Epidemiologist Daisy Fancourt brought her case that the arts measurably improve health to the Young Vic stage for a single afternoon in September 2026.
Daisy Fancourt, professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, presented the case of her book Art Cure at the Young Vic in Waterloo on Sunday 27 September 2026. The broadcaster Hannah MacInnes hosted the afternoon.
Fancourt has spent her career turning a soft claim, that the arts are good for you, into a measured one. Her cohort studies ask whether people who go to concerts and galleries live longer, and what loneliness does to health. She also asks what happens when a doctor prescribes a choir instead of a drug.
During the pandemic she ran the largest British study of its psychological and social effects. The book, published in 2026, argues the arts are a fifth pillar of health alongside diet, sleep, exercise and nature.
Her findings are specific. Frequency matters more than a single visit, and participation outperforms passive attendance. The effects are large enough that the health service has begun acting on them through social prescribing.
The actress Tamzin Outhwaite, the actor Alfred Enoch and the Young Vic’s artistic director, Nadia Fall, joined Fancourt on the Main House stage. The talk fell in the middle of the theatre’s Thelma & Louise run.