The Language of Humanity: A Guest Post by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Practical, comprehensive and essential, Your Brain on Art is ripe with insight. If you ever wanted to truly understand what art can do for the world, let this book be your guide. Read on for an exclusive essay from authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross on writing Your Brain on Art.

Sometimes the most powerful connections are sparked by the most unexpected beginnings. In our case, Your Brain on Art began as an unsolicited email from one stranger to another. That email led to a scheduled fifteen-minute phone call. Three hours later we were still talking, and those strangers became not only friends but, ultimately, coauthors. During that first conversation, Ivy learned from Susan what science is now proving that artists and creators like her have always known: humans are hardwired for the physical and psychological changes that only the arts and aesthetics provide. In fact, the arts have been essential to our very survival according to evolutionary biologists.

Over the last twenty years, advances in technology have enabled us to get inside our heads and study the extraordinary ways the arts impact us. Research is proving that the arts and aesthetic experiences are superpowers with the ability to address physical and mental health issues, learning, flourishing, and community-building on an individual and societal level. Neuroaesthetics is the study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior—and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. We call the field neuroarts.

Shortly after that first phone call in 2017, we hosted a gathering at Ivy’s house in Mill Valley, California. Susan was embarking on a groundbreaking project that would become the NeuroArts Blueprint, a global initiative in partnership with The Aspen Institute, to build the field. As a part of her early research, Susan wanted to better understand how people perceive arts and aesthetics in their everyday lives. She asked if Ivy might want to host a salon with that intention. 

When our twenty guests arrived—a mix of scientists, artists, makers, and entrepreneurs—our careful agenda was quickly abandoned. We only needed to ask one question to spur hours of deep conversation. How have the arts changed or helped you in some way in your life? Over an entire afternoon people shared extraordinary personal stories about how arts and aesthetics had profoundly impacted their lives.

As we were cleaning up after the last guests had left, Susan looked at Ivy and asked. “I’ve been thinking about writing a book about neuroarts. Would you like to do it with me?” Ivy said “Yes, this is the book I have been waiting for.”

In writing Your Brain on Art, our goal was simple: to share the science of the arts and its impact on the general public. It is a love letter to the world, including more than 120 interviews with experts, researchers, artists, and practitioners. Over a five-year journey—from research labs to hospital beds, museums, community centers, and kitchen tables—we have heard from people in all walks of life how the arts are used to address an array of physical and psychological health, and societal issues.

Within a week of its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller, a rarity for a book about the arts. But, since the launch, thousands of readers have shared that it validates their art experiences, has given them permission to make art again, and put words to what they intuitively already knew. We believe Your Brain on Art has been so successful because the world is hungry for better solutions.

Humanity is at a crossroad. We have been optimizing for productivity and efficiency since the industrial revolution, thinking it would make us happy.  But, it has not. We need the arts and aesthetics in service of health, learning, and well-being more than ever—as both makers and beholders.

Your Brain on Art beautifully illustrates the transformative power of the arts and aesthetic experiences as not only an investment in individual creativity, but also as a catalyst for collective change, offering a new lens through which we can reimagine and build a more empathetic, innovative, and connected world.