Interdisciplinary Funding Received from National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab on the Arts, Creativity, Cognition, and Learning for “Imagination Central.”

Drs. Bonnie Klimes-Dougan and Wilma Koutstaal, along with other UMN researchers (PI Dr. Kathryn Cullen), received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab: The Arts, Creativity, Cognition, and Learning

The grant runs from 5/1/22 through 10/31/23. Zeroing in on creativity development during adolescence – a time notable for remarkable brain changes and self-discovery – the first project of this multidisciplinary Research Lab, “Imagination Central”” will engage diverse, underrepresented youth and their communities in participation and discovery about art, creativity, and the developing brain. Drawing on an active participatory approach, the Lab will develop, test, and broadly share novel techniques, designed to capture meaningful measures of creativity for adolescents and track creativity development in youth. The Lab will develop the first fully adolescent-responsive techniques to promote imaginative, purposeful arts-based creation, with this process openly shared with the wider public.

Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, PhD, Contract Associate Professor, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Wilma Koutstaal, PhD, Professor, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.