Happiness, Health, and the Arts

Member early access ticketing opens on July 13th
General Public sales begin July 20th

Doors open at 9:15 AM, and the lecture starts at 10:00 AM.

This engaging talk describes empirical research showing how engaging with the arts benefits psychological and physical well-being. You’ll learn why visiting museums helps reduce anxiety, depression, and loneliness, and how simply looking at art can reduce stress and boost the immune system. We’ll also explore why creating art improves cognitive functioning as well as life satisfaction.  We’ll  investigate how music, literature and performance serve as sparks for experiencing, processing, and understanding human feeling. This talk ends by providing practical, evidence-based strategies that audience members can immediately apply to enhance well-being.

About the Speaker

Catherine A. Sanderson is the Manwell Family Professor of Life Sciences (Psychology) at Amherst College, and her research examines how personality, persuasive messages, and social variables influence health-related behaviors, and the predictors of relationship satisfaction.

Professor Sanderson received a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a specialization in Health and Development, from Stanford University, and received both her masters and doctoral degrees in psychology from Princeton University.

Prof. Sanderson, named one of the country’s top 300 professors by the Princeton Review, speaks regularly for public and corporate audiences on topics such as the science of happiness, the power of emotional intelligence, the mind-body connection, and the psychology of good and evil. She is the author of the popular press book on parenting, Slow and Steady Parenting: Active Child-Raising for the Long Haul, From Birth to Age 3, and is the author of The Positive Shift (published in 2019) and her most recent book – Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels.