Arts for Antimicrobial Resistance

ARTS4AMR (Arts for Antimicrobial Resistance) is a pilot project for arts-based awareness-raising on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in an underserved population in urban Bangladesh. This project aims to highlight the value of embedding arts and culture into public health interventions.

The World Health Organisation recognises AMR as one of the top global public health and development threats, as antibiotics become increasingly ineffective through overuse. This is a complex and multifaceted issue, and addressing this needs an interdisciplinary approach taking into consideration global social, political and cultural, as well as medical, challenges.

The ARTS4AMR project focuses on the core theme of Global Health, as part of the ‘What Comes After the UN Sustainable Development Goals?’ Headline Theme programme.

The project team aim to enhance participant experience and community involvement, and amplify voices of marginalised participants, by incorporating arts-based participatory research methods. Crucially, they are doing so by bringing in cultural practitioners at the start of the process, to co-produce the outputs. This is to create a more impactful intervention that is holistic and culturally-informed from the outset.

Looking forward, this project will act as a case study presenting the potential for arts practitioners and students to apply their expertise to AMR research areas in an interdisciplinary way, rather than simply as a delivery mechanism.

“This project feels particularly exciting as we're bringing together key stakeholders at the point of intervention development. Artists will shape the timing, duration and style of the performances with oversight from public health researchers to ensure the accuracy of messages.

“We want this project to feel like co-production from the outset, with intervention development sessions based on knowledge exchange rather than top-down teaching and learning. 

“My hope is to see that, in engaging local artists in the very early stages of development, the interventions are locally appropriate and engaging. Ideally, we will see an intervention where local people are engaged, entertained and informed about antibiotics.”
– Nichola Jones

Project team

Project lead: Dr Nichola Jones    
In-country partners:

  • ARK Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh 
  • Md Badruddin Saify, Junior Research Associate

Further information

If you would like to know more about this project, please email the Horizons Institute at horizons@leeds.ac.uk.