Weiss Wins National Neuroarts Award
Charlotte Weiss, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has been named a 2026 recipient of the Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards, a national honor recognizing innovative collaborations between researchers and artists. Selected as one of just 10 teams nationwide, she will receive $25,000 in funding to support her project, SLOWART Connections: A Social Prescription for Dementia-Care Dyads in Southeastern North Carolina.
Weiss’s project, developed in collaboration with September Krueger, curator of education and public programs at the Cameron Art Museum, will explore how a structured visual arts engagement with mindful looking techniques can impact emotional and social wellbeing for individuals living with dementia and their family caregivers. The research is part of a growing body of work in neuroarts, an interdisciplinary field focused on how artistic and aesthetic experiences influence the brain, behavior, and overall health.
A nurse scientist and experienced palliative care clinician, Weiss brings more than two decades of clinical practice to her research. Her scholarship centers on the emotional and social wellbeing of older adults living with multiple chronic conditions, including dementia, as well as the health of their family caregivers. Her work integrates caring science, palliative care, arts-based qualitative inquiry, and mixed-methods research, positioning her at the forefront of interdisciplinary innovation in health research. Weiss is also an AGING Initiative scholar in Multiple Chronic Conditions and a participant in the 2026 Dementia Palliative Care Clinical Trials program, further reflecting her leadership in advancing care for aging populations.
The Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards program was established in 2024 by the Renée Fleming Foundation and is administered through the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative. It supports early-career researchers and artists working together to expand scientific understanding of how the arts can improve health and wellbeing. With the addition of the 2026 cohort, approximately $600,000 has been awarded to fund 26 cross-disciplinary neuroarts research projects.
Weiss’s project, developed in collaboration with September Krueger, curator of education and public programs at the Cameron Art Museum, will explore how a structured visual arts engagement with mindful looking techniques can impact emotional and social wellbeing for individuals living with dementia and their family caregivers. The research is part of a growing body of work in neuroarts, an interdisciplinary field focused on how artistic and aesthetic experiences influence the brain, behavior, and overall health.
A nurse scientist and experienced palliative care clinician, Weiss brings more than two decades of clinical practice to her research. Her scholarship centers on the emotional and social wellbeing of older adults living with multiple chronic conditions, including dementia, as well as the health of their family caregivers. Her work integrates caring science, palliative care, arts-based qualitative inquiry, and mixed-methods research, positioning her at the forefront of interdisciplinary innovation in health research. Weiss is also an AGING Initiative scholar in Multiple Chronic Conditions and a participant in the 2026 Dementia Palliative Care Clinical Trials program, further reflecting her leadership in advancing care for aging populations.
The Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards program was established in 2024 by the Renée Fleming Foundation and is administered through the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative. It supports early-career researchers and artists working together to expand scientific understanding of how the arts can improve health and wellbeing. With the addition of the 2026 cohort, approximately $600,000 has been awarded to fund 26 cross-disciplinary neuroarts research projects.
This article has the following tags: College of Health & Human Services Accomplishments School of Nursing