Wednesday
16th March
Creativity, Neuroscience and Equity
‘Creativity, Neuroscience and Equity’ Neuroscience and creativity combine to build better. Globe spanning examples turn the world.
The video below which was first broadcast on St Patricks Festival TV as a ‘taster’ of the day.
10.00–11.00
Displaced Issue
Discussing the enduring impacts of displacement on brain heath and the healing of creativity are:
Tala al Rousan, Jordanian researching refugee health in USA
Zarlasht Halaimzai, founder of the Refugee Trauma Initiative offering creativity as care
Durkhanai Ayubi, restaurateur, displaced Afghan, writer, changing narratives of displacement
Dominic Campbell, Co-founder Creative Aging International
Hosted by Rachel Hoare, Trinity Research in Childhood Centre.
Please see below for video of the session. Please note, as the session was recorded live the audio quality is uneven.
Contributors
Dr. Tala Al-Rousan, MD, MPH, Assistant professor and founding faculty at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity and an affiliate faculty at the division of Geriatrics. She brings to UC San Diego expertise in health equity and global health research focusing on marginalized populations. Dr. Al-Rousan has extensive expertise in designing and conducting epidemiological research in limited resource settings including mix-methods and multi-disciplinary study designs. Her previous research studied the impact of institutionalization on brain health, function, and disease outcomes in the criminal justice, refugee, ethnic minorities, mobile-home dwelling, frail older adults and other marginalized populations. Trained in medicine and epidemiology in Jordan, Egypt and the US, Dr. Al-Rousan’s ongoing research focuses on designing evidence-based programmatic interventions and health policies that reduce health disparities centering a human-rights approach and using innovative technologies to promote health and longevity. In San Diego, she is currently leading a hypertension self-management intervention study among Middle Eastern and East African refugees as well as multiple projects studying dementia and barriers to care among recently-resettled Syrian and Iraqi refugees, two of the fastest growing foreign-born populations in San Diego. Internationally, she is leading a study examining the impact of encampment on cognition in Jordan and Lebanon, and is part of a study assessing hypertension management in Peru, Malawi and Cameroon. Dr. Al-Rousan is a former Doctors Without Borders physician having served in Yemen and at the headquarters in Geneva, and a Bernard Lown Fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. She is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute and part of an international Atlantic Fellows network of emerging leaders and activists focusing on health equity in migrant populations. She is a recipient of multiple awards including the NIH K23 award, the senior Atlantic Fellowship funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies, the American Journal of Public Health Award for Innovative Research in Aging. Dr. Al-Rousan serves as a consultant, key investigator and/or on the advisory boards of multiple agencies including the World Health Organization Commission on Migration, the Center for Life Course and Vulnerable Population Research at UC San Diego, Resolve to Save Lives Hypertension international program, the Global Brain Health Institute, the Jordanian Minister of Health, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and others. D. Al-Rousan is a current mentor to multiple students, postdocs and fellows and is available for mentorship with passion to mentor those from underrepresented backgrounds especially refugee, first-gen, LGBTQ and racial and ethnic minority students.
Website:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/tala-al-rousan
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/talarousansh
https://www.linkedin.com/in/talarousan/
Zarlasht Halaimzai is the Director and co-founder of Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI) – an organisation committed to resourcing refugees, aid workers and organisations with skills and tools to deal with stress, insecurity and trauma. Over the last 10 years, she has developed programmes that promote resilience in vulnerable populations in several countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, the United Kingdom and Greece. Her work has been profiled by the Psychologist Magazine, NPR, Grazia, International Business Times, She Owns Success, Groundbreakers. She was the recipient of the 2017 Future Shapers Award from Marie Claire Magazine.
Website: https://www.refugeetrauma.org
Social:
Durkhanai Ayubi is a freelance food writer and restaurateur involved with the day-to-day responsibilities of two family-run eating places: Parwana and Kutchi Deli Parwana.
She is the daughter of Afghani refugees Zelmai and Farida Ayubi who, forced by conflict to flee Afghanistan when she was just two, first to a Refugee Camp before settling in Australia to raise their family and run their restaurants.
From her base in Adelaide she has found the freedom to think, explore and seek out answers to many of the questions around identity and belonging, as well as the opportunity to forge a connection, for herself and the broader community, back to her family’s roots through the sharing of Afghani food.
Durkhanai tells the family story from her perspective, channelling her mother and father’s memories and recipes in her book Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen.
