Mission 

Arts & Minds is a not-for-profit organization committed to improving quality of life for people living with memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias through engagement with art.
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We partner with museums to provide meaningful art-centered activities that create positive emotional and cognitive experiences, enhance verbal and non-verbal communication, reduce isolation and build community.

Our programs empower people with dementia, family members, professional caregivers and educators to strengthen social, emotional and spiritual bonds by engaging with art.

​Founded in 2010, Arts & Minds provides museum-based programming for people with dementia and their care partners. Since 2010, we have offered hundreds of art dialogue and art making programs on site at museums in New York City. Our programs, designed to counteract isolation and reduce caregiver burnout, have been shown to improve well-being by bringing people together for creative and uplifting experiences.  We recognize dementia as a social justice issue: Our approach supports human dignity, pushes back against ageism and contributes to a more dementia-friendly world.
​Arts & Minds prioritizes Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities where rates of dementia are disproportionately high and we are dedicated to working in underserved communities.

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OUR STAFF

Carolyn Halpin-Healy, Executive Director
MA History of Art, Museum Educator, Adult Learning Specialist
With over 25 years’ experience as a museum educator, Carolyn Halpin-Healy founded Arts & Minds in 2010, with neurologist James M. Noble, MD to provide museum-based experiences for people with dementia and their care partners at the Studio Museum in Harlem.  Partner organizations now include ten NYC museums and the Smithsonian Institution. Carolyn teaches at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is a member of the Access Team. She has trained museum staff and volunteers from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia, to conduct person-centered art dialogue and art making, that keeps individuals with Alzheimer’s disease in touch with themselves – cognitively, socially, emotionally and artistically. Carolyn holds a BA in Art and Art History from Stony Brook University, an MA in the History of Art from Williams College and a Graduate Certificate in Adult Learning from the City University of New York. She publishes in peer-reviewed journals and presents regularly at conferences. 

Hollie Ecker, Associate Educator | Public Programs
BA in Art History from Wesleyan University, MA and MEd from Columbia University Teachers College​
Hollie Ecker is a teaching artist and museum educator for visitors of all ages and abilities at major museums in New York City including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Jewish Museum and the The Whitney Museum of American Art. She worked for over ten years as an educator at MoMA before the pandemic hit. As a Fulbright Scholar, Hollie spent time in Italy, developing and implementing school/museum partnerships for deaf students with the Museo Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Massimo. Hollie is a ceramic artist and when she is not making or teaching art she loves to dance. Hollie's art practice also includes painting and collage.

Nellie Escalante, Associate Educator | Community Engagement
BA in Art History and Latin American Studies, MA in Anthropology from Hunter College ​
Nellie Escalante helped establish Arts & Minds en Español to reach the Latinx community of people living with dementia in 2015. She facilitates Arts & Minds professional development training in English and in Spanish. Nellie is a member of the teaching team at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has taught at El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of the Moving Image.  She has presented  at the New York City Museum Educators Roundtable (NYCMER) and The Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts & Disability (LEAD).  Nellie is an artist, museum educator, blogger, published author and creative entrepreneur. She has published essays and articles in museum catalogs and online publications, particularly about Puerto Rican art and artists. ​ 

Yasmin Mohamed | Programs and Operations Coordinator
BA in Art History, Arizona State University, MA in Museum Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Yasmin Mohamed has worked in museum education since 2010, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. She has taught in the Museum Studies Graduate Program at Johns Hopkins University and worked as a consultant on various digital learning initiatives. Before joining the Arts & Minds team, she played an indispensable role in the creation and organization of Engaging Arts & Minds, our online training course. Yasmin has an art practice that includes ceramics and painting.

Tony Gonzalez, Teaching Artist | Community Engagement Specialist
Tony Gonzalez is a seasoned educator and a practicing visual artist. He has also managed education departments in non-profit and museum settings, conceiving and implementing original and unconventional visual arts programming for all ages. He has facilitated professional development workshops and trained art teachers. As a visual artist, Tony’s political drawings have appeared in the editorial pages of The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and The Nation, and he has painted two murals for clinical settings at New York Presbyterian Hospital. As Community Engagement Specialist, Tony brings experience as a long-time community activist to play a leading role developing robust partnerships among community based organizations and our clinical partners.

EDUCATORS & TEACHING ARTISTS

Manuela Gonzalez is an artist who examines the visual and technical language of textiles as they relate to modern and contemporary abstraction and its histories. She holds a BFA from RISD and an MFA in painting from the Yale University School of Art. Her work has been shown in venues including El Museo del Barrio, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, La Salita NYC and Charlie James Gallery.  Manuela has led Arts & Minds programs in Spanish and English at several museums and online since 2015.  As a museum educator, she has worked with access, teen and school programs at El Museo, The Whitney Museum, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, drawing from her personal studio experience to develop programming that connects the process, materials and history of the artworks she references

Maya Jeffereis is an artist, educator, and museum consultant with 15 years of experience working in the arts. Jeffereis’ work has been presented in the United States and internationally, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Brooklyn Museum, and Noguchi Museum, among others. She is currently a 2023 Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM fellow and an artist-in-residence at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts SHIFT Program. Maya has taught at The Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Parsons School of Design, and Hunter College, among other institutions.

