Why a dose of art may be the cure for a number of society’s ailments

While developing art programs at a London hospital, Dr. Daisy Fancourt began collecting observations that would ultimately change the course of her life’s work. She watched as a child who’d been hospitalized for burns didn’t need morphine when he was watching a theater performance, and an adult patient with dementia who couldn’t remember her relatives began to sing along perfectly to a song the pianist was playing. “Isn’t this a lovely entertainment program?” Dr. Fancourt recalls one of the patient’s visitors saying. “I was realizing that, no, this is so much more than entertainment,” she said during a recent interview. “I’m seeing the tangible benefits this is having on people’s health.”...