She has written for a number of international newspapers and websites and is an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity in New York, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies.
Website:
https://www.parwana.com.au
Social:
https://twitter.com/Durkhanai
https://www.linkedin.com/in/durkhanai-ayubi-1b034433/
Dominic Campbell is leading the Creative Brain Week initiative. As Bealtaine Festival Director he steered its celebration of creativity and aging’s development over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration he transformed St Patrick’s Festival’s three shows into ninety growing production, managerial teams, financial support, engagement and impact.
Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” delivering 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.
He mentored “celebration of ageing” festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins, replicating it in San Francisco (2018) and Kentucky (2019).
Recognized as a key cultural influencer in Ireland by The Irish Times and by First Avenue as a Key Influencer in Aging in the US, in 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia. Currently developing an arts programme for the Irish Hospice Foundation as response to the pandemic and the Ageing Voices programme with Sing Ireland.
Website:
www.creativeaginginternational.com
www.gbhi.org/profiles/dominic-campbell
Social:
X: @CreativeAgeIntl and @CreativeBrainWk and @IrelandChorus
Dr Rachel Hoare is a lecturer in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies in Trinity College where she is the Director of the Centre for Forced Migration Studies and has been actively involved for a number of years with University of Sanctuary activities, including most recently, volunteer-led English conversation classes for refugees organised by her colleague Dr Bronagh Ćatibušić and herself. Rachel is also an expressive arts psychotherapist working on a part-time basis with unaccompanied refugee minors on behalf of Tusla, the Irish Child and Family agency. Rachel’s research focuses on trauma-informed practice, the impact of friendships on the coping and resilience of refugee youth as well as the benefits of expressive arts practice.
Rachel has delivered numerous trainings on how to work in a trauma-informed way with refugees including to the UNHCR in Dublin, the European Migration Network, government agencies, NGO’s, charities, schools, libraries, youth organisations, social workers, foster careers and other support staff. She has also delivered a public lecture on this topic as part of the Long Room Hub `Behind the Headlines’ series. Rachel has also written in the print media about the ways in which expressive arts therapies can help to heal the trauma of refugees and she has delivered keynotes and other conference papers on this and other topics related to her research, advocacy and clinical practice supporting refugee youth.
Website: https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=rmhoare
10.30–11.30
babyGROOVE by Anna Newell
A chilled out 70’s-inspired adventure for babies under 12 months, full of gorgeous harmony singing and immersive video created by Anna Newell Theatre Adventures, one of Ireland’s leading theatremakers for young audiences whose work for early years has been seen on six continents.
Monday to Wednesday – 2 shows at 10.30 and 11.30. Each show lasts 20 minutes approximately.
For more information on the show and this artist’s work please click here
babyGROOVE is part of the 2022 programme from The Network For Extraordinary Audiences, is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and is a co-production with The Civic, Tallaght.
Due to the nature of this show it as not recorded.
Contributors
One of Ireland’s leading theatre makers for young audiences, creating unique theatre adventures for babies, early years and children/young people with complex needs.
Anna created the world’s first BabyDay, introduced theatre for children and young people with PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties) into Ireland and helped start babytheatre in South Africa.
The work for early years audiences has been seen on six continents.
The shows are informed and inspired by their audiences at every stage of their creation and have human connection at their very heart.
Anna is based in Bray, Ireland.
Website: www.annanewell.ie
Social Media: https://twitter.com/annanewell
11.45–12.45
Creativity, Health, Place
Panellist discuss how to design and build neighbourhoods, cities and housing for health.
Declan Dunne of Respond Group, building homes, improving lives
Thomas Grey of TrinityHaus on older urbanism and multi-generational neighbourhoods
Emi Kiyota founder of Ibasho and National University of Singapore, on building for the future with older adults. This video will give you a good sense of how their elders gather around Ibasho house projecthttps://vimeo.com/688235718 (Password: ibasho)
Host Bernadine Carrol, Engagement Officer of the Architecture Association of Ireland.
Please see below for video of the session. Please note, as the session was recorded live the audio quality is uneven.
Contributors
Declan joined Respond as Chief Executive Officer in August 2016. Declan is an experienced general manager who worked initially building a business over many years and sold to an American multi-national. Declan’s previous role was Chief Executive Officer with Sophia Housing Association. He served as a non-executive Director of the Ballymun Regeneration Board for ten years, the largest urban regeneration project in Europe, where he chaired the Audit Committee. He was instrumental in securing the funding commitment of 15million euro by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children for the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme over a five period.
