(This event is part of the IACAET Arts & Health Series)

September 6, 2025. 9AM New York, 3PM Amsterdam, 2PM London, 9PM Beijing

To easily convert the time to your local time zone, please use this World Time Buddy tool.

**This event will be recorded. Registrants will receive the recording link via email after the live session.**

Webinar Description

Arts & Health: Eastern and Western Perspectives – Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit
This special session will take the form of a panel featuring expert presentations, an interdisciplinary discussion, and an open dialogue among leaders from different fields. Together, we will explore how arts and health are understood and practiced across diverse cultural traditions, bringing Eastern philosophies and Western approaches into conversation. The focus will be on integrating body, mind, and spirit, highlighting how creative practices in therapy, community health, education, and wellness support healing, resilience, and human flourishing. We will also consider how spirituality, cultural contexts, and socio-economic factors influence the application of arts in health globally, and how these perspectives can inspire innovative practices for the future.

Speakers & Topics

• The Future of Arts and Health – Prof. Vivien Marcow Speiser (US)
  PhD, BC-DMT, REAT, Co-Director and Professor Emerita, Institute for Arts and Health, Lesley University.
• Spirituality and Health in Modern Society – Ricardo Guerrero Diáñez (Spain)
  President and Co-Founder, The Hispanic Association of Buddhism.
• He-artfulness: Heart-Focused Aesthetic Attunement and Mental Health in China – Dr. Jie Yang (Canada/China)
  PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, leading researcher on aesthetic, therapeutic and neoliberal governance in contemporary China.
• Dance for Health: An Interdisciplinary Model for Social and Economic Impact – Andrew Greenwood (Netherlands/UK)
  Director, Switch2Move & Co-founder, Dance and Creative Wellness Foundation.

Speakers 

Viven Speiser

Vivien Speiser is the Co-Director and Professor Emerita of the Institute for Arts and Health in The Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University. She is also a Distinguished Research Associate in the Drama for Life Program at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a licensed mental health counselor, a dance therapist and an expressive arts therapist and educator. Her work has allowed her unparalleled access to working with groups across the United States, Israel and internationally. Prof Speiser is a recipient of 3 Fulbright Senior Scholar awards as well as several lifetime achievement awards from international professional associations.

Ricardo Guerrero Diáñez 

President and Co-Founder, The Hispanic Association of Buddhism. Graduate in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, with a diploma in Economics and Business Administration from the UOC, and an expert in Creative Writing for Media from the New School University (USA). He is the president and founder of the Hispanic Buddhist Association. In 2019, he received full temporary ordination as a bhikkhu in the monastic community of Shan State Buddhist University as Ven. Medhaṅkara. Translator and editor of various works by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ven. Dr. K. Dhammasami, Ven. Ñāṇaponika Thera, Francis Story, and Ven. Narada Thera, among others. Commissioned by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (Thailand) as editor-in-chief for the Spanish edition of the Common Buddhist Text, presented in Spain in 2024 under the title “Common Buddhist Text; Guide and Wisdom of the Buddha.”

Jie Yang 

Dr. Jie Yang, Professor of anthropology, received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Toronto in 2006. Dr. Yang’s research is at the intersection of two primary areas: linguistic anthropology and China studies. In the first area, she is interested in the analysis of how power and ideologies are embedded in and work through language and how ideologies interpellate individuals and constitute/remold subjectivities.  In the second area, Dr. Yang’s research interests focus on the aesthetic, therapeutic and neoliberal governance in contemporary China. Her two current research projects: one is China’s beauty economy, which capitalizes on the female body, feminine beauty, feminine youth, and sexuality. The other is the rise of the therapeutic in China (e.g. psychiatry, ecopsychology, counseling, social work, therapeutic consumption, therapeutic lifestyle). This project engages two areas of research on the notion of the therapeutic: one refers to a certain class of experts and the procedures they use to address psychic and physical problems; the other area of research is the modern welfare state and its ideologies, programs and policies that diagnose and normalize the marginalized groups.

Dr. Yang is currently working on two projects: an edited volume The Political Economy of Affect and Emotion in Contemporary East Asia and a monograph The Rise of the Therapeutic: Governing the New Urban Poor and the Mentally Ill in China.

Andrew Greenwood

Andrew Greenwood is a professional dancer and international ballet teacher. Early on, he discovered the opportunities that dance offers older people and those suffering from diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. He developed dance sessions by working with the patients themselves and with experts in the field of science and dance. In 2012, he founded the Dance for Health Foundation, where he coaches more than 40 teachers internationally. Andrew was one of the guest teachers at our Out of The Toolbox festival in 2021. After his two-day workshop, the participants asked for training in greater depth.

Why Attend?

• Experience an interdisciplinary panel with expert presentations and cross-field dialogue
• Gain insight into Eastern and Western perspectives on arts and health
• Learn innovative, holistic approaches integrating body, mind, and spirit
• Connect with a global community of practitioners, researchers, and educators

Registration: https://inspirees.glueup.com/event/global-panel-webinar-arts-health-eastern-and-western-perspectives-152680/ 

Join us as we engage in a global dialogue and shape a creative, healthy future through the arts.