein the mission is to enhance lives via the humanities measurably. We do that by advancing analysis, coverage, and public consciousness about how the humanities contribute to well being and wellbeing.
“We work with ministries of well being and tradition, UN businesses, artists, artistic arts therapists, and researchers to construct the proof base for arts-based interventions and to advertise their integration into well being methods around the globe,” Sajnani mentioned when discussing her work.
As well as, Rutherford and Sajnani shared among the initiatives they’ve every seen carried out which have benefited the individuals affected by bodily and psychological well being points the place they reside.
Rutherford talked about a couple of examples in Scotland, such because the “Scottish Ballet runs some superb Dance for Parkinson’s workshops, and Bazooka Arts in Glasgow gives therapeutic arts tasks for kids and adults to enhance well being and wellbeing.”
Sajnani talked about that right here in New York, NYC Well being + Hospitals, the most important public hospital system within the US, has led the way in which by embedding artists in residence to convey magnificence into medical areas. Additionally they interact a sturdy staff of artistic arts therapists who present medical companies throughout the hospital.
She added, “Our lab is presently main a Lancet world sequence on the well being advantages of the humanities to offer a abstract of present proof and a roadmap to advancing apply, analysis, and coverage.”
Rutherford believes that different issues that may assist these with bodily and psychological well being points in Scotland embody funding the prescribed arts actions as well being packages and connecting approaches between the well being and humanities sectors and their budgets.
Sajnani expressed the same sentiment: “We want sustained funding in community-based arts packages which can be accessible and culturally related. This contains funding artists as public well being staff, coaching well being professionals in arts-based approaches, and creating insurance policies that acknowledge the humanities as a determinant of well being. We additionally have to prioritize quantitative and qualitative analysis to make seen the worth of those interventions and assist their integration into mainstream care. Lastly, we want avenues to trade good apply throughout borders.”
Rutherford would “urge international locations inquisitive about modern approaches to this to take a look at the work of Public Well being Scotland, and Therapeutic Arts Scotland.” Sajnani advises international locations excited about getting concerned on this work: “Begin by constructing partnerships with native artists and cultural organizations.”
Suppose it’s too quickly to start one thing at a regional/nationwide degree, and people need to begin, in that case, that is her recommendation: “I’d urge docs and people in well being to strategy native artists they might know who’re working in communities, invite them in to work with sufferers, and watch the magic occur for themselves.”
Sajnani advises docs and different well being care professionals: “Hearken to your sufferers — many already flip to the humanities for assist. Confer with the rising proof base, together with WHO experiences and peer-reviewed research, to advocate inside your establishments. You don’t need to be an artist to prescribe arts actions, however you possibly can assist create the circumstances for social prescribing to thrive.”
