The arts in all of their modalities can amplify the ability to prevent, manage, or recover from physical and mental health challenges, build more equitable communities, and foster wellbeing through multiple biological systems. The NeuroArts Blueprint initiative builds on that knowledge by strengthening, standardizing, and propelling neuroarts.
An emerging field at the crossroads of science, technology, and the arts, neuroarts is the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The NeuroArts Blueprint, released in December 2021, is an action plan of bold, culture-changing recommendations to expand research and practice, develop educational and training pathways, encourage dedicated funding and policies, promote effective communications strategies, and grow leadership and other infrastructure capacity.
The Johns Hopkins International Arts & Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and HMS are partners in the Neuroarts Blueprint initiative, which draws together leaders across and outside traditional disciplines, as well as people with lived experience. Renée Fleming, renowned soprano and arts advisor to the Kennedy Center, and Eric Nestler, neuroscientist and dean of Academic and Scientific Affairs at Mount Sinai Medical Center, cochair the Advisory Committee.