Declan was Chair of the Housing Alliance from 2019 to 2021. The Housing Alliance is a collaboration of six of Ireland’s largest Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and in this capacity he served as a member of the High Level Housing Delivery Group established by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, T.D. He previously chaired the Homeless Network of the major Homeless Agencies in Dublin.
He served as a ministerial appointee Board member for two three year terms at the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB), a Statutory Agency which was established to promote school attendance and also chaired its Audit Committee. Declan is actively interested in housing, education, and family services and served on many boards and committees on these issues. He is an invited speaker at the OECD and other international conferences.
Website: https://www.respond.ie
Social Media: https://twitter.com/RespondHousing
Following an Architectural degree in DIT, Tom completed a Masters in sustainable design at the University of Auckland. With 10 yrs in practice working in sustainable design, he is now a Research fellow in TrinityHaus.
Tom is currently involved in a variety of urban design and building design research projects, all with a user centred and sustainable design focus. The projects range from a Low Carbon Adaptable Home project to larger scale shared space design through a Universal Design approach or a sustainability indicator project for the Dublin region. In all cases the human as user is central to these projects with an emphasis on user centred, Universally Designed, occupant behaviour driven design solutions.
Website:
Social Media:
EMI Kiyota is the founder and director of Ibasho, an organisation that facilitates the co-creation with elders of socially integrated, sustainable communities that value their elders. Dr. Kiyota holds a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is an environmental gerontologist and a consultant with over 20 years experience in designing and implementing person-centred care in long-term care facilities and hospitals globally.
Her current focus is on creating socially integrated and resilient cities where elders are engaged and able to actively participate in their communities. She has published journal articles and book chapters and serves on the board of directors of the Global Ageing Network.
Dr. Kiyota has been awarded fellowships to investigate this topic, including the Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship, and the Atlantic Fellowship for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at University of California, San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin.
Website: https://ibasho.org
Social Media: https://twitter.com/emikiyota
Bernadine Carroll is an Irish artist, curator, facilitator and cultural producer and is currently the Engagement Officer with the Irish Architecture Foundation, coordinating a national community-led placemaking programme, having previously delivered community-engaged programmes for Narrative 4, Meitheal Mara Community Boatyard, and Galway County Council.
She has spent the last ten years working in socially engaged practices, including some time spent working in international disaster responses, in the USA, Vanuatu and Nepal. She has a particular research interest in decoloniality, as a potential way forward in the fight against the destructive nature of capitalism and exploitation which is destroying our planet.
Bernadine has a BA in Fine Art and a MA Art in Public and is currently completing an MSc in Equality Studies. She has shown at home and abroad, in Canada, the Netherlands, Nepal, Germany and the UK.
Website:
http://www.bernardinecarroll.com
https://architecturefoundation.ie
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/IAFarchitecture
https://www.instagram.com/irisharchitecturefoundation/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/irish-architecture-foundation
12.30 - 1.30pm
"A Life in Paint" Patrick Reel Exhibition - In Conversation
Nicholas Johnson Associate Professor of Drama, member of the neuro-humanities group, and Ian Robertson clinical psychologist and neuroscientist “in-conversation” at the Patrick Reel exhibition in Dublin Castle.
The exhibition will be across four rooms: Portraits (including a large one of De Valera, and one of Mary Lavin), Realism, Abstract/Semi-Abstract (pre 2015) and Abstract/Semi-Abstract (post 2015). Reel, who lives a secluded life with no modern information technology, reverted to chiefly abstract work after a gap of around thirty-five years from his Solo Exhibition in the Project Arts Centre in 1973, and arguably some of his best work has been produced in the last five years or so. There is a strong influence of Celtic/monastic images and the Boyne Valley evident in his paintings, dating back to his work as a designer in Navan Carpets in the 1960s. There are countless examples of well-known artists around the world whose best work occurred or was only recognised in older age.
As this session took place in Dublin Castle it was not recorded.
Contributors
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is a government office that delivers public services for flood protection, managing government properties and heritage services.
The OPW, as the leading agency for flood risk management in Ireland, minimises the impacts of flooding through sustainable planning. A core part of its remit is maintaining and presenting Ireland’s most iconic heritage properties, including Ireland’s two World Heritage Sites, 780 National Monuments and over 2,000 acres of gardens and parklands. It also manages a significant part of the State’s property portfolio and provides accommodation for government departments, over 700 Garda Properties and approximately 550 offices.
