About HCIM
Let’s celebrate the journey – and imagine what’s next
The biggest event of the year - and a celebration!
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
What began as a spark has become a movement. And now, from 11–13 March 2026, it’s your time to be part of it – in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Set between lake and mountains, Lausanne is where science meets art, and where beauty meets purpose. Home to EPFL (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) – one of Europe’s leading centres for innovation – it offers a powerful setting for HCIM 2026, unfolding on its inspiring campus.
In these transformative times, the power of human connection, trust, and creativity is more vital than ever. With the theme «Shaping the future of healthcare together», the program offers space to reflect, exchange, and explore how laughter and compassion are reshaping care across cultures and communities.
Let this be your moment – to honour the path and help shape what comes next.
With heartfelt anticipation,
Miriam Bass Costantini & Alexander Milligan
Organizers, Healthcare Clowning International Meeting 2026
Let’s celebrate the journey – and imagine what’s next
In 2026, we’ll gather at a meaningful crossroads: 40 years of healthcare clowning and 10 years since the first Healthcare Clowning International Meeting (HCIM) sparked global exchange and collaboration.
You, the artists and managing teams, healthcare professionals, researchers, organizers and curious minds – you are the heart of this movement. And HCIM 2026 is where we’ll come together again to share what we’ve learned, dream forward, and celebrate all we’ve built.
This edition will be rich in exchange, reflection, and energy – a space to reconnect across borders and disciplines, and to explore the powerful role of presence, play, and care in healthcare.
We are all aware of how important it is to develop healthcare clowning hand in hand with our healthcare partners. Thus, the program revolves around the motto «Shaping the future of healthcare clowning together» structured around five key themes:
- Performing arts and clowning in healthcare – how imagination, humour, and play support patients, families, and care teams – and help transform clinical spaces
- Art of connecting – how we build trust, give and receive feedback, and create meaningful moments of contact in vulnerable settings
- Sustainable management and fundraising strategies – how NGOs stay mission-driven, resilient, and ready to grow in a fast-changing world
- Research, impact and social sustainability – how data, evidence, and research methods help us evaluate, understand and strengthen our impact
- The future of humanizing care – how we can keep care creative, co-constructed, and focused on what really matters to patients
Christopher Bailey, Arts and Health Lead at WHO, reminded us at HCIM 2022:
Curing is not the same as caring.
That simple truth continues to guide our shared commitment – to bring presence, joy, and human connection into care environments around the world.
So yes – you can be part of it. In person. In dialogue. In motion.
Join us in 2026 as we honour the past, connect in the present, and create the future – together.
Who is it for?
When a healthcare clown steps into the room, it’s never just their talent that makes a difference. It’s the combined effort – from care professionals, artists, program leads, fundraisers, and researchers – all contributing to create presence, relieve fear and pain, and offer light in difficult moments.
HCIM 2026 brings together everyone involved in this vital work – to connect, learn, and shape what comes next.
Ask yourself:
- Do you want to deepen the skills you already bring?
- Are you curious about what’s working well elsewhere – and why?
- Would you like to explore how healthcare clowning and care systems collaborate?
- Are you looking for new energy, inspiration, and ideas to grow your practice?
- Do you care about connection, creativity, and change?
Then yes - this meeting is for you.
Whether you're a healthcare clown, a medical or healthcare professional, a researcher, a fundraiser, a manager, or someone who makes this work possible from behind the scenes – you belong in the room.
