What can science tell us about the art experience?

October 28, 2012 by Gary Vikan Leave a Comment

Watch the following video in which Gary Vikan, Director of the Walters Museum of Art and a faculty member of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders, discusses how neuroscience, evolutionary biology and the cave paintings in Lascaux might point to the fact that aesthetics is “hard-wired into our heads.”

Add your voice to the discussion. Use the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts on how we in the arts create and articulate value.

Gary Vikan

Gary Vikan is a faculty member of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders and currently serves as director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. He was appointed by President Clinton to his Cultural Property Advisory Committee between 1999 and 2003. Trained as a Byzantinist, he has published and lectured extensively on topics as varied as early Christian pilgrimage, medicine and magic and Elvis Presley. He is adjunct professor at The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Art History, and a faculty member in The Johns Hopkins University School of Continuing Studies. A native of Minnesota, he received a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

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