Hong Kong Global Arts & Health Festival 2026

Join the Hong Kong Global Arts & Health Festival to explore how arts and culture support health. Free, first come, first served. The Hong Kong Global Arts and Health Festival is an international gathering bringing together leading researchers, practitioners, policymakers, artists, cultural leaders and community organisations to explore how arts, culture and creativity can support health and well-being across the life course. The Festival builds on the work of the Global South Arts and Health Initiative and the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, which have connected communities and practitioners across more than 50 countries. With Hong Kong Baptist University as its academic partner, the Festival brings this growing global movement to Hong Kong, creating a platform for exchange between international expertise and locally rooted knowledge and practice. At a time of growing challenges including loneliness, mental ill-health, ageing populations, chronic illness and widening health inequalities, there is increasing interest in the role that arts and cultural engagement can play in supporting healthier individuals and communities. The Festival will explore not only emerging evidence and practice, but also how arts and health approaches can be embedded within communities, health systems and public policy. Why Hong Kong? Why Now? Hong Kong offers a distinctive setting for these conversations, with its strong academic institutions, diverse cultural landscape, rapidly ageing population and position as a regional hub connecting communities across Asia and internationally. By convening global experts alongside Hong Kong practitioners, artists, community organisations and policymakers, the Festival aims to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, encourage new research and practice, and create opportunities for longer-term investment in arts and health. Through this exchange, the Festival seeks to contribute to a broader international conversation about how arts, culture and creativity can become part of how we understand and promote health, well-being and human flourishing.