JULY – SEPTEMBER 2017THE MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHILD ART FOUNDATIONYour brain on artDownload the HoloTats app and scan the cover to see hidden surprises come to life!It is a privilege to serve as guest editor of the Arts + Mind edition of ChildArt Magazine. For more than 20 years the International Child Art Foundation (ICAF) has been an essential organization recognizing and valuing the power and dignity of the arts for children around the world. This issue of ChildArt shares the marriage of the arts and brain research, a newly emerging field of study called neuroaesthetics. Neuroaesthetics explores the impact of the arts, architecture and music on the human brain and behavior. The applications for neuroaesthetics research are limitless. While there is so much about the brain we don’t understand, it is an exciting time to be thinking about what is going on at the intersection of the arts and brain research. I hope the stories in health, wellbeing and learning will open your mind to the possibilities for the arts, architecture and design as solutions for intractable problems, approaches to enhance your life and answers to questions long asked. We are all makers, designers and creators regardless of our age, interests, studies or career paths. The evolution of the human species revolves around the stories we create and share, the ways we communicate, environments we build and language we use. Understanding how our brains work and how they are sculpted and changed through art making and aesthetic experiences enables us to build a better world. When we decide to create a new product, design a shopping center, home or park, paint a room, or a million other actions, we have the ability to use what we know about how the brain works to create smarter, more productive, creative, healing and learning solutions. The benefits to people everywhere are beyond measure, transcending class, gender, race and culture. The arts, in all forms, are not just “nice to have” but are who we are. The field of neuroaesthetics is at the heart of unleashing humanity’s greatest potential. Susan Magsamen Executive Director International Arts + Mind Lab Brain Science Institute Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine WHO WE AREInternational Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) is a multidisciplinary research-to-practice initiative from the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University accelerating the field of neuroaesthetics. Our mission is to amplify human potential.WHAT WE DOIAM Lab is pioneering impact-based thinking, an outside-in approach to health, well-being and learning.HOW WE DO ITIAM Lab brings together brain scientists and practitioners in architecture, music and the arts to collaborate in multidisciplinary research, foster dialogue and spur continued innovation by sharing these findings with a broader community.Join the neuroaesthetics conversation.www.artsandmindlab.org facebook.com/artsandmindlab twitter.com/artsandmindlabGuest editor’s cornerPublished since 1997, ChildArt is a commercial-free arts learning, self-discovery, and global education periodical expressly written for 10 to 14 year- olds, but useful as a teaching tool for educators and inspirational for creative individuals of all ages. Subscribe to ChildArt online at www.icaf.org.When a child’s creativity is ignored, it could be lost forever. Tax-deductible donations support children’s creative and empathic development. You can donate online at www.icaf.org or make your check to ICAF and mail it to: ICAF, P. O. Box 58133, Washington, DC 20037.All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited. ChildArt (ISSN 1096-9020). Copyright 2017 International Child Art Foundation (ICAF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.JULY-SEPT 2017VOL. 17, ISSUE 3, NUMBER 511THE ARTS + MINDJULY – SEPT 2017WELLBEING: THE ARTS KEEP US HEALTHYLEARNING: THE ARTS TEACH USHEALTH: THE ARTS HEAL US081002041214343842303640182226202428Use your hidden superpowers!Richard LouvGoing "pro" in beatsOrchKidsSigns of the timesErin CooperThe Hokey Pokey: What it’s really all about Too Small To FailA new lens on high schoolWide Angle Youth MediaThe ABCs of you + meNew World KidsSusan MarcusThe art of good ideasMICADeveloping empathyAshfaq IshaqArchitecture of learningLearning LandscapesA safe space to be a kidHEART – Save The ChildrenWhat is neuroaesthetics?Your brain on the artsHigh-tech healingBLAMColoring outside the battle linesCreative ForcesArt + architecture as medicineJohns Hopkins Hospital The art + science of architectureFred MarksSTEAMing up learningDestination ImaginationTools for any tradeArt With A HeartSarah PitcockThe Arts+2CHILDARTWhat if you could solve conflicts or under-stand another person’s perspective by creating art? And what if you could get better grades just by taking a walk in the woods every once in a while? Well, it’s true! We are constantly interacting with the world around us. Our five senses—hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste—are working all the time. Our senses help us understand and identify color, an item we hold, a sound we hear. They orient us when we enter a new room or a new space. Our senses directly inform our brains so we can learn, heal and grow. Since the beginning of humanity, we have been making or experiencing the arts, creating environments and commu-nicating our unique stories of culture and self. The arts affect our emotions and feelings—they help to shape our brains. The arts cover a broad spectrum of things including natural and human-made environments, architecture, music, dance, visual design, theatre, digital media, creative writing and poetry. At their essence, the arts engage the senses to create aesthetic experiences. And the term “aesthetics” doesn’t just mean that something is beautiful, it refers to the physical world that surrounds us. This interaction between our brains and the arts is what neuroaesthetics is all about. Specifically, neuroaesthetics uses brain science to understand aesthetic experiences at the neurological level. How does the brain interpret aesthetic experiences?How does our knowledge of basic brain mechanisms inform our understanding of these experiences? These questions are at the heart of neuro- aesthetics, an emerging discipline focused on exploring the neural processes under-lying our appreciation and production of beautiful objects and artwork and the experiences that include perception, interpretation, emotion and action. The field attracts scholars from many disciplines, including neuro and cognitive scientists, architects, artists, designers, psychologists, philosophers, educators and others. Neuroaesthetics received its formal definition in 2002 as the scientific study of the neural bases for the contemplation and creation of a work of art. Many scholars and institutions around the world have studied and continue to study the intersection of the arts and mind. What if we told you that the way a room or building is designed can help you recover from an illness or heal more quickly? What if we told you that you could be more productive and creative simply by listening to a certain type of music?Architecture, music, visual arts, digital media, writing, dance, theatreICAF.ORG MindImpact=3THE ARTS + MINDJULY – SEPT 2017Neuroscientist Semir Zeki and cognitive psychologist Vilayanur Ramachandrian are credited with the elevation of this field in the late 1990s. Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel has also further contributed through his work and book The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious on Art, Mind and Brain. Anjan Chatterjee has expanded the conversation with his book The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art. In 2003, The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture was launched to advance knowledge that links neuroscience and architecture. The International Neuroaesthetic Network has been extremely productive guiding the development of the empirical research community since 2009. In recent years, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) has worked to investigate the value of the impact of the arts as it pertains to social and emotional development but also to creativity, cognition, and learning. In 2016, the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine embarked on an initiative to further accelerate the field of neuroaesthetics through the creation of the International Arts + Mind Lab. Fueling the growth of neuroaesthetics are tools and technologies that support the exploration of how our brains work that are assessable, mobile and more affordable. From molecular research and EEG, fMRI, and PET brain imaging to virtual reality and video games, this interdisciplinary field is now beginning to be able to provide insights and research. Over time, this new knowledge will provide an important understanding of neural basis, universal principles and evolutionary rationale of aesthetics. These findings will also support rigorous approaches to develop evidence-based arts, design and architectural solutions, interventions and programs.Neuroaesthetics offers an innovative approach to better understand and amplify the way we live. There’s so much to learn about the intricate intersections of the arts and our human brain. Join us as we explore this exciting new field!Sight, touch, smell, taste, hearingHealth, wellbeing, learning4CHILDARTThe arts have a profound and often instant-aneous impact on sculpting our brains. When you are creating the arts (the maker) or experiencing the arts (the beholder), your brain is running at full speed receiving and processing new information. Try to imagine a clear sky on a cool summer night. The sky is filled with an infinite number of stars above you in many configurations. Your brain is just like that. It is the most complex and agile structure known to humans. At birth, a baby’s brain contains all the neurons he or she will ever have. In the first year of life, that child’s brain will double in size and by age three, the brain will have reached 80 percent of its adult size. The human brain contains 100 billion neurons. Each one of those 100 billion neurons can connect to up to 10,000 other neurons. Synapses enable these connections to happen—they are small gaps between neurons that allow inform-ation to flow from one neuron to another neuron. In the process, synapses form billions of neuronal circuits. Neurotransmitters help carry inform-ation across the synapses from one neuron to another. Neurotransmitters are made up of very specific chemicals that are involved in different brain functions. A person’s brain is constantly changing how it passes information between its neurons (its neural pathways). This process is called brain plasticity and it happens because the brain is constantly responding to its internal and external environment and experiences. The fact that the human brain can literally change neural pathways based on experiences means it is never too late to sculpt and heal your brain (though early childhood is still essential for building foundational systems). This agility of the brain underlies our ability to learn, remember and heal. As you will read in the stories through-out this Arts + Mind edition of ChildArt Magazine, you’ll discover that interacting FRONTAL LOBECognitive functions of reasoning, executive function, parts of speech, voluntary movement, emotions and problem solvingTEMPORAL LOBEMemory and perception as well as speech and auditory functions (pitch, tone, selective listening)CORPUS CALLOSUMThe corpus callosum is made up of neural tissue, and it helps the two brain hemispheres communicate with each other via signals sent through neural pathwaysEmotions are an important part of brain development and learning. Researchers have recently discovered that emotions, related to reward and pleasure, are productive for higher level learning. ICAF.ORG 5THE ARTS + MINDJULY – SEPT 2017PARIETAL LOBEInformation processing of movement, mathematics, orientation, recognition and perception of stimuli (taste, touch, temperature)OCCIPITAL LOBEVisual processingTHE LIMBIC SYSTEMThe emotional brain containing the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and hippocampus CEREBELLUMThe cerebellum is associated with regulation and coordination of movement, posture and balancewith the arts – either as beholder or maker – provides powerful experiences. These experiences help to build this complex and vast neural network and help to maintain the foundational circuitry needed for healthy brain function. Brain researchers are also beginning to better understand that exposure to the arts, including the visual arts, creative writing and poetry, music, architecture, dance and theatre, create interconnectivity between different areas of the brain. Brain regions do not work in isolation—the strengths of the connections build cognitive skills, predict long-term outcomes in resiliency, social-emotional health, executive function, learning and memory. The arts engage the whole brain.The brain is comprised of many important neurotransmitters including serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine. These help regulate emotion, motivation and rewards which are intrinsically tied to brain development. Emotion is an important part of brain development and learning. Researchers have discovered that emotions, related to reward and pleasure, are productive for higher level learning. The neurotransmitter dopamine helps control the brain’s pleasure and reward systems. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses. It enables us not only to feel rewards but to take action and move towards them. Dopamine-driven experiences help foster critical behaviors for learning—a thirst for knowledge or a desire to discover information.the arts heal us“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.“Auguste RodinFrench Impressionist and sculptorTali YalonetzkiNext >