Chidera Rosecamille Aneke

What do we carry that people cannot see? 💛

That question helped shape “What We Carry: Stories of Mental Health and Resilience,” our two-day workshop under our new program - Health Story Lab.

It began when @jesscastellote , the Director of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, told me we should do something together, while we were walking to lunch during a 2-day workshop held for Arts and Culture Journalists in June 2026.

I went home, thought about it and On October 2nd and 3rd that conversation became a collaboration between @artforhealthinitiative and @shyllonmuseum, bringing together 26 art students 25 from Yabatech’s Epe Annex and 4 journalists.

Ahead of World Mental Health Day, we created space to explore emotions, the pressures young people navigate, and how art can help us communicate experiences that are sometimes difficult to explain. And they did, I was incredibly in awe at the session they had with @dr.emmanuelabayomi and earlier in day 1 when @drbaddie told the students a story on post partum depression and the students were able to interpret that using art and spoken word I was shocked and grateful we made this decision.

For me, this is why Art for Health Initiative exists: to make health conversations more accessible through creativity and invite people to contribute their own perspectives. @thetemitopeoladeji came on day 2 to now harness how students can create art using colors to express certain emotions.

Thank you to Jess, @ozzidy Vivian the museum team, Mr Ajayi from Yabatech our facilitators my team at Art for Health Initiative and every student who brought their ideas into the conversation.

Next, the students will develop artworks for a micro-exhibition planned for 18th November in Lagos during the microbe madness 2.0 event. These conversations will take new forms, and I can’t wait to share them.