Creative Brain Week returns for 2024

Posted on: 04 March 2024

Now in its third year, the ground-breaking event will explore the themes of Attention, Connection and Love, through a series of public events, activities and exhibitions in the arts and neuroscience.

Creative Brain Week - a collaboration between The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at Trinity College Dublin and Creative Aging International - has achieved local and international significance through a programme of entertaining examinations of how brain science and creativity collide. Creative Brain Week examines how such collisions seed new ideas into society, culture and health with talks, exhibitions and workshops throughout the week.

World-leading neuroscientists, educationalists, health policy makers, artists and innovators will come together to explore and promote the interdisciplinary neuroscience of creativity and the brain, offer expert insight, inspire and stimulate conversations.

The event programme, which runs from 4th to 9th March, is jam-packed with exciting events and activities, among which are, observations on the positive and negative effects of networked technologies for connection, living with an acquired brain injury, an exploration of the mind of an extreme swimmer and the challenge of placing care at the centre of the health industry. While exhibits will share the history of arts and health practice in Ireland, a growing body of art exploring the stigma of Alzheimer’s diagnosis will take centre stage, and an extraordinary decade-long exploration of global aging through photography from around the world will be on display.

Brian Lawlor, Site Director of the Global Brain Health Institute and Conolly Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College said:

“Creativity is a pathway for everyone, and I believe there is huge potential for creativity to promote health and wellbeing at a population level – it’s almost like a common language across cultures. But there are a lot of unanswered questions – how does it work, what is the brain science behind it?

Each day during Creative Brain Week we will explore the power of creativity in the brain and for the brain with wonderful examples from Ireland and around the world. So get ready for a rollercoaster of creativity that will challenge and change your brain for good.”

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2024

Presentations

On Attention

Susan Magsamen, founder of The Neuro-Arts Blueprint and New York Times bestselling co-author of “Your Brain on Art”
Tanisha Hill Jarret, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, GBHI and author of The Black radical imagination: a space of hope and possible futures
Paul Dockree Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience on Attention and Decision Making

On Connection

Marshmallow Laser Feast invites you to navigate with sensory perception beyond the everyday. Where is the line between where you end and the world starts?
My Brain Robbieaspiring to keep young brains healthy inspires artists, scientists, and activists to make the world a little better. Founder Eléonore Bayen is in Dublin for Creative Brain Week and will be joined by Dublin schoolchildren from three different primary schools.

On Love

Dr Cissie Fu, Political Theorist and co-founder of the Political Arts Initiative with a performance-presentation on the urgency of and conditions for institutional love.
Tracey Naledi, Deputy Dean of Health Services University of Cape Town with two decades in technical and management positions in the Government and NGO sectors in South Africa and Botswana explores when love might not be enough with John Farrelly, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Commission and Siobhán McArdle, Assistant Secretary, Social Care, Mental Health, Drugs Policy and Unscheduled Care, Department of Health.

Inaugural Pratchett Prize

The Pratchett Prize acknowledges the contribution of a scientist, artist, activist, or person living with the condition who collaboratively or separately, works to reduce the impact of Alzheimer’s. The awardee will be announced as part of Creative Brain Week on March 6th at the Naughton Institute/Science Gallery, Trinity College.

Workshops

‘Breaks & Joins’ creatively explores how we repair ourselves, our stuff, our communities. How to live with what can’t be mended. Or break what needs be broken.
‘This is What Love Feels Like?’ invites you to body map your experiences of love and care.

Performances

Poet Morag Anderson, and Autumn Brown experts on Silence and Amelia McConville of the Arts + Science Salon Podcast reflect on Attention, Connection and Love.
‘The Tightrope Walker’ written and performed by Jenny McDonald is testament to the care and connection we find in challenging times of ill health.

Exhibitions

1 in 6 by 2030: the Earth’s population is about to become the oldest it has ever been: by the year 2030, 1 in 6 people will be over the age of 60. Photographers around the world show us what it looks like.
“Less Visible Threads:” Somewhere between a space for conversation and vibrant pop-up library displaying stories of arts and health evolves over Creative Brain Week.
Video, short film and installations dedicated to reducing stigma by telling the many stories of life with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s from around the world.

Creative Brain Week goes on a mini-Irish tour!

Christopher Bailey is the World Health Organisation Arts and Health lead, and for the first time this year, he will take Creative Brain Week on the road to visit local programmes in Cork, Limerick and Galway where creativity and science combine for improved health care. In the closing moments of Creative Brain Week 2024, he will reflect on how local experience connects with global issues.

Christopher Bailey said:

“I am really keen to visit these projects and meet their supporters, learn how they started and understand what sustains them, particularly in these uncertain times. As part of Creative Brain Week, I want to see what the experience of locally seeded Irish projects suggests to the rest of the world and I believe that Ireland is a world leader in this field."

Dominic Campbell co-founder of Creative Aging International and co-producer of Creative Brain Week said:

“Ireland has become a world leader on the topic of brain health and we look forward to a really engaging week for everyone who attends. Creative Brain Week continues to expand with the event in Dublin sparking satellite projects in far flung destinations such as Egypt, Botswana, India and Australia for the first time this year.”

How can I get involved?

All events are free, but booking/registration is required. To view the full programme and register for an event, visit: https://creativebrainweek.com

Media Contact:

Ciara O’Shea | Media Relations | coshea9@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 4204