The OPW was established in 1831, predating the foundation of the State. Its headquarters are in Trim, Co Meath.
It is overseen by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief.
Website: http://www.opw.ie/
Social: https://twitter.com/opwireland
Ian Robertson is a Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. He is co-leader of the BrainHealth Project (Center for BrainHealth UTDallas) and is a Member of Academia Europaea and of the Royal Irish Academy. He is widely known for his research on neuropsychology and his science writing has included books aimed at the general reader: Mind Sculpture (2000), The Mind’s Eye (2003), Stay Sharp (2005), The Winner Effect (2012) and The Stress Test (2016), all of which have been widely translated. His most recent book How Confidence Works was published by Penguin in 2022.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/ian-robertson
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-robertson-4480502/
Nicholas Johnson is Associate Professor of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, where he directs the Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies and convenes the interdisciplinary Creative Arts Practice research theme. His books include Beckett’s Voices / Voicing Beckett (Brill, 2021), Influencing Beckett / Beckett Influencing (L’Harmattan, 2020), Experimental Beckett (Cambridge UP, 2020) and Bertolt Brecht’s David Fragments (1919–1921): An Interdisciplinary Study (Bloomsbury, 2020). He co-edited the “Performance Issue” (23.1, 2014) and the “Pedagogy Issue” (29.1, 2020) of the Journal of Beckett Studies (Edinburgh UP). Directing credits include Virtual Play (2017–19) and world premieres of The David Fragments (2017), Enemy of the Stars(2015), and No’s Knife (Lincoln Center, 2015). He works as dramaturg with Pan Pan, OT Platform, and Dead Centre and facilitates theatre workshops internationally. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 2021.
Websites:
https://tcd.academia.edu/NicholasJohnson
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/about/partners/beckett-centre.php
Social Media:
1.00-5.00pm
Constellation Group
Creative Workshop with a number of Neurodiverse performance groups and arts collectives.
This is an invitation only event and was not open to the public or recorded.
Contributors
With a background in professional theatre, Sarah Fitzgibbon has used Theatre and Drama techniques to create scripts and performances, to explore concepts of civil engagement, collaboration, and to create moments of escape and engagement in a wide variety of contexts since 1991. Since 2020, she has been lecturing in applied and engaged drama practice in TU Dublin Conservatoire and School of Social Science and Law.
Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-fitzgibbon-21333561/
Constellations Group – Cultural Competency 2019
2.00–3.30pm
Neuroscience Informs: An Art of Action
Hosted by Dominic Campbell (Creative Aging International), the panel discuss their own experiences and projects including
Amir Abualrob, “Theatre is my only home” Theatre maker in Ireland
Kunle Adewale, the Arts In Medicine Project operating globally from Lagos
Meron Sisay Abey, Arts programme intervention in Ethiopian mental health unit in conversation with Dr Bethel Tibebu of the Amanuel Hospital, Addis Ababa
Damian Murphy, Award winning course designed by, led by, offered to people living with diagnosis of dementia
Petal Pilley & Hillary Kavanagh, Artistic Director & Producer from award winning Blue Teapot Theatre Company.
This session was followed by Blue Teapot’s documentary My Light will Blind You, a film following the creative process of one of the company’s artist’s mid-career shift from an actress to playwright. Due to rights considerations, this documentary is not included in the edit.
This video is currently being edited and will be available shortly.
Contributors
Amir Abualrob is a Palestinian performer and theatre-maker. In 2013 joined The Freedom Theatre (TFT), Jenin refugee camp, Palestine, and completed four years of study in Theatre and Cultural Resistance.
After they completed their studies, they worked with TFT school as a facilitator. They have been a part of the LGBT movement in Palestine.
In July 2019 they took a course in Character & Scene Study at The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin. They performed in and co-devised The Bed at Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 2020.
In Oct 2020 they were the recipient of the Artist In the Community bursary award for Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity and they were a one-week residency recipient of the Time At The Well with the Hawk’s Well Theatre Sligo and Cairde Sligo Arts Festival.
