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Christopher Bailey

Co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab
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Christopher Bailey is the co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, a collaboration between the World Health Organisation (WHO), NYU Steinhardt, Community Jameel and CULTURUNNERS, which coordinates and amplifies scientific research into the effectiveness of the arts in improving health and wellbeing, to promote its integration into mainstream healthcare and drive policy implementation across 193 UN member states.

Christopher is also the Arts and Health Lead at WHO. His Healing Arts Initiative which he co-founded, is looking at the evidence base for the health benefits of the arts by building up a global network of research centers to look at effective practice as well as the foundational science of why the arts may benefit physical, mental and social wellbeing. The emphasis of the program is supporting underserved communities around the world. The program also engages with the global media to promote pro health messaging and build solidarity on health issues through all media.

Educated at Columbia and Oxford University, as well as the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, after a career as a professional actor and playwright, Bailey joined the Rockefeller Foundation as their Research Manager, and from there was recruited to WHO where he led the Health Informatics work and later their online communications team before starting the Arts and Health program.

As an ambassador for the arts and health, Bailey has also performed original pieces such as 'Stage 4: Global Stories on Empathy and Health', and 'The Vanishing Point: A journey into Blindness and Perception', in venues around the world from the Hamwe Festival in Rwanda, to the Wellcome Collection in London, to the World Bank in DC, as well as Lincoln Center in NY, the LA Opera, LACMA, and Warner Bros Studios in LA, and the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco among many others.

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