IAM Lab News and Stories 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 5 Weekend Art Activities to Bust Quarantine Fatigue Lockdowns are easing in some areas of the world, but large public gatherings and trips to a museum, library or concert are mostly off-limits. Still, you can get your daily dose of art and culture at home with these new offerings. Give one a try—your brain will thank you for it! 1. Reading: Enjoy these […] Read More Can the Arts Help Us Heal Our Grief? While the COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide, there is no running tally of the millions left behind to grieve for their loved ones. The weight and scale of this kind of loss in such a short period of time is difficult to fathom, but palpable. The world is collectively […] Read More Worried About Closed Schools and Learning Loss? The Arts Can Help Typically at this time of year, we start to hear and read news stories about the dreaded “summer brain drain” or “summer slide” for students. What exactly is sliding and where does it happen? Studies show that most students lose skills in math without practice over the summer—up to 3 months of what they learned […] Read More ← Back More → Join the neuroaesthetics conversation. Subscribe here.
