Arts and Health

Annie-Hélène Samson is a biology professor at Dawson College in Montreal, where she is committed to an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. After completing a master’s degree in neurophysiology at McGill University, she turned toward education, which led her to pursue a PhD in Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Her research focus revolved around the dynamics of professional development and innovative learning methods. An active member of Dawson’s Learning Communities initiative, she works to build bridges between disciplines, convinced that understanding living systems is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach enriched by human, cultural, and artistic experiences.

Guided by this perspective, she collaborates with the CREAT Chair, where she designs activities and projects that encourages students to explore the connections between science, art, health, and well-being. Annie-Hélène introduces students to the study of health and well-being from a holistic standpoint through immersive practices such as virtual reality and participatory research projects. She also encourages learners to reflect on how art, whether through images, narratives, sensory experiences, or multimedia creations, can become a powerful vehicle for understanding, care, and transformation.

Driven by a desire to contextualize scientific knowledge and foster curiosity, Annie-Hélène hopes to help shape a generation of individuals capable of thinking about health and well-being in creative, integrated, and engaged ways.

Convinced of the boundless potential of theatre practice in fostering creativity, public speaking, and civic engagement, Claudia Bilodeau has been leading cultural mediation and socially engaged arts projects for over twenty years. She collaborates with teenagers and adults from diverse backgrounds, working notably in the fields of mental health, neurodiversity, and French-language integration.

Holding a Master’s degree from the École supérieure de théâtre at UQAM, she has served as Head of Theatre Mediation at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde since 2014.

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Anne-Marie Émond is a Full Professor of Education at the Université de Montréal. She received her training in visual arts (studio practice) from the University of Ottawa and the Université du Québec à Montréal and holds a PhD in Art Education from Concordia University.

In recent years, she has developed expertise in museology, with a particular focus on museum education, closely linked to her artistic practice. Her research examines the reception of art and the development of creativity through aesthetic appreciation experiences with adult learners.

Since the age of 28, Jean-Michaël Lavoie enjoys an international career as a conductor. After his studies at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, he is appointed assistant conductor to the Ensemble intercontemporain in Paris (2008-2010) and one of the resident conductors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2010). He deepens his musical training in Europe and United States with Pierre Boulez (Lucerne Festival Academy), Susanna Mälkki (Ensemble intercontemporain, LA PHIL) and Esa-Pekka Salonen (Orchestre de Paris).

For more than ten years, Jean-Michaël Lavoie guest conducts the most important orchestras in Europe, among them the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, NFM Filharmonia Wroclawska.

He made his opera debuts at Teatro alla Scala, Milan (2011), co-conducting the world premiere of Luca Francesconi’s Quartett, at Opéra de Lyon (2013) and Opéra national de Bordeaux (2014).

He was a regular guest to the specialized ensembles in contemporary music : Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Resonanz et l’Ensemble de la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Jean-Michaël Lavoie is Associate Professor at the Faculté de musique de l’Université de Montréal, where he supervises and teaches the professional cursus in contemporary music in the performance programs.

Since 2024-2025, Jean-Michaël Lavoie is Artistic and Music Director of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.

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Lucie Beaudry teaches at the dance department of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) where she completed a master’s degree in dance and a specialized graduate degree in somatic education (Feldenkrais Method). She also holds a certificate in movement-based expressive arts therapy and education from the Tamalpa Institute in California, and an interdisciplinary doctorate in health and society (UQAM). As a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montréal (CRIR), her main research activities focus on the development of movement-based interventions and programs for people with motor disorders, cerebral palsy, lower-limb amputation, stroke and cognitive decline, to name but a few ongoing projects with children and adults. Its interventions and programs also incorporate the use of new technologies and video, and are offered in person and online, in hospitals, community centers and at home. As part of her dance and somatic education practice, she also developed various movement-based initiatives for institutions, businesses and corporations. More broadly, her work focuses on the potential of dance and somatics for health, from an interdisciplinary and intersectoral perspective.

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Myriam Boucher is a sound and image composer and professor of digital music composition at the Université de Montréal (CA). Her work focuses on relational approaches to sound and image, and over the years she has developed a deep reflection on ecological relationships within her audiovisual performances, videomusic installations, electronic music and works for ensembles. Her research-creation integrates composition, improvisation, deep listening, sound ecology, site-specific creation, and immersive practices. She investigates mechanisms of perception in audiovisual works and multidisciplinary concerts, viewing art as a practice capable of transforming reality and generating alternative forms of sensory and social experience. Boucher’s commissions include the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (ECM+), Ars Nova, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), Magnitude6, Collectif9, 5ilience and Architek Percussion.

As VJ, she performed with many artists/DJ such as Shackleton (UK), Mind Against (IT), POLE (GE), Ayesha (US), Automatisme (CA) and DJ Lag (ZA). Her work has been presented at many international events and places, including Mutek (CA, AE, ES, JP, MX), Kontakte (DE), Igloofest (CA), Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (CA), Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (FR) and Akousma (CA). Her research is published by Routledge and Palgrave (UK).

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Victoria Lupascu is an assistant professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies at University of Montréal. Her work explores how writers, directors and artists engage with and produce visual and medical narratives to unveil hidden histories of cultural, economic and social disposability. Her training focuses on 20th and 21st century Chinese, Romanian and Brazilian literature and film, medical humanities and visual culture, with additional interests in Francophone graphic narratives of postpartum depression and mental ill-health.

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