In early May of 2024, something transformational happened inside a Writing for Health Professions class at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lecturer John Schranck, who taught the course that quarter, had assigned Your Brain on Art to his students, a book championed by the school that year as the 2024 selection of its common reading program, UCSB Reads. The authors, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, were on campus that week in May, set to give a culminating lecture on their book and its subject: the emerging field of neuroarts. Magsamen, on the day after their lecture, paid a visit to the classroom to sit in conversation with Schranck’s students.

“It was among, if not the most meaningful day for my teaching career that I’ve had,” Schranck said. “It was moving, which is a word that academia would be suspicious of because it’s not associated with high reason and we have to be suspicious of our emotions. But it was a moving experience both to hear how earnest and intelligent and sincere the students were in their questions and how generous and collaborative Susan was in her responses.”

For 75 minutes, students asked questions of Magsamen — questions which Schranck describes as exceptionally unique and personal to each student’s experience. The class, which is usually populated with those seeking out careers in STEM fields, responded strongly to Your Brain on Art, which explores the profound, science-backed impact that art engagement has on the human body and mind.

“What came to the surface through reading this book is that a lot of them had been in their childhoods or adolescence, people who pursued the arts,” Schranck said. “And at some point along the way they internalized the idea that a career necessitated the abandonment of that part of their identity. So the ability of the book to give students permission to rediscover not only that they can continue to be artists, but that the arts can be integral to how they can be transformational healthcare practitioners was the most important and transformational thing the book did.”

Schranck added that many of his students indicated that this day with Magsamen was the highlight of their quarter, as marked in their course evaluations submitted at the end of the term.

The students of Writing for Health Professions were not alone in their experience. For more than four months, the UCSB Library had been facilitating the distribution and discussion of the book across classrooms, workshops, and panels. Free and open to the public, the programming hosted by the library pulled from the book’s themes and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion for students, faculty, staff, and community members — all as part of their yearly program, UCSB Reads.

What is UCSB Reads?

UCSB Reads, a unique common reading program hosted annually by the UCSB Library, serves as a bastion of community, interdisciplinary discussion, and inspiration for the Santa Barbara region. Each year, over the course of winter and spring quarters, students, faculty, and community members receive free copies of the selected book and partake in both student and staff-led programming that culminates in a lecture given by the author(s).

“You go in thinking, ‘Oh, it's just a book club, or ‘It's just a book for classes,’ but seeing how people, departments, and students use that book to promote bigger discussions was really awe-inspiring to me,” said Ally Dahl, an undergraduate English student and the student assistant for outreach and events at the UCSB Library.

For students like Dahl, the academic experience at a major university is, by definition, limited in its scope. UCSB Reads works as a kind of optional supplement to the concentrations of traditional academia.  

“The nature of academic preferment is such that it’s often hard to do much besides specialize because that’s really how you get ahead as an academic,” said Charles Donelan, the senior publicist at UCSB Arts & Lectures, an internal arts organization that collaborates with UCSB Reads to host its end-of-year author talk. “And so these reads programs are crucial in an era when specialization defines success, because they offer people an opportunity to get out of their office, get out of their department and come together in a setting where interdisciplinary conversation is encouraged.”

Heather Silva, the senior director of development at UCSB Library, is responsible for securing external partners from the community to support and raise awareness surrounding the UCSB Reads effort and sits on the selection committee. She says the program works to engage the university in a relevant discussion that will interest both the student and faculty population, along with the community at large. Prior selections have tackled a wide range of topics like climate change, urban design, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“It’s a moment for us to expose students to ideas that they may not be currently engaged with, and to also get them to think a little bit outside of the box of their own student experience,” she said.

Now in its 18th year, the program was founded by Gene Lucas, who in 2007 served as the acting Vice Chancellor and interim university librarian. Still a partner today, Lucas has championed UCSB Reads since the program was pitched to him as a means to promote the Library and foster timely discussion.

The program, now comfortably enmeshed in the fabric of the university and primarily funded by the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, requires extensive planning, much of which is spearheaded by Alex Regan, the Library’s events and exhibitions program manager. Regan, who has been with the Library for nearly a decade, coordinates all programming, directs outreach, and manages the advisory committee which works intensively over the summer to select the year’s book, coordinates all programming efforts.

The culminating lecture takes place in Campbell Hall on UCSB’s campus, followed by a dinner with the author(s), major stakeholders, students, faculty, and staff.

