In Ukraine, a new campaign is highlighting a powerful source of support: the arts.
Launched by WHO/Europe and partners (including the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and Art Therapy Force), Healing Arts Ukraine aims to show how creative practices can help people build resilience and recover during war.
Starting in June 2026, the campaign’s message is that healing can come through creative expression as well as clinical care. In a country enduring the strains of war, the arts are being recognised and used as a meaningful part of resilience and recovery.
Campaign focus
The campaign was introduced at a roundtable in the British House of Commons on 9 March 2026, titled “Healing Arts in Times of War”. The launch brought together voices from the culture and health sectors to explore how arts-based approaches can support Ukraine’s health system and respond to the needs of communities living through ongoing hardship and conflict.
WHO/Europe says the campaign will focus on accessible, evidence-based and scalable creative methods, including art therapy, hospital-based interventions and community cultural initiatives. The aim of these approaches is to support health and wellbeing but also strengthen other systems that help people in crisis.
Arts support recovery
The initiative is based directly on people’s experiences. Discussions at the launch highlighted how arts-based interventions are already helping veterans in rehabilitation and supporting civilians facing stress, disruption and loss in their daily lives, as well as helping children who are growing up in the conflict. With this background, the arts are presented as an essential part of recovery that draw on social connections and human dignity.
The work includes a national asset map of arts and health resources and further capacity-building activities in Ukraine.
Health resilience programme
The campaign also sits within the WHO/Europe’s wider work on culture and health in Ukraine, as well as its Health Resilience in the Eastern Partnership programme. The three-year health initiative aims to strengthen emergency and health response capacity in five countries, including Ukraine, while supporting health-care workers, mental health services and collaboration with the cultural sector.
References
- WHO and partners launch Ukraine campaign to spotlight healing power of arts. Available at: https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/28-04-2026-who-and-partners-launch-ukraine-campaign-to-spotlight-healing-power-of-arts (Accessed 5 May 2026)
