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Morehouse School of Medicine Joins Bold Initiative to Integrate Arts into Medicine, Public Health, and Society
The medical school is part of a new global network incorporating the arts to help treat illness, promote wellness, and shape healthier communities
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) today announced it has joined the Neuroarts Academic Network (NAN) focused on expanding the transformative power of the arts—such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling—by helping to develop the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroarts.
Based on research that demonstrates how art positively affects the brain and body, neuroarts explores how creative expression can be embedded in mainstream medicine, public health, and across society to improve health and well-being for all.
“We are very excited to be at the forefront of an innovative effort to examine the ways the arts can have a positive impact on health outcomes,” said Morehouse School of Medicine Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean Dr. Joseph Tyndall, who will represent the school on the Neuroarts Academic Network Working Group of more than 35 academic institutions from around the world. “This initiative has significant potential to redefine the medicinal toolbox to include artistic endeavors in both the healing process and preventative health care.”
NAN’s goal is to make neuroarts an established academic and professional field across disciplines including the arts, health, basic sciences, public health, architecture, design, education, business, community development, and more. Each discipline has a distinct career path and its own unique focus, but all are rooted in science showing the positive impact of the arts on health and well-being.
The academic working group will:
· Connect universities and programs already working in neuroarts,
· Encourage new research and training programs,
· Build career paths that combine arts and health,
· Expand best practices and address core challenges, and
· Support the field so it grows in a sustainable and rigorous way.
NAN is a part of the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative is led by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine & Society Program, with funding from The Music Man Foundation.
“Neuroarts is a vibrant, interdisciplinary field grounded in arts-evidence based knowledge and united by shared research principles, practices, and values. To fully realize its potential, we must learn from one another, develop a common language, and build a collaborative framework that enables our disciplines to flourish individually while also working together to build the field,” said Susan Magsamen, co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative and executive director of the Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics.
“With today’s announcement, we’re looking at a major paradigm shift. The new Neuroarts Academic Network will unite the people who are training the neuroarts workforce of tomorrow. Together we can bring the transformative power of the arts into every corner of society,” said Sarah Lyding, president of The Music Man Foundation, a national foundation dedicated to permanently changing the way the arts are used to improve education, health, and community well-being.
“In these challenging times of rapid change, the Neuroarts Academic Network offers a bold, collaborative model to strengthen neuroarts education, workforce development, and interdisciplinary impact,” said Ruth J. Katz, co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative and executive director of the Health, Medicine & Society Program at the Aspen Institute. “It is essential to advancing this important and game-changing work.”