“I think the program is fantastic because it helps us kind of put a finger in the pulse of what interests the campus right now, and it gives us an opportunity to show to our various constituencies how the library can be meaningful to them outside of offering the study spaces or a cup of coffee cafe or the myriad of things the library does for students,” said Silva.

UCSB Reads 2024: Your Brain on Art

In the spring of 2023, Alex Regan began work on the 2024 UCSB Reads selection. She first compiled and confirmed the year’s advisory committee, made up of students, faculty, Library staff, and community members. The committee meets in June, where each of the 20 members pitch two books to potentially be chosen. Soon whittled down by vote to a shortlist of five, the committee reads each contender and again convenes in August to decide on their top three choices. Those selections are then passed on to Arts & Lectures, where the organization confirms whether their top choice is available for a campus visit and lecture. Last year, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross were willing and able.

Magsamen, the executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, and Ross, the vice president of hardware design at Google, are both deeply invested in education and jumped at the chance to involve themselves in a University program.

“We kept hearing that UCSB was looking at the book, but we never heard anything. Then, we finally did, but we didn’t know the process at all. We didn’t understand it,” said Magsamen. “When we did learn the process, we were blown away by the rigorous nature and the thoughtfulness of the way they made the decision about this book and I think it’s fair to say we were really honored that they chose our book.”

In the Fall, Your Brain on Art was announced as the year’s selection. From there, Regan continued to forge ahead on the year’s programming — establishing collaborations across campus and within the community, confirming faculty interest, and booking the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for the free book distribution kick-off event that occurs at the start of the winter quarter, where up to 2,000 books are handed out. She coordinates around 4-5 events per month through the program’s conclusion in May.

“I was really happy with that book choice because it does something that few books can achieve, which is it can branch across the arts and the sciences,” said Heather Silva, the senior director of development. “That’s a really hard book to find.”

The UCSB Reads 2024 events were unique to its predecessors, inspired by the interdisciplinary nature of the book. “We have never selected a book that talks about the importance of art and so we did have some different types of programming,” said Regan. “We had more art-based workshops that were free and open to the public.”

The events centered around the beneficial nature of arts engagement. Regan, along with the events assistant at the Library, various student assistants, and help from the communications team, organized a stencil screen printing workshop in collaboration with an external graphic design company. They put together a crafting workshop led by graduate students, a hip-hop workshop and performance, and opened a drop-in room where students could join one another in coloring and creating in a dedicated Library space.

Students were also heavily invested in the 2024 programming. Ally Dahl, the student assistant, was responsible for coordinating a book club by students, for students that highlighted the collaborative and creative spirit of the book. Every Wednesday for three weeks the club met for 45 minutes and engaged in art-making. “We just wanted something easy for students to get to do that wouldn’t take up a lot of their time,” she said. “And my big thing is I’m not the most creative person. So I wanted something that was approachable for everybody.”

Dahl, along with another student assistant, organized a cookie decorating meeting — meant to allow students to experience a sensory experience beyond typical creative endeavors — a “pass the painting” meeting to create a communal art piece, and a collage-making meeting. All of which were soundtracked to a collaborative playlist the clubgoers created. Dahl, like the students of Schanck’s writing course, says the club allowed her to explore a side of herself in a way that felt free from the traditional boundaries of academia and her chosen career path.

“We were playing music, we were talking, and having this environment and community where we were all just making art but not judging each other. There was no grade, there was no scale of judgment, we were just there for fun,” said Dahl. “It really helped me, just because at UCSB, it’s a great environment but it’s still an academic institution. You’re there for the grades, the quarter system is intense. So having that place where it’s okay to take time for yourself was almost a breath of fresh air.”

The impact of the book and the year’s programming for students was felt across campus. Jasmine Liang, an undergraduate student and a member of the 2024 advisory committee which selected Your Brain on Art, calls the selection an actionable one that made a positive impact on her life. “It immediately stood out to me as something every student can look to for advice. We're all constantly under stress, not getting enough rest, and so on,” she said. “From the very beginning, you’re given ways to better your mental health in small ways.”

Dahl also points to the mental health focus of the book and the year’s programming as a benefit to students. “It just gave people a safe space. And I feel like that's a really cool aspect of particularly this book because this book did promote community and mental health,” she said. “So I feel like this book, plus UCSB Reads, and the community that Reads created just merged really beautifully.”

Liang says the program works to involve students on-campus in more meaningful ways. “There’s not many opportunities where it feels like reading a book is personal, and this is one of those rare ways,” she said. “It’s been a highlight of my UCSB career for sure.”

