Creative Brain Week: Gathering Momentum Five Years On

In this perspective, Dominic Campbell reflects on a decade of belonging as an Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute and beyond, where the curiosity, commitment, and boundary‑crossing work of this unique community has enriched his life and is woven into the very fabric of Creative Brain Week. 

^{Dominic Campbell speaking with panelists, Atlantic Fellows Gráinne McGettrick (left) and Eimear McGlinchey (center), during Creative Brain Week. All photographs by Paul Sharp, Sharppix, unless otherwise noted.}

“Thinking. Better. Together” is a reasonable provocation in uncertain times. However, the theme for Creative Brain Week 2026 in Dublin is also rooted in my own experience as an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute. Since I joined the Atlantic community 10 years ago, my life has been enriched by encountering people whose commitment, curiosity, or need, has led them to cross disciplines and continents to find solutions, fire their own imaginations, and/or aspire beyond the expectations imposed upon them by others. Creative Brain Week, first hosted at Trinity College Dublin in March 2022 as an annual, week-long international in-person and online event, has evolved over five years, finding innovative ways to explore the intersection of neuroscience and creativity.

My own knowledge of learning about brain health is largely experiential. As a former student at an experimental art school, my key lessons came from co-creating the conditions of success for Caribbean Carnivals, festivals and circuses. I learnt how people can work together to address resource constraints and meet tight deadlines. Potential barriers caused by differences in language, religion or culture were overcome in spaces where we shared the art of open encounter: the craft of placing good thoughts in the minds of attentive listeners.  As Chuck Feeney said, “It’s always just people in a room.” Sure, but how do you shape the room if you can’t get in?

^{Left: Curious young minds at work | Right: The Brain Buzzers on stage during Creative Brain Week}

Over four years, with others, I have cultivated the culture of Creative Brain Week in rooms across Dublin. With collaborators and supporters, such as the Atlantic Institute, we have branched out into other countries, too. Creative Brain Health events led by Atlantic Fellows in Brisbane (Australia), Cairo (Egypt), Gaborone (Botswana), Delhi (India), Singapore (Singapore), and San Juan (Argentina). Soon we will also celebrate satellite events in Mexico City (Mexico) and Berlin (Germany).

The problems of the world are many and varied. The power we all hold is our creativity and imagination, our brains and each other. Over the five years, Atlantic Fellows from different backgrounds and disciplines are among those who have changed their practices and ways of thinking after Creative Brain Week. They participated, shared and reflected and gave of their knowledge and experience, as did the speakers, artists, and scientists featured. The fellows who gained new approaches from attending have been invited back as speakers this year. They will explain how their own work has benefited from the learnings and lightbulb moments at Creative Brain Week.

^{Making A Way out of No Way, an arts and health care program developing in Argentina from music-making, began with a conversation at Creative Brain Week. Photograph by Sydelle Willow Smith.}

This week, we will share the learnings of five years of Creative Brain Week in the 10th year of the Global Brain Health Institute. Guests can attend the weeklong program in Dublin or join online for events on March 2-3.

Highlights include exploring how music can be curative, bringing the tools of drama to tackle public health care, and addressing often-ignored impacts of stigma through creative approaches. 

Five years into this adventure, we have seen how a random encounter within the recipe of Creative Brain Week can evolve because of the trust built and the bravery of those in the room, and lead to impact.  Shoots of success are growing. However you choose to measure success, the global community is developing momentum, using innovative, creative approaches that are protecting and enhancing brain health.

Learn more and register for Creative Brain Week 2026

^{Left: members of the Atlantic Fellows and GBHI community | Right: Collaborators on the cutting-edge Lancet Global Series—on the health benefits of the arts on non-communicable diseases pictured with Dr Linda Doyle (center), Provost of Trinity College Dublin} 

This blog, first published on the Atlantic Fellows website and hosted by the Atlantic Institute, has been adapted for the GBHI website. Based at Rhodes House in Oxford, U.K., the Atlantic Institute serves as a convening and knowledge‑sharing hub for the global network of Fellows. See the original article.