News

Julianne Swartz MFA ’03, associate professor and codirector of the studio arts program at Bard College, has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Bobby Anspach Foundation, an organization created to support artists, scientists, and researchers whose work advances dialogue on meditation, psychology, creativity, and collective engagement as pathways to global harmony and health. Swartz, whose work focuses on multisensory installations, was one of two artists chosen from over 3,300 applicants for the inaugural flagship grant.

The grant will support Swartz’s project, Heart Flow Instrument, a large-scale contemplative environment in the form of a deconstructed fountain that functions as a body in itself, where water, sound, light, and human presence circulate through interconnected vessels. Each visitor becomes a component of that body, contributing vital rhythms to a shared sensory field. As visitors engage with sensors, their cardiac and neural rhythms radiate through the installation, affecting the sonic and haptic environment others inhabit.

“This generous funding will allow me to experiment with biomedical sensors to explore new thresholds of interactivity using human biorhythms to shape sound and light,” said Swartz.

The Bobby Anspach Foundation was established to carry forward the vision of artist Bobby Anspach, through the belief that art holds the power to fundamentally transform how we understand ourselves and each other. This year's flagship grants support artists whose work uses immersive technology and sensory experience to open new pathways into consciousness, empathy, and collective transformation. Throughout 2026, the foundation will spotlight the work of all grant recipients across its platforms and through foundation programming such as events, conversations, and gatherings designed to share this research across disciplines and introduce the grant recipients to new audiences.