While the plethora of arts programming allowed space for students and the larger community to explore and regain familiarity with their creative side, Regan points to a career-focused panel towards the end of Spring as one of the highlights of the programming run in 2024. The panel, which took place during the author’s visit to campus, featured the lead engineer and the creative innovation consultant from Google’s Quantum AI Lab in Santa Barbara, along with a UX designer from Amazon. Joined by Magsamen and Ross, the panel highlighted the need for arts in the tech space and the opportunities for crossover available for those pursuing a career in those fields.

“That was one of my favorites because it both sort of highlighted the importance of the UCSB Reads program in bringing people together in a way that you don’t always see very often. That you have students from the sciences, the arts, the humanities, the social sciences, getting to meet with people who have real-world experience,” said Regan.“They just seemed very hungry for that.”

Ross agrees. “That was a very unique experience for us. I think we were very impressed with it because often it’s one way — we’re just giving a talk. But that was our first signal that, wow, they really want to embody the information and take it to a different level.”

While students, faculty, and community members reap a variety of benefits offered by the program — exposure to new ideas, stimulating discussion, new understandings, a free book, the list goes on — participating authors, too, are able to benefit from the program. The opportunity to connect with student and campus life, while being a part of a larger community building effort was a highlight for Ross and Magsamen.

The authors worked closely with the Library in defining their role during their visit, allowing the authors to more fully entwine themselves in the university’s academic landscape. “The Library was very engaged,” said Magsamen. “We really felt woven through the university in a lot of different ways and we had a lot of conversations about what was important to the university and the students based on the moment in time.”

The culminating public lecture took place on May 8. Inside Campbell Hall, around 600 students, staff, faculty, and community members gathered to listen to Magsamen and Ross. As the stage lights came up at the start of the evening, however, the audience was not greeted by the authors — instead, by Srijani Bjattacharya, an undergraduate biology student, playing a soaring rendition of Bach's Cello Suite no. 2 in D Minor. The audience soaked in the music, then broke into loud applause. Magsamen and Ross took the stage soon after.

“The fact they started with a cello substantiated for everyone what the book was about. The way that their own presentation didn't just explain or talk about their book, but it modeled in real time the neuroaesthetic power that it claims,” said John Schanck, the lecturer. “It was a matter of walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”

The lecture was also met with acclaim from the community at large. Arts & Lectures collects anonymous feedback from the audience after its shows. Submissions obtained from Arts & Lectures included: “It was really wonderful!” “I was really pleased and glad to have a free event.” “It was great. I need to obtain the book and read it. I was exposed to so many wonderful ideas.”

The 2024 selection highlighted the power of a program like UCSB Reads. “I think the reason that Your Brain on Art was such a successful pick, and I think it really was a successful pick, is because it was a book’s worth of an idea,” said Charles Donelan. “It was both a good book for everybody to read, but it was also a good model for what a UCSB Reads type of experience can offer.”

Conclusion

At the conclusion of UCSB Reads 2024, Magsamen and Ross were struck by the impact of a program like this one on students, faculty, and community members.

“After the whole event, we were like, ‘Oh my God, why don't other schools do this?’ I mean, I think it gave us hope, and it also gave us this passion, whether it be for our book or another book,” said Ross. “It's just this concept of what they did by taking our book, and various areas of the whole school embodying it, right? It was the Library, it was the students. It was this holistic expression across the campus.”

For an entire community, the interdisciplinary approach of a program like UCSB Reads offers a range of opportunities to grow, collaborate, and explore.

The impact, as with John Schranck’s Writing for Health Professions class, can be transformational.

Students discover new interests and grow more in touch with sides of themselves previously unknown, community members engage with one another in unique and relevant ways, teachers collaborate with one another, and authors receive direct and engaging feedback on their work from a diverse range of perspectives.

For Magsamen and Ross, it’s clear to them that programs of this nature should be championed across universities. The authors see these programs as an opportunity to build community, to learn from one another, and to create an ecosystem of deep thought, purpose, and meaning through the power of a shared story.

“What if a book can change the way we live our lives through the lens of arts and aesthetic experiences to maximize our potential?” said Magsamen. “This is what UCSB has done.”

The authors believe that universities across the globe could benefit from a reads experience on multiple levels. “I think the benefits of this are so important for creating community and creating true understanding between faculty and students and leadership and maybe even the community at large,” said Magsamen.

They also see Your Brain on Art as a catalyst for action in fields like healthcare, public health, cultural arts organizations, technology, and more.

“The power of a book, at the right time, is simply infinite,” said Magsamen.

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