In episode one, Dr. Uzo is joined by Kunle Adewale, UK-based Nigerian Multimedia Artist, Educator, Curator, Cultural Producer, Mental Health Advocate, and Arts in Health Practitioner. Uzo & Kunle discuss the role of art in healing, sharing personal stories from their lives and experiences in global health.

KUNLE ADEWALE
Kunle Adewale is a UK-based Nigerian Multimedia Artist, Educator, Curator, Cultural Producer, Mental Health Advocate, and Arts in Health Practitioner. He received his bachelor’s degree in painting and art history from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Kunle is the Global Development Lead and Curator of the Global South Arts and Health Week.
Kunle Adewale is the founder and executive director of the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, which has facilitated arts in health learning and interdisciplinary collaboration for over 1000 students and professionals from over 60 nations worldwide. Since its inception, his organization has helped over 50,000 people, including patients, carers, family members, and community members.
Kunle’s humanitarian art activities have benefited children, adolescents, and youths suffering from cancer, sickle cell anaemia, disabilities, mental illnesses, and older adults with dementia, as well as prison inmates and survivors of terrorist attacks in Nigeria. His art programs and global initiatives have been featured in international media, including the Voice of America in Washington, DC, France 24, Welt Spiegel, Aljazeera, Reuters, BBC Africa, The Guardian UK, CBC Canada, Europawok, Taiwan Plus TV, TV5 Monde France, VD News Germany, EAC News Cambodia, Global Business Outlook, TRT World, DW Deutsche Welle News Germany, ARTE.TV France, The Lancet Child, and Adolescent Health Journal are a few.
Kunle Adewale is a recipient of international honours, awards, and Fellowship. This includes the Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health Equity, Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco. Kunle Adewale is honoured by Cincinnati Mayor John Carnley, who proclaimed August 2nd as Kunle Adewale Day in the City with an Honorary Award for his Contribution to Arts in Medicine Initiatives in Nigeria, the United States and other countries across the globe. He is a recipient of the Mandela Washington Fellowship program of President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative. He was nominated for the Global Teacher Prize by the Varkey Foundation, United Kingdom, in 2014 and 2016.
Kunle was endorsed as a Global Talent Exceptional Leader by the Arts Council of England in 2022. He is a member of the WHO Arts Practice and Ethics of Care project’s cohort. In 2023, Kunle Adewale was appointed to a Steering Committee of the WHO-Jameel Arts & Health Lab in New York.

If you are interested in sharing your story on the Communal Healing podcast, please visit wellnesspromoters.net/communal-healing.

Learn more & connect with Mr. Adewale at kunleadewale.com.