Website:
https://www.facebook.com/OneofManyProject2021/
Social media:
Kunle Adewale is an arts in health practitioner based in Lagos nigeria. He is a graduate of Fine and Applied Arts from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, South West Nigeria with specialization in painting and art history. Kunle later proceeded to acquire professional certificates in understanding dementia and arts from University College London (UCL), humanizing healthcare, University of Capetown, South Africa and Psychology and Mental Health, University of Liverpool. He is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin.
Kunle is the founder of arts in medicine fellowship in Nigeria, an organization that trains and empower artists and non-artists to collaborate in transforming healthcare experience for patients, caregivers and healthcare providers. He currently leads the largest arts in health network on the continent of Africa.
Kunle is passionate about mental and brain health and his work focuses on therapeutic art projects, with a specific emphasis on improving health and health-related outcomes. Today, he has impacted over 20,000 beneficiaries through his art programmes in Nigeria, other African countries, Asia and the United States.
Kunle’s therapeutic art projects have featured on BBC Africa,Africa54, Voice of America Washington DC, Reuters, Al Jazeera among other international and local media. He’s a recipient of many international awards, Commonwealth Youth Worker UK, World Bank Social Inclusion hero, president Barack Obama Mandela Washington fellowship, Royal African Youth Leadership award and the Kunle Adewale day in the city of Cincinnati Ohio, United States.
Website: https://kunleadewale.com
Social Media
https://www.instagram.com/artunbi/
https://www.facebook.com/folafunmi.adewale
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunle-adewale-a92b8721/
Meron received her bachelor’s degree from the School of Performing and Visual Arts, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. After her graduation, she started running her own theatre production company and produced four productions. In 2018 Meron became Country Director for the Art in Medicine project and Representative for Arts in the Health Early Career Research Network. Meron is working to promote the role of arts in supporting mental health in her region.
Website: https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/meron-abey
Social Media: https://twitter.com/meronabey
Innovations in Dementia is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC). It is managed by four co-directors, Rachael Litherland, Steve Milton, Philly Hare and Damian Murphy, who combine many years’ experience of work in the dementia field.
People with dementia are at the heart and start of all our work. We promote a positive but realistic view of dementia, demonstrating that, although it is life changing, it does not have to be life ending. We support people with dementia to live with hope and keep control of their lives.
We want to influence how others engage with people with dementia, and we provide training and consultancy. We run many innovative projects, often in partnership with universities, public bodies or charitable funders.
Damian is particularly interested in the promotion of relationship-centred approaches and is creator of the Getting Along approach and training programme.
He has also facilitated the creation of A Good Life With Dementia – a course FOR people with a recent diagnosis of dementia, designed and delivered BY people living with dementia as course tutors.
With a background in learning disability nursing, and formation living in community in Latin America, Damian has spent 20 years working with people with dementia in acute, community and long term care settings. After a long association with Innovations, he became a co-director in September 2016.
Websites:
http://www.innovationsindementia.org.uk
https://dementiavoices-id.org.uk/
Social Media: https://twitter.com/Innov_Dementia
Petal Pilley Artistic Director & Hillary Kavanagh Producer. Blue Teapot is a multi-award winning Theatre Company, Performing Arts School & Outreach programme for people with intellectual disabilities at the forefront of arts & disability in Ireland. They are committed to high quality theatre, training & the celebration of creativity.
Website: http://blueteapot.ie
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/blueteapottc
https://www.facebook.com/blueteapottheatrecompany/
https://www.instagram.com/blueteapottheatre/
3.45-4.45pm
The Creative Brain on Grief and Hope
As we emerge from the pandemic, Mary-Frances O’Connor author of The Grieving Brain, Rebecca Strain and Martha McCulloch of Artlink Donegal and Dominic Campbell of Irish Hospice Foundation’s Compassionate Culture Network on the Art and Neuroscience of Grief and Hope
Chaired by Emma Stokes.
Please see below for video of the session. As the session was recorded live the audio quality is uneven – it echoes at the beginning in particular, but clears up within the first few minutes.
Contributors
Mary-Frances O’Connor is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Arizona, and directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Laboratory. Her research focuses on the neurobiological and physiological correlates of grief and loss following bereavement, including yearning and rumination. She believes that a clinical science approach toward the experience and mechanisms of grieving can improve interventions for prolonged grief disorder, newly included in the revised DSM-5. She is the author of The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss(HarperOne).
Website:
https://www.maryfrancesoconnor.com
Social Media:
Rebecca Strain is a visual artist, writer, curator and arts project manager currently based in Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland.
