ChildArt magazine highlights connections between the arts, health, & neuroscience in children

February 26, 2021

In 2020 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), contributed to the production of two “special issues” of ChildArt magazine, about the role of the arts in health and childhood development.

• The first issue (July-September 2020) considered the theme of “arts and health”.
• The second issue (October-December 2020) focused on the relationship between the arts and neuroscience in children. Guest-edited by Dr. Katia Delrahim Howlett, Deputy Director of NIDA’s Division of Extramural Research, this issue of ChildArt centered on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the nation’s largest longitudinal study of brain development and child health.

Supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other Federal partners, the ABCD Study® follows nearly 12,000 children beginning at 9–10 years old, who have been enrolled at 21 research sites nationwide. Researchers will study the biological and behavioral development of these children through their teens and early adulthood. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a federal partner on the study. Questions about arts-engagement are among variables that researchers will examine throughout the duration of the study.

Both issues contain artwork by children and staff involved in the study, as well as articles and interviews showcasing the neuroscientific and health benefits associated with the arts.