Naemeh Shirazi is a reflective museum professional, NYS-certified teacher in 3 subject areas, and art educator with over 15 years of experience collaboratively planning and facilitating art and design programs aligned with institutional goals on 3 continents for individuals of varying intellectual, developmental, and linguistic abilities across the life span. Her expertise lies in utilizing art and inquiry strategies paired with a sensitivity towards intersectionality, the creative arts therapies, and mindfulness.

Rachel Crumpler joined the Arts & Minds team in 2021. She has an MA in art history from Stony Brook University and has taught with many NYC museums including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Noguchi Museum. She currently lives and works in Nashville, TN. 

Pilar Jefferson (she/her) is a museum educator and scholar of Black and Indigenous art, histories, and community resilience. She has been a teaching artist for Arts & Minds since 2016. Pilar is currently a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley in the department of Ethnic Studies. 

Sarah Mostow is a founding educator with Arts & Minds. She is co-author with Hollie Ecker of How Might You: Seeking Inquiry in the Museum Studio (Journal of Museum Education, June 2015) and author of They Have to Be Asked: Using One Material, One Category, One Question to Invite Meaningful Art Experiences for Children (Art Education, March 2022).  Sarah currently lives, teaches, and exhibits her paintings in Paris.

​Steve Rivera is a museum educator and arts and culture advocate. As the former owner and director of Novella Gallery, he championed the work of emerging, underrepresented, and established artists in the Lower East Side of New York. With a specific focus on Latinx artists and other people of color, his writings on their significant contributions to contemporary art can be found at www.thegreatfires.com. Steve holds a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Combined Media, from Hunter College. He is also a care companion for people living with dementia; using the power of art to inspire and transform.

Laura Betancur is an expressive art therapist, a transformative educator and an arts program consultant. Her passion and professional experience focus on using the arts (Theater, visual arts, creative writing, movement and sound) as tools for supporting and building sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities.  
For over 15 years, she has developed and implemented art programs focusing on education, healing processes, peace building and social activism for children, youth, adults, seniors and families in settings such as schools, museums, social service agencies, jails and prisons, women shelters and community centers. She has Implemented some of these projects internationally in Colombia, Argentina, Nepal, Egypt, India, Guatemala and Palestine. 
She is currently an expressive arts educator and therapist at various art institutions and nonprofits in New York City such as: The Studio Museum in Harlem, Life is Precious and Arts and Minds. Her work is to tap into the endless potential that exists within our creativity. 

Angela Garcia is an art historian, curator, museum consultant, and bilingual educator with more than 20 years experience working in the arts and culture nonprofit sector. She is the former Director of Curatorial and Cultural Programs at Centro León in Dominican Republic and was Interim Director of Education at El Museo del Barrio. She currently engages individuals of all ages and abilities in meaningful art experiences with art at The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. A former adjunct professor at City College, Angela is the founder of arthistorianone and in 2021, co-founded Pairings, a series of ongoing virtual art talks specializing in contemporary & modern art. She has curated exhibitions and published catalog essays specializing in Dominican and Caribbean art and artists.

Idaliz Román Pérez, Ph.D. is a scholar and museum educator specializing in Caribbean literature, visual culture, and Afro-Caribbean and Latinx art. She has developed programs at El Museo del Barrio in NYC, served as a teaching artist for Arts & Minds since 2019, and most recently facilitated art workshops at the Mennello Museum in Orlando.​

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Arts & Minds is governed by a volunteer board of directors.

James M. Noble MD, MS, CPH
Co-Founder and President of the Board
Associate Professor of Neurology, Department of Neurology and the Taub Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
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Olajide Williams MD, MS
Vice President of the Board
Associate Professor of Neurology, Chief of Staff Department of Neurology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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Shanta Lawson
Secretary
Senior Director of Learning and Engagement
Studio Museum in Harlem
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Karen Bedrosian-Richardson
​Treasurer
director of a boutique insurance agency specializing in expatriate health insurance
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Monique Hedmann-Maxey MD, MPH
Member
Clinical Fellow in Geriatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
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Helen Fernandez MD
Member
​Professor; Director, Geriatrics Fellowship Program; Co-Director, Geriatrics-Palliative Care Fellowship Program, Associate Director, Division of Medical Education, Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine

Berna G. Huebner
Member
President, Chair and Founder of the Hilgos Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. ​
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Joyce P. Visceglia
​MSW
Member
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Ryan C. Compton
Member
Senior Corporate Counsel, Amazon.com Services LLC
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