She refers to her works as Performative Occupations; the situation and space and the action within; occupying space and time performing a task. It applies to all aspects of her practice which is concerned with how art making can be a conduit for change.
Rebecca works with the transformative process of papermaking as a methodology for her live performance
In 2017 she began to occupy ‘The Potting Shed’ an artwork by Christine Mackey at Fort Dunree. She established Amach Anseo (From Now On) which continues to operate as an activist space through horticulture and counterculture promoting hopefulness through action.
Website:
https://vimeo.com/rebeccamarystrain
Social Media:
https://www.youtube.com/user/paperchipmonk
Martha McCulloch studied fine art printmaking and fine art photography at Glasgow School of Art. She went on to become a Lecturer at what was then Sheffield Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University), returning to Scotland to take up the post as the first Director of Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow, the first dedicated photography venue in the West of Scotland. She later went back to The Glasgow School of Art as a Lecturer in Fine Art Photography, moving to Donegal in 2000 to establish Memory Factory Photography along with Harry Kerr. She is currently one of the co-ordinators of Artlink, an artist-led organisation based at the historic and inspiring location of Fort Dunree, Inishowen. Artlink looks for imaginative ways to link artists to the community and the community to art.
Website:
https://memoryfactorymedia.com
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/WeeArticle
Irish Hospice Foundation, with the support of Creative Ireland, has developed a Compassionate Culture Network across Ireland. Seven artist-facilitators and support workers are working in seven venues around the country inviting local communities to explore loss as un-lockdown happens. The aim is to explore how creativity helps establish places where people can talk openly about loss.
All seven work as connected peers, learning from each other, with IHF bringing awareness, training and support. Each links to local supporters like bereavement networks, HSE, families and friends. The programme began with online training and information exchange in September 2021. Group work began in October, and runs until early 2022. Projects build from local circumstances and opportunity.
Social: https://twitter.com/irishhospice
Dominic Campbell is leading the Creative Brain Week initiative. As Bealtaine Festival Director he steered its celebration of creativity and aging’s development over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration he transformed St Patrick’s Festival’s three shows into ninety growing production, managerial teams, financial support, engagement and impact.
Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” delivering 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.
He mentored “celebration of ageing” festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins, replicating it in San Francisco (2018) and Kentucky (2019).
Recognized as a key cultural influencer in Ireland by The Irish Times and by First Avenue as a Key Influencer in Aging in the US, in 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia. Currently developing an arts programme for the Irish Hospice Foundation as response to the pandemic and the Ageing Voices programme with Sing Ireland.
Website:
www.creativeaginginternational.com
www.gbhi.org/profiles/dominic-campbell
Social:
X: @CreativeAgeIntl and @CreativeBrainWk and @IrelandChorus
Emma Stokes is Vice President for Global Engagement at Trinity College Dublin. She joined the faculty in the mid-1990s where she completed her PhD and was elected as a Fellow in 2012. While on leave between 2018 and 2021, she established the Department of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Science at Qatar University. In 2015, she was elected to serve as President of World Physiotherapy, she was re-elected for a further 4 years in 2019 and in 2018 she co-founded the Global Rehabilitation Alliance established to advocate for a UN resolution on rehabilitation.
Website: www.tcd.ie
Social Media:
4.45-5.00pm
Closing Session
Brian Lawlor and Ian Robertson of the Global Brain Health Institute closed out the seminar with some reflections and provocations.
No video is available for this session.
Contributors
Professor Brian Lawlor (MD, FRCPI, FRCPsych, FTCD (Hon), DABPN) is Conolly Norman Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, and Site Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College. He is a geriatric psychiatrist with an interest in dementia, late-life depression, loneliness and brain health. Brian has worked for over 30 years on developing services and delivering care to people with dementia. His research interests range from early detection and prevention to evaluating new treatments for dementia.
Websites:
https://www.understandtogether.ie
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/brian-lawlor
Social Media:
Ian Robertson is a Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. He is co-leader of the BrainHealth Project (Center for BrainHealth UTDallas) and is a Member of Academia Europaea and of the Royal Irish Academy. He is widely known for his research on neuropsychology and his science writing has included books aimed at the general reader: Mind Sculpture (2000), The Mind’s Eye (2003), Stay Sharp (2005), The Winner Effect (2012) and The Stress Test (2016), all of which have been widely translated. His most recent book How Confidence Works was published by Penguin in 2022.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/ian-robertson
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-robertson-4480502/
6.00pm
“Brain FM - tune in to movement” - Dance Workshops for Neurodiverse groups
BrainFM is an educational tool that uses dance to learn about the brain. It utilises a novel approach alternating multisensory didactic learning with embodied co-creative experience to support understanding of neuroscience. As a result, BrainFM serves as a vehicle to stimulate community engagement while simultaneously reinforcing the concept into action.
