IAM Lab News and Stories Building More Equitable Communities with Creative Placemaking For better or worse, the spaces we inhabit shape the contours of our lives. But for many racial minorities, these spaces literally embody the systemic inequity and racism they face. People of color have higher rates of chronic medical conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease. Individuals from underserved communities are also more likely […] Read More Introducing the NeuroArts Blueprint We are excited to announce the launch of the NeuroArts Blueprint, a global field-building initiative from the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine and Society Program and the International Arts + Mind Lab. The NeuroArts Blueprint will articulate and advance the scientific foundation and evidence for the role of arts in health and wellbeing through the lens […] Read More Reimagining Place: Identity, Healing and Justice with Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, a community planning expert and institute professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University, shares her vision for integrating arts and culture into placemaking as a way to reckon with racial trauma and restore dignity […] Read More The Art of Coping with Survivor’s Guilt Losing a loved one is one of the most tragic experiences we can go through, an experience that has become all too common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting grief and heartbreak have caused an epidemic within the pandemic—a surge in survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s guilt is the lingering feeling that our own survival, or faring […] Read More Wide Angle Youth Media: Fostering the Next Generation of Storytellers It is difficult to separate the work of the students at Wide Angle Youth Media from the city they call home. Baltimore is, by many measures, an epicenter of racial inequity. With neighborhoods clearly segregated by race and class, the city is still defined by redlining and housing discrimination nearly 60 years after the Civil […] Read More All Stories Will Matter The Power of Storytelling in the Pursuit of Health Equity By IAM Lab Guest Contributor David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. Every story has essential elements: plot, characters, settings, themes and the overall message. A lot of times, what makes a story effective isn’t any of these things but rather the moment in which the story is told. The story of George Floyd’s murder was no different […] Read More Just Dance: A Prescription for Mental Wellbeing In a village on the east coast of China, a farming couple and their “rural-style shuffle dance” has gone viral on TikTok. Their dancing is joyful and upbeat, sometimes taking place in front of fields of corn or grazing cows. And it has been therapeutic. The husband, Fan Deduo, had fallen into a depression following […] Read More Arts for Health Equity and Social Justice: A New IAM Lab Series Art has always been a reflection of and response to the world around us. It’s also a way of envisioning what is possible and what is just. We have seen art-making on the front lines of the current uprising, with people around the world using art to call out racism, end police brutality and fight […] Read More PTSD and the Arts: A Path to Healing Our Healers More than two months into the pandemic, experts are raising concerns over the long-term mental health implications for healthcare and other frontline workers. Behind the hospital ward weddings, standing ovations and donated meals, there are thousands of doctors, nurses and paramedics who are exhausted, anxious and traumatized by their experiences caring for those with COVID-19. […] Read More Why a Dose of Nature Is Essential to Your Mental Health When was the last time you went out and soaked up some nature? Even in pre-pandemic times, most American adults spent 93% of their time indoors. Now, with social distancing requirements in place, the time we spend at home and inside has only increased. But during this stressful time, our connection to nature is more […] Read More ← Back More → Join the neuroaesthetics conversation. Subscribe here.
