Helpful Illusions

Now this is really cool. There is an art therapy program that takes Alzheimer's patients into museums, like the Museum of Modern Art, and it seems to have beneficial effects. The NY Times article is here.

The phenomenon has not been researched in the same way that music has, but it appears that the part of the brain that deals with the abstract is not as effected by Alzheimer's as the parts that deal with things like brushing teeth.

I read articles like this and I wonder why I'm not pursuing a PhD or a degree in Art Therapy.

Well, I'm not as interested in being an art therapist as I am in studying why it seems to work. Why do we respond to visual art, in all it's forms, the way we do? And is there a correlation to attitudes of creativity? Would research into this area explain better why methods such as Image Streaming seem to work so well? And can this research ensure that the visual arts get as much attention and funding in the schools as math and science? I'm pretty sure there is research into art education and SAT scores, and I'm not just talking about the Mozart Effect.. I'm talking about the specific act of making, interpreting, and studying the visual arts.

I suppose I can do all this eventually.... There's time.

The painting, by the way, is "The Guitar Player" by Picasso and was downloaded from Artchive.