THURSDAY, February 15, 2024
12:30–5:00 pm
Reception to follow

Registration is required by Tuesday, February 13

Join us for an exploration of the impact of art on our thoughts, insights, and emotions. Go beyond preferences and discover other meaningful aspects of art experiences—the transformative moments, the sense of encounter, and the lasting impact on our thinking and outlook after interactions with art.

The Mirror to the World event brings together experts in the psychology of art, art historians, artists, and museum leaders to collectively explore the power of art from diverse perspectives. A special presentation by Dr. Pablo Tinio and Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle will highlight their newest research, Art Creates Understanding.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with the beauty and significance of art and gain insights from leading minds in the field. This will be an enriching symposium and workshop that goes beyond the surface, inviting you to reflect on the profound world of artistic experiences.

This event is a part of the Mirror to the World: The Power of Art to Build Understanding and Creativity project, funded by the Templeton Religion Trust in the Art Seeking Understanding program (project directors: Zorana Ivcevic Pringle and Pablo Tinio).

Research Symposium, Workshop, and Expert Panel Descriptions


The Well-Being Effect of Art
Research Symposium
Katherine Cotter, University of Pennsylvania; Associate Director of Research, Positive Psychology Center

Engaging with art is a common activity that has a variety of impacts--it shifts our emotions, urges us to reflect on our perspectives, and has the power to change our lives. More recently, research has focused on how art can help us to flourish through benefiting our well-being. In this presentation, we will explore recent research that has sought to explore the myriad ways in which art engagement shapes our well-being.

Art Creates Understanding
Research Symposium
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., Yale University; Director, Creativity and Emotions Lab
Pablo Tinio, Ph.D., Montclair State University; Director, Creativity and Aesthetics Lab
Eliana Grossman, City University of New York Graduate Center

Art defines us as humans. Psychology of aesthetics has taught us about people’s preferences for different kinds of art and examined the varieties of emotions evoked by art, from basic emotions (e.g., joy, anger), to intellectual (e.g., interest, curiosity), to moral emotions (e.g., disgust). Our research starts to examine the similarities between the process of art creation and appreciation and the effects of art on our thinking and understanding of the world. We take the audience through the exploration of what makes art meaningful as museum visitors reflect on artworks they found especially engaging. Viewers’ interaction with an artwork is akin to a conversation with an artist—wondering about techniques, creating personal associations, and reaching an understanding of others or the world. Because art appreciation resembles the process of art making, we also examine the power of engaging with art to boost creative thinking.

Through the Looking Glass of Art
Experiential Workshop
Pablo Tinio, Ph.D., Montclair State University; Director, Creativity and Aesthetics Lab
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., Yale University; Director, Creativity and Emotions Lab

This workshop is grounded in the idea that aesthetic appreciation corresponds in a mirror-reversed fashion to art creation. Artists create works to depict or express ideas, inspire, or defy. As they create, they continually adapt, expand, and fine-tune the work while adding layers of ideas and materials. As the work nears completion, they refine the piece and put the finishing touches. During this museum workshop, we will guide the audience to dive into an aesthetic encounter. This process begins where the artist left off; that is, the viewers begin by processing the surface features of the work, such as colors and contours, and proceed to identify what is (or what is not) depicted. Finally, after spending some time engaging with the work, the viewers can arrive at the point where the artist started—the concepts, ideas, and meanings that initially inspired the creation of the work. During the workshop, we will highlight the results of research on the aesthetic experience and describe why it is useful for engaging museum audiences and promoting deep and meaningful experiences of art.

Designing for Empathy: What Can Art Tell Us About the Way We See Ourselves and Our World?
Experiential Workshop
Elif Gokcigdem, Ph.D., Art Historian, Founder of ONE: Organization of Networks for Empathy

“We are the mirror and the face in it. . .” – Rumi

This workshop will explore the power of art in building empathy and understanding of the other through an awareness of the self. A brief introduction to the Designing for Empathy framework will be followed by an empathy-building exercise with art and dialogue. Inspired by the Glencairn Museum collection, the exercise will invite participants to individually and collectively explore the diversity of perception and meaning-making that takes place around us at any given moment. An experiential understanding of the diversity of perception, even when we are under the same roof and looking at the same object, will highlight the role of art in expanding our sense of the self and our worldviews to include those unfamiliar narratives and life experiences different than our own.

Experiencing Art: From Wonder to Spiritual Insight
Panel Discussion
Moderators:
Elif Gokcigdem and Zorana Ivcevic Pringle

Panelists:
Pablo Tinio, Ph.D., Montclair State University; Director, Creativity and Aesthetics Lab
Aisha Imam, Founder and Director, Reed Society for the Sacred Arts
Amelia Winger-Bearskin, artist and technologist, University of Florida, Digital arts and sciences, Banks Preeminence Chair
Brian Henderson, Director, Glencairn Museum