As the writer Maya Angelou once said: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Previous research has found that reading and writing literature can help people express themselves and reduce the stigma and isolation surrounding sensitive subjects and experiences. A new study published in the Journal of Community Psychology from […]

How can music support mental health? While hundreds of studies have been conducted to answer this question, the availability and application of music interventions for mental health remain limited. Part of the challenge is the multidisciplinary nature of this research and difficulties in synthesizing findings across different fields including psychology, neurology, psychiatry, music, and public health. […]

The healing power of music for mental health has been formally studied across many professions – from psychology to music therapy to nursing – dating back to the 1940s. A recent global scoping review evaluated published research on music-related interventions for serious mental health issues and underscored the therapeutic potential of music to support mental […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

As we grapple with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are making and appreciating art as a way to cope, renew and restore.  People adjusting to life on lockdown have intuitively turned to the arts in every form—drawing, writing, singing, dancing, baking, crafting and more.  Research is proving that the arts are […]

Johns Hopkins Magazine recently profiled the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) in the Fall 2019 issue, highlighting its growing body of work in the field of neuroaesthetics—at Hopkins and around the world. IAM Lab executive director Susan Magsamen spoke with Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson about the vision of the lab as a hub of […]

The International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) hosted its inaugural Dialog Series this spring, featuring singer/songwriter turned public health researcher Tasha Golden PhD. Dr. Golden’s workshop, Advancing Health Equity: Embracing the Creative Process to Evolve Health Research, demonstrated the value of using the arts as an innovative tool for communication, research and healing in […]

The military face many health risks and challenges on the battlefield, but the scars they carry are not always visible. While physical injuries are on the decline in recent years, service members are increasingly struggling with lingering psychological tolls. More than 500,000 veterans of the U.S. military live with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic […]