--- title: Five Best: Brain Reward Pathways Light Up When Creating Art description: The reward pathways of our brains light up when we’re creating art, systemic bias explains the racial leadership gap in nonprofits and more. canonical: https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-16T16:00:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:45.412Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Reward Pathways in Brains Light Up When Creating Art og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cb5e41794c3819/6988d1ff97cdff906c6b1370/gettyimages-677636106.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Art Center South Florida, Art Camp, Boy making Paper Crafts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Reward Pathways in Brains Light Up When Creating Art twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cb5e41794c3819/6988d1ff97cdff906c6b1370/gettyimages-677636106.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Reward Pathways in Brains Light Up When Creating Art > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=eeb81bb3-96ff-48e3-ace3-015830ef6c47&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 16, 2017 4:00 PM UTC  Art Center South Florida, Art Camp, Boy making Paper Crafts. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images) Art Center South Florida, Art Camp, Boy making Paper Crafts. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images) Jeff Greenberg—UIG via Getty Images by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 16, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**The reward pathways of our brains light up when we’re creating art.**](http://drexel.edu/now/archive/2017/June/Making-Art-Activates-Brains-Reward-Pathways/) By Frank Otto at _Drexel Now_ **2\.** [**Systemic bias — not a lack of qualified candidates — explains the racial leadership gap in nonprofits.**](https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Systemic-Bias-Behind/240171) By Frances Kunreuther and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld in the _Chronicle of Philanthropy_ **3\.** [**‘Skilled at machine learning’ should replace ‘proficient at Excel’ on your next resume.**](https://qz.com/1006379/the-best-resumes-will-soon-have-skilled-in-machine-learning-instead-of-proficient-in-excel/) By Frederick Townes in _Quartz_ **4\.** [**This school district is building its own broadband network.**](http://hechingerreport.org/school-district-building-diy-broadband-network/) By Chris Berdik in the _Hechinger Report_ **5\.** [**Demand for paper is rising, even in the digital world. This startup is making paper out of stone.**](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-15/the-former-used-car-salesman-who-s-squeezing-paper-from-a-stone) By Masumi Suga in _Bloomberg Technology_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/"},"headline":"Reward Pathways in Brains Light Up When Creating Art","datePublished":"2017-06-16T16:00:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:45.412Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","Education","Art","Paper"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cb5e41794c3819/6988d1ff97cdff906c6b1370/gettyimages-677636106.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cb5e41794c3819/6988d1ff97cdff906c6b1370/gettyimages-677636106.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Art Center South Florida, Art Camp, Boy making Paper Crafts","caption":"Art Center South Florida, Art Camp, Boy making Paper Crafts","creditText":"Jeff Greenberg—UIG via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4821426/reward-pathways-in-brains-light-up-when-creating-art/","name":"Reward Pathways in Brains Light Up When Creating Art"}}]}] ```