This diverse panel of leaders in arts research, arts-in-health practice, and interdisciplinary creative scholarship will explore how the arts intersect with wellness, care, and public health. Panelists will discuss models of collaboration, ethics, and the conditions that make interdisciplinary work viable, including funding structures, evaluation and evidence, and community accountability.

Panelists:
Sunil Iyengar is Director of Research & Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts.  Under his leadership, the NEA has produced dozens of reports, webinars, blog posts, and podcast episodes about research on the value and impact of the arts. He has also established research and data partnerships with multiple federal agencies. Iyengar and his team designed and implemented three long-term research agendas, founded a national data repository for arts and culture and a statistical reporting center for the arts, and launched two research grant programs, including the NEA Research Labs initiative. He chaired a federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development (2011-2023) and co-created the Sound Health Network (2020-25). He and his team consistently lead strategic planning for the agency, and they provide research and evaluation support to Creative Forces: NEA Military Arts Healing Network. Iyengar formerly was an editor and reporter covering the biomedical research, medical device, and pharmaceutical industries. He writes poems, book reviews, and literary essays.

Associate Dean for Innovation in the Arts and Health at the Peabody Institute Sarah Hoover leads initiatives linking the performing arts and health within Peabody, Johns Hopkins University, and Baltimore. Committed to advancing health in and through music-making, Hoover's work supports music programs throughout Johns Hopkins Health System, creative aging programs in regional retirement communities, and injury prevention and performance health programs at Peabody. Alongside her book, Music as Care: Artistry in the Hospital Environment, these clinical and community programs have created novel educational and experiential career pathways for musicians in Arts in Health. As an advocate for artist workforce development, Hoover serves as Artist Workforce Development Committee chair and board member for the National Organization for Arts in Health. Prior to her appointment at Peabody, Hoover was a performer, teacher of singing, music journalist, and festival director and received degrees from Yale College (B.A.) and the Peabody Institute (D.M.A.).

Professors Ramana Vinjamuri and Ann Sofie Clemmensen lead the SIVAM project, an interdisciplinary initiative exploring how dance, movement science, and human–robot collaboration can be integrated to develop technology-enabled interventions that support mental health and emotional well-being.

Ann Sofie Clemmensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Dance and Director of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program at UMBC, teaching courses in contemporary movement practice, improvisation, composition, and interdisciplinary creative research. Clemmensen approaches her interdisciplinary collaborations and dance-making as a gateway for experimenting with composition and embodied ways of knowing to craft works that consider how her continually evolving understanding of the space and place she inhabits is established and maintained, along with the possible impact and consequences. She was awarded the 2022 CIRCA-IMET Fellowship, with which she investigated ways to transpose the kinetic world of microorganisms onto the human body and how to use the moving body's sensory, visual, and kinetic language to present new perspectives and convey the importance of microbiological research and marine health. In 2024, she joined the SIVAM project (Synergy-based, Intuitive, Virtual and Augmented therapy for Mental health / robotic dance therapy) under the direction of Dr. Ramana Vinjamuri and Dr. Andrea Kleinsmith.

Dr. Ramana Vinjamuri is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at UMBC. He serves as the UMBC Site Director for the NSF Industry–University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) BRAIN—Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnologies—and leads the Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (Vinjamuri Lab). His research focuses on sensorimotor control, brain–computer interfaces, rehabilitation robotics, exoskeletons, human–robot collaboration, and neurotechnologies for rehabilitation and mental health. Dr. Vinjamuri's research program is supported by multiple federal agencies, foundations, and innovation programs, including the National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER Award, NSF I-Corps, NSF IUCRC), the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR SBIR), the United States–India Science and Technology Endowment Fund, the New Jersey Health Foundation, and several UMBC innovation initiatives. In addition to his research leadership, Dr. Vinjamuri plays an active role in interdisciplinary health research and academic collaboration. He serves as the Director of the Cyber & AI Core within the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)–UMBC Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), where he supports clinical and translational research.

Discussant:

Elizabeth Johnson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at UMBC. Her teaching and research include the integration of aesthetics, anatomy, kinesiology, and somatic inquiry into embodied movement practices. Johnson has worked in collaboration with researchers from the University of Florida Center for the Arts in Medicine (CAM) and UF Shands Neurology to develop best practices and protocols for dance/movement interventions for patients with Multiple Sclerosis. With colleagues from Scottish Ballet, Georgetown University, Marquette University, and the Joffrey Ballet School, she has presented research at IADMS and Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Center conferences. Johnson is co-author/author of five book chapters featuring Alexander Technique and developmental movement applications that promote conscious embodiment in response to new media technologies, student stress and trauma, and arts performance. With co-authors Rebecca Nettl-Fiol (University of Illinois) and Luc Vanier (University of Utah), she is awaiting the 2026 publication of their forthcoming book, The Dance of Everyday Movement: A Developmental Framework for Whole-Body Integration (University of Illinois Press).

This event is hosted by the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) and the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC), with financial support from the Division of Research and Creative Achievement. This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.