Twenty-five art students of the Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Lagos State, have explored mental health and emotional well-being by way of art in a workshop geared toward encouraging conversations round mental health.
The two-day Health Story Lab, organised by the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA), Pan-Atlantic University, in collaboration with the Art for Health Initiative (AHI), was held on 2 and three October in Lagos.
The programme, titled “What We Carry: Stories of Mental Health and Resilience”, introduced collectively art, public health, mental health and storytelling to assist the students discover how artistic expression can be utilized to talk experiences which may be troublesome to focus on overtly.
The workshop was held forward of World Mental Health Day (WMHD), marked yearly on 10 October.
Using art to focus on mental health
The students participated in classes on public health and art, mental health and resilience, artistic expression and art for social change.
According to the organisers, the discussions gave the students a possibility to mirror on points reminiscent of stress, uncertainty, social stress, household expectations, grief, worry and hope.
The students subsequently developed artistic ideas and obtained suggestions from facilitators and their friends.
The students additionally examined the position of art in health communication throughout a session led by Olayinka Badmus, a public health strategist. The session explored how artistic expression can talk public health points and make health conversations extra accessible.
Another session, led by psychiatrist and psychotherapist Emmanuel Abayomi, targeted on mental health and resilience, whereas Art Project Lead Temitope Oladeji guided students to specific their experiences and feelings by way of art. The programme additionally included a museum tour targeted on art for social change, led by a museum educator, Charles Udeh.
Solomon Nkwagu, Head of Corporate Communication and Visitors’ Services at YSMA, stated the programme confirmed the potential of art to encourage conversations round public and mental health.
“They began to see the possibility of using their creative voices to start conversations around public and mental health, to tell stories that people can recognise themselves in, and perhaps even to create moments of reflection and healing for others. That shift in perspective was one of the most rewarding parts of the programme,” Mr Nkwagu stated.
In her remarks, Chidera Aneke, Founder of AHI, stated the initiative was designed to make health communication extra participatory, culturally related and emotionally participating.
Ms Aneke stated health info might be communicated not solely by way of statistics and medical info but additionally by way of tales, photographs, symbols, feelings and lived experiences.
“We wanted to create a space where young artists could understand that health is not only communicated through statistics, campaigns or clinical information. It can also be communicated through stories, images, symbols, emotions and lived experiences,” she stated.
“Working with the students showed us the possibilities that emerge when artists are given the knowledge, language and space to think about health through their own creative practice.”
Mental health burden
Mental health stays a major public health concern in Nigeria.
A 2026 systematic evaluate and meta-analysis of 53 research involving greater than 132,000 folks estimated that 7.9 per cent of the final inhabitants had skilled suicidal ideas, whereas 1.9 per cent had made suicidal plans and 1.3 per cent had tried suicide.
The researchers stated suicidal behaviour was extra widespread amongst some teams, together with adolescents, younger folks, and pregnant girls.
This 12 months’s World Mental Health Day theme is “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is asking for individuals who have skilled mental health circumstances to have a significant position in shaping insurance policies, companies and selections that have an effect on them.
“World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health conditions and to recognise their knowledge as a vital form of expertise,” it famous.
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“This year’s campaign calls for their voices to shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives.”
From workshop to exhibition
The Yabatech students will develop artworks primarily based on the problems explored in the course of the workshop.
The works are anticipated to type a micro-exhibition in Lagos in November, giving members of the general public a possibility to interact with mental health and resilience by way of the views of younger artists.
The organisers stated the initiative is meant to reveal how partnerships between the artistic sector, museums and public health practitioners can create new methods of discussing mental health.
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