BrainDance

BrainDance Awards Banner

The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital is sponsoring an academic and art competition designed to decrease the stigma of mental illness.

The BrainDance Awards aim to encourage high school and middle school students to explore and learn about psychiatric illnesses. Our goal is to foster understanding, raise awareness, and cultivate a compassionate and realistic perspective on mental health challenges. The competition also strives to educate students and promote their interest in careers in the mental health field.

To receive a BrainDance award, a student must submit either an art, academic, or mixed media project on themes that relate to severe mental illness. Projects can be in any format, including research studies, reviews, essays, paintings, poems, skits, songs, or short stories.

Students can choose to compete in any of the three categories. An award of $1000 will be awarded to the best submission in each category. Second place will receive an award of $500 and third place will receive $250. Student submissions in the art, academic, and mixed media competition are judged separately.

BrainDance Awards Celebration

All applicants, their teachers, families, and classmates will be invited to the awards celebration day hosted by The Institute of Living on April 2025. This day is designed to be an educational extension opportunity and will include food, an awards presentation, a visit to our Myths, Minds, and Medicine Museum on the history of mental health care, a tour of our neuro-imaging research center, a panel discussion of mental health professionals, and a lecture from a national expert on mental illness.

Winners are encouraged to present a brief presentation of their projects and submissions are presented around the awards room for all to see.

The awards are coordinated by: Melissa Deasy, LCSW, and Godfrey Pearlson, M.D., Director, Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Apply?

  1. Complete the online submission form.

  2. Please do NOT submit your project using Google Drive, Google Docs, etc. as we have had difficulty opening projects in those formats in the past. 

  3. If you prefer to submit your project by mail:
    • Complete the submission form and indicate on the form that you are submitting the project by mail.
    • Mail the copy of your project and completed submission form to:
      • The Family Resource Center
        The Institute of Living
        Massachusetts Cottage Retreat Ave
        Hartford, CT 06106
    • If the project is difficult to copy (for example: a sculpture), please contact us via email to make other arrangements.
    • Please make sure your name and the name of your school are written on your submission form and project.
    • If 2 or more students are working on a project together, please complete only one submission form (not one for each student). There is space on the submission form to list all the students.
  1. The submission deadline is March 1, 2025.

How Are Projects Judged?

The intent of the BrainDance Awards is to encourage students to complete projects related to severe mental illness. The projects will be judged by expert clinicians and researchers in the field. Projects on any theme related to severe mental illness will be considered for an award. While we are interested in projects related to the stigma of mental illness, submissions that do not deal directly with stigma, but show a high quality of work may receive high ratings.

Projects submitted to the art competition will be judged based on their ability to demonstrate the student's technical artistic ability and the student's empathy with persons who have mental illness.

Projects submitted to the academic competition will be judged based on originality, accuracy of information, scientific/academic rigor and relevance to the issue of fighting stigma, as follows:

  • Fighting stigma - such projects will get higher scores if they address the issue of the stigma of mental illness or it is clear from the submission that the applicant developed a more realistic appreciation of people with severe mental illness. If a student chooses to submit a project that does not relate to stigma, they will be rated only on scientific/academic rigor, originality and accuracy. No points will be subtracted because they do not deal with the topic of stigma.
  • Scientific/Academic Rigor - projects will get higher scores if sound scientific methods are used and data are presented. If data are not presented and analyzed, projects will receive higher scores If multiple sources of information and used and cited.
  • Originality - projects will get higher scores if there is evidence of original thinking
  • Accuracy - submissions will receive higher scores if the projects are factually accurate

Judging Rubrics

BrainDance Winners

Check out all the winners of the BrainDance Competition!

BrainDance Resources