Neuroarts Academic Network Launched to Integrate Arts into Medicine, Public Health, and Society

Oct 2, 2025

On September 30, the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative announced the launch of the Neuroarts Academic Network (NAN), which includes a representative from a2ru. The NAN aims to expand the healing power of the arts—such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling—by building the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroarts and training the next generation of leaders.

Building 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.

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.

The NAN, led by the Neuroarts Academic Network Working Group, which includes a2ru Executive Director Maryrose Flanigan, will:

• Connect universities and programs already working in neuroarts,
• Encourage new research and training programs,
• Build career paths that combine arts and health, and
• Support the field so it grows in a sustainable and rigorous way.

The Network’s goal is to make neuroarts an established academic and professional field across disciplines including the arts, health, 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.

“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.

The NAN Working Group, which includes representatives from 38 universities and organizations from around the world, will guide NAN’s projects and its long-term goals. Maryrose Flanigan shares, “It’s an honor to be included among these innovative leaders and thinkers, working together to advance Neuroarts within and beyond higher education.”

“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.”

About the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative

The NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative is a partnership between the Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine & Society (HMS) Program. Co-directed by Susan Magsamen, MAS, executive director of IAM Lab, and Ruth J. Katz, JD, MPH, executive director of the HMS Program, the Initiative bridges the gap between the arts and sciences to advance health and well-being by promoting innovative research, developing evidence-based practices, and raising public awareness of the arts’ potential to enhance health.

About The Music Man Foundation

The Music Man Foundation is named after the Tony-winning musical written by Meredith Willson. Meredith’s widow, Rosemary, started the Foundation in 1998 as the Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charitable Foundation and substantially increased the Foundation’s endowment upon her death in 2010. The Foundation’s mission is to empower organizations using music to catalyze enduring change and to amplify our founders’ musical legacy. Over the last decade, the Foundation has awarded more than $25 million to 85 organizations. In addition to “The Music Man,” Meredith Willson wrote the musical, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” and beloved songs “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” and the University of Iowa fight song.

Image Credit: Music therapist Kerry Devlin performs with a patient (Johns Hopkins Medicine).