Tag Archives: Art

Winning the 2011 Society for Neuroscience Brain Awareness Video Contest this year is a heart-wrenching animated poem told with the voice of a 10-year old boy whose grandfather has suffered a stroke and developed aphasia, a language impairment. It’s called The Treasure Hunt and it does a wonderful job of humanizing and explaining the condition. Language is such a central part of our minds that it’s very difficult for most of us to imagine a world in which our capacity to talk and express ourselves using speech is stripped away. Read more

At the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC), we are very privileged to have the Hellman Visiting Artist program, a unique project created to foster dialogue between scientists, caregivers, patients, clinicians and the public regarding creativity and the brain. The program allows us to invite an accomplished artist (visual artist, musician, writer or other creative individual) to visit the MAC each year to learn about neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. We encourage a creative exchange between the artist and the researchers, as well as interactions with patients and families who agree to participate. The Visiting Artist also shares their creativity with the larger community through a public performance.

Our first visiting artist was Deborah Aschheim, a visual artist known for her works using light and video to create impressions of the neurological structures that make us who we are. As her residency draws to end this month, we caught up with her to ask her about her experience. Read more

The importance of creating art to people suffering from neurodegenerative disorders is being examined through a novel combination of perspectives at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center (MAC).

The MAC recently introduced the Hellman Visiting Artist Program during an evening presentation by Bruce Miller, MD, professor of neurology, and the program’s inaugural artist Deborah Aschheim.

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