On October 6th 2017, during national mental illness awareness week, the art event ‘Mindscapes’ was held as part of the Penn Ave first fridays/unblurred monthly art crawl. Organized by Lizzie Manning (Ahmari Lab, Pitt) and Micah Shelton (Logan Lab, Pitt), Mindscapes sought to reduce misconceptions and stigma surrounding mental health by displaying artwork created by brain researchers from around Pittsburgh and people who have experienced mental illness side-by-side, to improve understanding in the community about both the scientific basis and lived experience of mental illness.

Thanks to generous support from the CNBC and a number of other research departments, scientific artwork could be sold at the event with all proceeds being donated to the Persad Center. The event had a great turn-out, and raised over $1200 for the Persad Center, which specializes in mental health services for the LGBTQ community, ranging from counseling and suicide prevention programs. Following the incredible success of Mindscapes we hope to make this an annual event!


CorbitMindscapes2

Victoria Corbit (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychiatry and CMU Department of Biological Science) Coexistence of Biological Variability and Consistency




Rex Tien (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Bioengineering) The Mind Within Our Grasp




Sanjeev Khanna (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Bioengineering) “Push-Pull” cells from prefrontal brain region




Lindsay Hanford (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychiatry) Normal white matter tract development of 3 and 9 months of age




Kristine Ojala (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neuroscience) Blossoming of the Neuromuscular Junction