By Jemma Stringer, Program and Impact Lead at the Atlantic Institute
Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic ended and the world tentatively opened up again, a group of Atlantic Fellows left their home countries for the first time in many months to travel to the first Creative Brain Week in Dublin, Ireland. Creative Brain Week is a Global Brain Health Institute innovation at Trinity College Dublin, presented in association with Creative Aging International and the Atlantic Institute. Hosted by the Global Brain Health Institute, it brings together researchers, artists, health experts and the public to explore how brain science and creativity collide.
When Fellows headed home, they carried in their pockets a shared understanding that they are not alone in their belief that a better world is possible.
The Atlantic Institute has supported groups of Atlantic Fellows to participate in Creative Brain Week since 2022. Through its talks, workshops, performances and exhibitions, the programming has shaped new approaches that Fellows have carried back to their own countries. To mark the fifth anniversary of Creative Brain Week in 2026, several Fellows returned as speakers to share how the experience influenced their work and to highlight collaborative projects that emerged to advance brain health.
Creative Brain Week brought together Atlantic Fellows, drawing on their rich lived experiences. The Atlantic Fellows community spans diverse geographies and a wide range of disciplines. Fellows who have attended include pastors, artists, neurologists, musicians, optometrists, photographers, doctors, activists, parents and carers, to mention a few. As well as learning more about brain health, they inspired one another, sparking new ideas and discussions. Some of the seeds planted in 2022 have led to collaborations that grew and flourished, fertilizing the ground for future work for equity. The connections that Fellows created form a vital part of the intricate tapestry of a diverse community collectively striving for a more equitable world.
When Fellows headed home, they carried in their pockets a shared understanding that they are not alone in their belief that a better world is possible. They walk in solidarity, sharing a strong commitment to finding solutions and action, helping each other in myriad ways to get there.
By March 2026, when the Global Brain Health Institute hosted Creative Brain Week in its fifth year, it had spawned global satellite events, too. In Botswana, Egypt, India, Australia, Argentina and Singapore, Creative Brain Weeks were led by Fellows in their own countries.
Creative Brain Weeks have been a springboard to connection, learning and action. Projects have launched, practices have shifted, lifelong relationships have been forged, skills have been shared, funding has been secured, doors have opened, lives have changed and the Atlantic Fellows community’s work for impact on global equity issues continues to be strengthened.
Atholl Kleinhans and Eimear McGlinchey began collaborating after meeting at Creative Brain Week in 2023. Atholl, an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in South Africa, is a lecturer and researcher of wellness. Eimear, an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, is an assistant professor in intellectual disability in Ireland. Their meeting was the catalyst for multiple collaborative projects involving each other and other Fellows: Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity in South Africa, Yvette Andrews and Bulela Vava; Kirti Ranchod, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and chair of the Africa Brain Health Network; Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, Bongiwe Lusizi; and a regional mentor at GBHI, Juan Fortea. Specifically, they have helped improve the lives of people with Down Syndrome in South Africa and used their collective learning and experience to advance health equity across continents. Listen here.
Dela Wilson, an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity based in the United States, is a strategist, designer and creative technologist. At Creative Brain Week in 2026, she shared how her first visit to Creative Brain Week in 2024 ignited curiosity around the role of neuroscience in healing racial trauma and expanding creativity. She was inspired by the work of Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, a neuropsychologist and Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, whose research integrates Afrofuturism and the Black radical imagination into brain health and creative aging practices.
During their subsequent collaboration, Dela began to recognize more fully that the challenge of building support for transformative policies, such as reparations and climate change, is not solely a policy matter but also involves psychological dimensions. This prompted new thinking on the importance of hope and imaginative capacities as sustaining drivers for advancing equity.
In 2026, Dela returned to Creative Brain Week to share progress on this work. Researchers have identified a “hope gap” within the U.S. reparations movement, a concept that can be applied more broadly amid rising threats to democracy worldwide. Using augmented and extended realities, haptic technologies and somatic rituals, Dela develops immersive tools for radical hope, using embodiment as a form of rehearsal for the societies we aspire to become. Listen to her talk where she highlights The Hope Gap XR and explores the intersections of culture, governance, public memory and imagination.
Another meeting at Creative Brain Week, in 2024, led to a working partnership between Fransiska “Siska” Falentina Sugi, Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia, and Jane Bentley, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, who works as a participatory music specialist in Scotland. They discussed how Jane could get involved in Siska’s work on community health and education in Indonesia, which led to Jane running drumming workshops as part of Siska’s community health meetings. They also imagined how to create spaces for well-being and mental health outside the conventional health system. As speakers at Creative Brain Week in 2026, Jane and Siska shared how they promote the power of learning through music.
By supporting Atlantic Fellows to attend Creative Brain Week over the years, the Atlantic Institute has helped Fellows around the world shape and lead critical conversations on brain health and creative practices while building strong networks across the Atlantic Fellows community and beyond. It has also provided a space for Fellows to connect, learn, and collaborate on more effective approaches to brain health and intersecting issues, as well as to showcase practical solutions that advance equity.
All recorded Creative Brain Week sessions are free to watch on the Creative Aging Internationals You Tube Channel. If you have an interest in taking part in future sessions or want to lead a Creative Brain Week in your country, please email Dominic Campbell: dominic.campbell@gbhi.org.
About the author
Jemma Stringer is the Atlantic Institute Program and Impact Lead for Innovation and Special Projects. She designs and facilitates programs that support the Atlantic Fellows and program staff, underpinned by critical and inclusive pedagogy.
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