At Young Leaders for Arts & Health Ireland Summit, Stakeholders Embrace Collaborative Practice

Yinka Olatunbosun

The Young Leaders for Arts & Health Ireland Summit, held from 4–5 September 4th to 5th at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), concluded with resounding success. The summit saw a convergence of emerging leaders, global experts, and cultural institutions committed to transforming public health through creativity.

Co-produced by RCSI, Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, IMMA, Arts in Health Ireland, Réalta and Trinity College Dublin, the two-day summit showcased youth-led innovation and explored how the arts can reshape health systems, amplify community voices, and drive policy change across Ireland and beyond.

Speaking at the Summit, Dr. Niall Muldoon, Ireland’s Ombudsman for Children and Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, said: “It’s time for the government and state in general to take a look at the biopsychosocial creative movement to recognise that people’s health, people’s medicine, is not just about drugs and surgery. There’s much more to the holistic person to be cared for. The movement to a biopsychosocial creative medical system would be to everybody’s advancement.”

The opening day at RCSI featured keynote presentations, expert panels, performances, and parallel plenary sessions addressing climate grief, neurodiversity, cultural spaces, and youth mental health. Delegates engaged with leading voices including Dr. Michael Daly, whose pioneering work at the intersection of cardiology, medical humanities, and immersive learning is an asset to humanity.

The Experts Panel assembled policymakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners who examined how evidence-based creative practices are influencing policy, shifting public narratives, and transforming support systems for young people.

In his speech, Dr. Kunle Adewale, Founder and Executive Director, Young Leaders for Arts and Health, remarked: “We need to translate government policies into actionable steps that support youth mental health and wellbeing through cross-sector and interdisciplinary collaborations.

“When young people lead with imagination and purpose, health and hope become possible. Their creativity lights the path toward a world where art is not only expression, but transformation, where every voice contributes to building a more compassionate, resilient, and thriving society.”

Dr. Trudy Meehan, Lecturer and Researcher at the Center for Positive Health Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, reiterated the value of the summit in highlighting the way the arts can create safe spaces for young people and open pathways to participation.

“The summit opened a space for neurodivergent people’s lived experience to be valued and heard. Not only our lived experience, but our actual whole selves were supported to be in the space in an authentic way without pressure to mask or perform to neurotypical norms. It was a beautiful way to be ‘Divergently Together’.”

One of the highlights of the day was the activation of the Young Leaders Design Lab, a flagship global creative health innovation programme. It is designed to empower young people with the knowledge, expertise, skills, tools, mentorship, and collaborative platforms needed to design arts-based solutions for mental health and community wellbeing.

The Young Leaders Design Lab is purpose-built to generate scalable, high-impact prototypes that respond to pressing health and social challenges, positioning youth as co-architects of transformative change.

The second-day at IMMA offered immersive workshops, performances, and cross-cultural exchanges, reinforcing the summit’s commitment to participatory practice and community-driven design.

Melissa Ndakengerwa, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Executive, Public Engagement, Irish Museum of Modern Art, said: “What stood out to me at the YLAH Ireland Summit was its truly interdisciplinary design. We were able to bring artists, health practitioners, students,
museum professionals, and people from different arts organisations into one shared space.”

She stressed how the summit created a rare opportunity to hear different perspectives, exchange knowledge, and break down the barriers that often keep sectors apart.

In the same vein, Dr. Jennifer Donnelly, Postdoctoral Researcher, RCSI reflected on the summit.

“Watching the young leaders in the room, their energy, curiosity, and inspiration felt genuinely powerful. It reminded me why this kind of cross-sector gathering matters. It’s inspiring to see so many young people doing amazing initiatives in this space and creating some incredible work that’s inspired me that I’m going to take forward into my research and hopefully we’ll just see ripples and more ideas and collaborations coming from events like these. Youth leadership is so important. Youth leadership is the way forward.”

The Young Leaders for Arts & Health initiative, launched in 2025 by Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat, Commonwealth Leadership Institute, and 100+ organisations across the world, has already reached over 300,000 people across 16 cities worldwide, demonstrating the global momentum behind creative health youth leadership.

The 2026 Ireland Summit stands as a landmark gathering celebrating youth leadership, strengthening cross-sector collaboration, and advancing a future where arts and health work together to build thriving, inclusive communities.