It all started when Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Cullen met poet Yuko Taniguchi in 2018. In 2019, they launched the Becoming Artists Study (more information with details about their meeting and collaboration can be found on the Becoming Artists study page). During this first creativity study, Dr. Cullen and Yuko met many wonderful collaborators including artist Peng Wu. Energized by what they learned from their previous artist-scientist collaboration, in the summer of 2022, a wildly fun new arts course for adolescents experiencing depression, the Creativity Camp Studies were born. Following the first camp's successful debut, Dr. Cullen and team started the weekly after-school class Imagination Central where students participate in art and science workshops and work with researchers to develop new measures of creativity. In January 2023, students at Akita International University in Akita, Japan, took a Creativity and Well-Being course and some chose to participate in a research study. Yuko is currently teaching a course in spring of 2023 called Contemplation of Mental Health Using Creativity and Qualitative Analysis. This summer we will begin the second phase of our Creativity Camp studies. In the fall of 2023, we plan to start Imagination Studio, a research study depression intervention studio arts course for UMN undergraduate students.
Katie and Yuko at the Weisman Art Museum, 2019