Local Artist seangarrison Partners With MIDB to Inspire Youth to Express Their Authentic Selves

Four years ago, an unplanned encounter in a Minneapolis park sparked a collaboration that has since inspired countless young people. When local artist seangarrison happened upon Kathryn Cullen, MD, a member of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB) and faculty in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at a community event, neither could have predicted the remarkable impact their partnership would have.

“So I go to a park—North Commons Park—to help a buddy out with some Facebook live video, and a group of folks walk up, and Dr. K is there,” seangarrison recalls. “So we’re talking. I give Katie my card, and she pauses. She looks, and goes, ‘We’ve been looking for you.’”

At the time, Dr. Cullen was part of a committee that was tasked with procuring art for MIDB, and had already admired some of seangarrison’s work in M Physicians’ Broadway Family Medicine Clinic. She had hoped to connect about commissioning an art piece for MIDB– but their chance meeting quickly evolved into a shared mission of using art as a catalyst to support youth wellbeing and self-expression.

Since that day, seangarrison has played an integral role in several MIDB programs, including Imagination Central, a program designed to measure and foster creative thinking in adolescents, and Creativity Camp, a program designed to improve mental health in adolescents through creative arts engagement.

“It’s been a long-standing and highly productive relationship,” Dr. Cullen says.

Through workshops and hands-on sessions, seangarrison encourages young participants to explore their feelings and identity without the constraints of traditional artistic expectations.

“Most people inherently have an issue with creating art because they think it has to look like something,” he explains. “So my message to those young folks is to just experience who you are and feel who you are, and paint that. It doesn’t have to look like anything.”

Dr. Cullen has witnessed firsthand the impact of this perspective.

“seangarrison has a way of unlocking things. Under his guidance, they create these really fantastic art pieces that we have showcased in various arts exhibitions throughout campus. People have even offered to buy them,” she shares.

The young people agree. When asked what they enjoyed most, many mention seangarrison’s workshops.

“They often reference the stuff that they did with seangarrison as kind of one of the highlights of their time in the program,” Dr. Cullen says.

For seangarrison, the most rewarding part is watching participants discover their own creative voice.

“Just watching the light bulbs go off… when they get it and go, ‘Hold on. I can do whatever. And it’s gonna be correct.’ That’s what gets me there,” he reflects.

While seangarrison has brought inspiration to youth at MIDB, he has also deepened his own understanding of the brain as the result of this partnership. His curiosity has led him to engage with MIDB researchers, even volunteering to have his brain scanned as part of a study.

“My biggest fascination is just the way that my creative head doesn’t stop moving. It literally is on fire 99.9% of the time,” he says.

For seangarrison, exploring how the brain shapes creativity has become a personal mission.

“Even through an art lens, I try to figure out, okay, now how do people think and process things? So when I create, I can engage them more on a neurological level,” he reflects.

This curiosity resonates with Dr. Cullen and aligns with her research.

“We are asking the same kinds of questions from different perspectives, which makes the partnership with my research team, and MIDB more broadly, really ideal,” she says.

This summer, seangarrison will return once again to Creativity Camp, continuing to inspire youth to embrace their authentic selves. He and Dr. Cullen are already imagining new ways to merge art, mental health, and neuroscience in the months to come.