The Partners
The NeuroArts Blueprint is an initiative of the Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine and Society (HMS) Program. Susan Magsamen, MAS, executive director of the Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, and Ruth J. Katz, JD, MPH, executive director of the Health, Medicine and Society Program, serve as co-directors.
The International Arts + Mind Lab is a multidisciplinary research-to-practice initiative from the Pedersen Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University that is accelerating the field of neuroaesthetics. Its mission is to amplify human potential. IAM Lab brings together brain scientists and practitioners in architecture, music, and other arts to foster collaboration and research. Its goal is to empower the global neuroaesthetics community to change the way we think today and enhance the way we live tomorrow.
The Health, Medicine & Society Program, established in 2005, is the domestic health initiative at the Aspen Institute. Rigorously nonpartisan, HMS creates opportunities for government, academic, advocacy, and industry leaders to explore critical issues in health, health care, medical science, and health policy, and to consider their impact on individuals, families, and communities across the United States. The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. It uses dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.
Leadership
Renée Fleming, renowned soprano, and Eric Nestler, neuroscientist and dean of academic and scientific affairs at Friedman Brain Institute, Mount Sinai Health System are cochairing the interdisciplinary Advisory Board of thought leaders that is guiding the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative forward.
Funding
Early support for the NeuroArts Blueprint is provided by AARP, Civil Society Institute, Dana Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Johns Hopkins University.
Co-Chairs
Renée Fleming
Acclaimed soprano, World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health.Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, honored with five Grammy® awards and the US National Medal of Arts. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, she is the co-chair of the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative, and a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health. As a leading advocate for research spanning arts, health, and neuroscience, Fleming has presented her program Music and Mind around the world.
In April 2024, Viking Penguin Random House published her anthology Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness. Her other awards include the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Harvard Medical School’s David Mahoney Neuroscience Prize, and honorary doctorates from ten leading universities.
Eric J. Nestler
Neuroscientist; Dean for Academic Affairs; Chief Scientific Officer; Director, Friedman Brain Institute; Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System"The deeper our grasp of basic science, the more successful those focused on clinical and translational research will be,” Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, told a congressional committee weighing appropriations for the National Science Foundation. Author of more than 600 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, Dr. Nestler has dedicated his professional life to understanding the molecular mechanisms of drug addiction and depression in animal models so that treatments can be improved.
Trained in psychiatry at Yale University, Dr. Nestler joined Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City in 2008 and has since overseen the transformational growth of the neuroscience community, under the auspices of the Friedman Brain Institute. Research in the area of music and Alzheimer’s disease is a particular interest and he also co-chairs the Music in Mind Think Tank, created to advance the evidence of music’s role in preventing and treating severe mental illness. Dr. Nestler served as president of the Society for Neuroscience, the world’s largest organization of brain and nervous system scientists and physicians. Among his honors are the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Paul Hoch Distinguished Service Award and the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Science.