As part of Brain Awareness Week, we offered four BrainFM events (two on-line and two in-person) to spread awareness about the modifiable risk factors for dementia, specifically physical activity, social connection, and hearing, in a diverse intergenerational population in Ireland and around the world. The main theme was conveyed through an exploration of how these three modifiable risk factors can impact activity and connectivity in the brain culminating as a creative story through dance. In so doing, we simultaneously reinforced the science while building community engagement in a fun and interactive way. The programme was therefore not only key to empowering individuals to be active and informed agents in their own brain health but is also an advocate for the alliance between arts and science as a powerful tool for expanding brain health literacy.
Sessions were as follows:
Sat 12th March – 4.00-5.00 pm (In-person) at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin – for professionals in culture sector, health care and researchers
Sun 13th March – 3.00-4.00pm (Online) 13 March event: 3.00-4.00pm (Online) for people living with dementia and carers – by invitation only. If you are a care partner or if you serve communities of people living with dementia and would like your community to be invited to the event, please email us on BrainFM.TuneIn (at) gmail.com
Mon 14th March – 10.00-11.00am 14 March event: 10.00-11.00am (Online) for primary schools by invitation only – teachers were requested to register for this event as 1 ticket per class or class group. If you are a primary school teacher and would like your class to be invited for this BrainFM event, please email us on BrainFM.TuneIn (at) gmail.com
Wed 16th March – 6.00- 7.00pm (In-person) at Unit 18 – open to the community
Due to the nature of the events we did not record these sessions.
Contributors
Dr. Anusha Yasoda-Mohan is a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. She is also a trained classical Bharathanatyam and Bollywood dancer. In addition to studying phantom auditory perception using experimental psychology, neuromodulation and neuroimaging, Anusha is immensely passionate about the performing arts which enables her to resonate and collaborate with both artists and scientists. Her diverse and multicultural experience through her national and international travels as both a performing artiste and researcher shapes her persona and inspires her ongoing work of marrying the two seemingly different worlds. She is Director of the International Tinnitus Research Initiative Foundation’s dissertation and communication wing (TRI Academy), which strives to take tinnitus research and clinical practices to the wider tinnitus research community. She is also the co-developer of BrainFM – an education and awareness tool aimed at making complex concepts about the brain accessible through dance while also building community. Additionally, Anusha leads a community for people living with tinnitus in Ireland called Tinnitus Eire (www.tinnituseire.ie) through which she strives to bring a sense of community and belonging for tinnitus sufferers. These tie together with her vision to leverage the arts as a medium to both comprehend and communicate the working of the brain.
Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=GxPjtv4AAAAJ&hl=en
Social:
Instagram: @nushmo90
Facebook: @Anusha.mohan.39
LinkedIn: @AnushaYasoda-Mohan
Magda Kaczmarska, MFA (she/her, they/them) is a dance artist and creative aging thought leader who uses co-creative community dance as a vehicle for belonging and wellbeing. Magda leverages a dual background in neuropharmacology research and dance to build bridges and empower individuals and communities to be active agents in their creativity and brain health. As an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Magda works collaboratively with interdisciplinary leaders around the globe to advance access to creative aging programs that support brain health, belonging and artistic expression across the lifespan. She founded DanceStream Projects, a creative collective based in New York City, that cultivates transdisciplinary partnerships to provide direct ally-ship and empowerment to communities by bridging arts and health and centering dance as a catalyst for systems change. Along with Dr. Anusha Yasoda-Mohan, she leads BrainFM, a co-creative educational tool that unites dance and storytelling to learn about the brain.
Magda mentors future leaders in the creative and health sector through regular partnership at the Fordham Ailey School of Dance in New York City and the Arts in Medicine Fellowship in Lagos, Nigeria. She serves as a representative to the UN with Generations United and is on the executive committee of the UN NGO Committee on Ageing.
Websites:
https://dancestreamprojects.org/
Social Media:
https://www.instagram.com/magdakacz2013/
https://twitter.com/MagdaKaczmarsk4
