Your Brain on Art

We are so honored and proud to receive the prestigious Find Your Light Foundation Award for Arts in Healing! What an unforgettable evening filled with art, education, joy, and hope — a powerful reminder of how the arts can truly change the world. Sharing the night with incredible talents like Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Ben Folds, Renée Fleming, Elmo and Ernie, amazing students, musicians, and so many more made it absolutely magical. Thank you to so many friends and colleagues who joined us. Grateful beyond words to be part of a community that believes in creative expression as a force for learning, healing and transformation. Thank you for this honor! Here are just a few images that capture the spirit of the event! Enjoy!

Did you know that many Nobel Prize-winning scientists are also dedicated artists? Research by Michèle Root-Bernstein and Robert Root-Bernstein, who studied 773 Nobel laureates from 1901 to 2008, found that these renowned scientists often share a deep, lifelong connection to the arts. Nobel laureates are significantly more likely than average scientists to have training in the arts and crafts, to write creatively, or to engage in visual arts. This isn’t just a fun coincidence. Many Nobel Prize winners describe their artistic pursuits as essential to their scientific creativity. For instance, Santiago Ramón y Cajal—awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906—combined his scientific insight with over 2,900 meticulous drawings, helping to establish the neuron doctrine that still forms the basis of modern neuroscience. Rather than seeing the arts as separate from science, these laureates tend to cultivate what researchers call “integrated networks of transdisciplinary enterprise.” In other words, they consciously blend diverse ways of thinking to see connections others might overlook. The findings even suggest that maintaining an intellectually engaging artistic hobby may be more predictive of long-term creative success than traditional metrics like grades or IQ. So if you find yourself doodling during a meeting, writing poetry on the weekends, or picking up that guitar again—take it as a sign you might be building mental pathways that support innovation and insight. As the research suggests, engaging in the arts isn’t a detour from rigorous thinking—it may be a powerful way to deepen it. How have the arts influenced your own problem-solving, creativity, or scientific thinking? Research literature: https://lnkd.in/eQec4sUN https://lnkd.in/e6rGMKXu

We are deeply honored to share that we will be receiving the Find Your Light Foundation Arts for Healing Award at the Benefit Concert for Arts Education on October 8th. This recognition means so much to us—it shines a light on the growing field of neuroarts, where science and the arts come together to heal, inspire, and transform lives. We’re thrilled to be part of an incredible evening, hosted by Josh Groban, celebrating the power of artistic expression, alongside an extraordinary lineup of performers including Ben Folds, Norah Jones, Terence Blanchard, Jordan Fisher, Elmo and Ernie (yes, that Elmo and Ernie!), and many more. Now more than ever, the world needs the arts as a vital force for health, learning, and emotional well-being, especially for young people. The future depends on nurturing imagination, empathy, and connection for our youth and the arts are essential to that mission. Learn more here: https://fylf.org

Ivy and I were honored to join Joshua Steinfeldt on The Courageous Life podcast. The conversation felt fresh, grounded, and deeply timely—one of those rare moments where ideas flow with ease and meaning. We explored how to bring the principles of neuroarts forward in every sector of society, from health and education to the built environment and beyond. Grateful for the exchange, and for the ongoing work of exploring what truly supports us in living fully.

What an absolute joy to join the deeply thoughtful and passionate Joshua Steinfeldt, MAPP, PCC on The Courageous Life podcast. Our conversation was rich and wide-ranging—spanning art, life, community, and the essential role of aesthetic experiences in healing and human flourishing. Joshua’s curiosity and depth of inquiry created such a thoughtful space, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to reflect on what we've learned through our four-year research collaboration. Creative expression isn’t about becoming something new—it’s about returning to something ancient and deeply familiar. The freedom we all knew as children. The moments of wonder that connect us to ourselves and to one another. Loved talking about how just 20 minutes of aesthetic engagement can meaningfully support well-being, and why the arts may be one of the most accessible and transformative tools we have for personal and collective healing. Grateful for this wonderful exchange—and the chance to keep learning together. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/e9B87SwW

We are excited to share a recent presentation we gave at the Uplift conference by BetterUp on a breathtaking 150-foot-wide-screen, "The Art of Transformation: Leveraging the Arts and Sciences to Redesign Work", where  we talked about the transformative power of the arts and aesthetics with business leaders. Neuroaesthetic principles can revolutionize the workplace, improving engagement, creative thinking, talent retention, stress reduction, workplace well-being, and more. Creative expression and thinking  isn't a "nice to have"—it's a leadership imperative, strategic differentiator and the business world is primed for integrating this work. In the endless pursuit of productivity and efficiency,, the arts and aesthetics have been pushed aside. For many,  they feel disengaged, disinterested, and even depressed. The phenomenon of "soft quitting" is affecting businesses in every sector, with 47% of Gen Z workers reporting they are simply "coasting" at work. The science is clear: engaging the senses with aesthetic experiences can spark innovation, improve collaboration, and foster healthier, more connected teams. Organizations that integrate arts and aesthetics into their daily practices, built environments, and team building exercises are building healthy company culture that humanizes the workplace. We hope these ideas ignite ways you might bring the arts and aesthetics into your workplace. Shout out to artists IN-Q, who opened the presentation with an incredible performance of his poem “Goldfish”, and Clinton Van Arnam, who produced animations that brought the BetterUp presentation to life!

