Each time I attend a live musical performance, I am always awed by the soul-piercing effect of music on the audience, be it jazz, blues, gospel, rock, or classical. I witness how music moves the listener spurring relief, joy, play, or an escape into imagination.

Earlier this summer, I visited the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy and spoke with director,
Dr. Alan Turry, on the healing aspects of music and the unique treatment approach of the center.

“Pull on a single thread in nature, and you will find it
attached to everything in the universe,” says the naturalist John Muir. These words  came to mind when I recently discovered the cinematic artwork of mouth painter,  Moses Hamilton, 37, who lives in Kauai, Hawaii.  

Capturing subjects ranging from the mundane to the transcendent, Hamilton’s paintings draw the viewer into the breathtaking landscapes of Hawaii and tell a moving visual story of the island’s people. 

Mindfulness, the  practice of bringing our attention purposefully to the present moment, is taught widely in healthcare treatment as a tool to aid in stress relief and coping.
 
I recently spoke with  Ashley Mask, Manager of Visitor Experience and Access Programs at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York about Mindful  Connections, a guided monthly 90-minute art tour of the museum for persons with  dementia and their caregivers.
 

Spit it Out, an  award-winning documentary codirected by Jeff Shames and Jonathan Skurnik,  follows the poignant journey of Jeff Shames in his efforts to find self-acceptance as a stutterer.

In one of the delightful opening scenes, Shames is  attending a workshop at a conference held by Friends, a support organization for children who stutter  and their families. The children are outdoors ready  with their speech monsters in hand, an art exercise depicting their struggles  with stuttering. “We need to show them who is the boss of our talking!” says the  group leader. “Put your speech monster inside the rocket!” The kids crumple up  their speech monsters, dump them into a rocket, and blast it off into space,  giving back the power to the children.  

Blissful Bedrooms is a one-of-a-kind nonprofit organization seeking to transform the bedrooms of young individuals with significant disabilities into spaces where they can experience peace, comfort, and joy. The idea was born from a special bond between Martha Gold- Dvoryadkin, physical therapist/yoga instructor at New York's PS 118 and a former student,Tamisha. 

"My partner Alex and I brainstormed one day on how we could bring more happiness into her life. We decided to paint and decorate her bedroom. We were amazed at the impact on her and us," said Gold-Dvoryadkin.

On any given  day, Robert Greco, Director and Curator of Gallery U —an artspace located in Montclair, NJ—is  evaluating art submissions from around the world. “I have a sense of what kind  of art our audience would like,” says Greco. Gallery U is a  modest artspace with broad purpose: to cut across boundaries of ability and disability, showcasing original,  contemporary artwork at affordable prices. This vision is alive on a multitude  of levels.

Gallery U and its sister venue, the U Consignment Boutique, have been created by Universal Institute, a rehabilitation facility for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurological impairments. The Institute takes a unique approach to recovery, synthesizing vocational training with the arts.