The Mindart Team

FOUNDER/DIRECTOR

Emma Febrve-Richards is an artist and Associate Professor at Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand. She is passionate about ‘drawing is thinking’ and its potential for cognitive health and wellbeing. In 2018, Emma established MedArt: Science, drawing and technology, to advance neurological research which led to the flagship project MindArt (mindart.nz).  

In 2025 Emma was awarded the Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a prestigious French national honour recognizing significant contributions to arts, literature, and culture worldwide.

Emma has exhibited and published in Asia, Europe and the Pacific and is co-founder of Drawing Open, an international drawing research community (drawingopen.com).

LEAD RESEARCHER

Susan is our lead researcher for the MinDArT project. Susan is an experienced researcher whose work often focuses on enabling person-centered support. Her aim is to share research evidence in a way that is easy to understand and can make a practical difference to promote support that begins with understanding the individual. She holds senior roles with the Psychiatry of Older Age Academic Unit at Health NZ I Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, the New Zealand Dementia Foundation, and the Burwood Academy Trust.