We love the recent Blooploop article written by award-winning creative director and experience designer Jasmin Jodry, where she dives into the future of immersive wellness. The rapid expansion of the field of immersive wellness is responding to our hunger for novel experiences and how desire to feel more embodied, process salient emotions, and engage in communal reflection. Immersive spaces can also act as catalysts for personal growth by stimulating awe, cultivating metacognitive awareness, boosting creativity, and promoting a deep sense of connection to other people and world around us. As Barbara Groth, founder of the Nomadic School of Wonder says, “If you don’t have time to nourish your people and their imaginations you don’t have time to create or invent the new.” We believe immersive experiences will increasingly be seen as essential investments for organizations seeking to reduce stress, boost imagination, and stimulate innovation. This neuroarts sub-field is also leading the way in harnessing the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration by uniting designers, technologists, architects, and therapists to co-create these super-salient sensory spaces.  While we’re excited by the rapid growth of the immersive well-being field, it’s worth remembering the most extraordinarily immersive environment is nature - so be sure to get your daily dose of the outdoors! Take a breather to explore this image-rich survey of the field of immersive wellness, illustrating the various approaches organizations are taking to harness it’s potential for healing and transformation. Article Link: https://lnkd.in/guZjmXgW

We just returned from an unforgettable gathering at the Intentional Spaces Salon hosted at the breathtaking Peter Michael Winery — and we’re still buzzing with gratitude and inspiration. Architects, designers, researchers, economists, educators, and systems thinkers all came together with one shared goal: to co-create a Roadmap for the Future of Human-Built Environments. It was an honor to be part of this powerful group co-convened by International Arts + Mind Lab and other visionary partners.   The vineyard was more than a venue — it was the perfect metaphor for what we’re building. Great environments, like great wine, take time. But if we look 2, 5, or 10 years out, we know we’ve planted the vines that will bear incredible fruit. This moment marks a shift — from theory to action. We now have the science, the evidence, and the pilots to support what many have long intuited: Spaces deeply affect our health, learning, creative expression, and social cohesion. The power of place is real — and now, we will have a Roadmap to elevate how we design, build, and steward those places across all sectors. We’re so proud to contribute to lifting these ideas from the page into policy, practice, and daily life.   A huge thank you to everyone who made this Salon possible — from our gracious hosts to our brilliant collaborators, and the teams doing the deep, generational work of shaping intentional environments.   Stay tuned: We’re already planning the Intentional Space 2nd Summit next year at the Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC. We can’t wait to build on the momentum. With deep thanks, Susan & Ivy

We're thrilled to share something we’ve poured a lot of love into—the Reader’s Guide for Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us is now available—free to download. https://lnkd.in/er3gTKgZ We created this guide as a companion to the book because with the goal of you feeling the science—not only reading about it. Our hope is that it amplifies your experience of the transformative power of the arts in your own brain and body. Through hands-on, immersive activities, we invite you to explore how creative expression can shift your emotions, build resilience, sharpen your thinking, support healing, and unleash pure joy. The guide follows the book chapter by chapter, offering prompts and practices to help you notice what’s happening inside you when you engage with the arts and aesthetics. Doodle on it, jot notes in the margins, make it your own. Whether you’re reading solo or with a book club, classroom, or team, this is about making the ideas in Your Brain on Art come alive in your daily life. We’ve been so inspired by how many of you are already using the book to spark deep conversations and actions. We hope this guide further deepens those connections—and helps you see the world, and yourself, through a whole new lens. Ready to feel the impact of art from the inside out? Enjoy! —Susan & Ivy

We’re so happy to share some exciting news: The NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative has launched the new Neuroarts Resource Center! This is such a needed space—a place to learn, explore, and gather. It brings together research, stories, tools, and community, all grounded in the growing field of neuroarts. We can’t wait to dive in and make use of it—and we hope you will too. It’s a space designed to be used, shared, and shaped by those of us who believe in the power of art and creativity to support well-being. We’re motivated by the invitation this center offers: to not only to gain knowledge, but to connect, contribute, and build something meaningful together.