Founded in 1988 by NYU alumna Madeleine Barchevska, BioArt is built on research that incorporates both science and art, initially for purposes of enhancing stage performance, but later broadened to train and develop business leaders and classroom teachers. In the years since its founding, Ms. Barchevska has received recognition from US National Endowment for the Arts and the French Ministry of Culture for her work in cultivating human presence and communicative capacity. Her teaching approach and philosophy, embodied in BioArt, have had a foundational impact in the fields of Applied Theatre and Theatre and Neuroscience.

BioArt Theatre Laboratories is a research affiliate of The University of Paris VIII, The International Theatre Institute, and Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Over 2000 students and clients from in the United States, France, Italy and Slovenia have participated in BioArt training.

Board of Directors

  • Robert J. Pietlock, Denver, CO.
  • R. Arlen Johnson, Esq., Milford, MA.
  • Ruth A. Stolk, Washington, DC.

Art and Science Advisory Panel

  • Jean-Marie Pradier, PhD, University of Paris VIII, Saint Denis, Theatre and Ethnoscenology (Performance and Biology)
  • Susana Bloch Arendt, PhD, Santiago, Chile, Neuroscience
  • Lourdes Arispe, PhD, University of Mexico, Anthropology
  • Susan Griffin, Guggenheim and MacArthur recipient, shortlisted Booker prize, writer.

Grants, Awards and Honors

  • Presentation by invitation, University of Bologna (2007), theatre and neuroscience
  • Presentation by invitation, ‘Acting for non-actors’, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme/Paris Nord (2006)
  • Inaugural Member, International Center of Ethnoscenology (UNESCO) Paris, for the study of the anthropological and biological foundations of organized human performing behaviors and practices (1995)
  • Invited member: Groupe de Recherche sur les Comportements Humains Spectaculaires Organisés of the University of Paris VIII for an interdisciplinary approach to teaching behavioral aesthetics (1995)
  • Teaching and research project in France, funded by French Consulate, New York. Invitee. (1993)
  • Teachers Grant for Research and Development from the Arkandor Foundation, Canada, for work in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on war trauma in civilian populations. (1993)
  • Permanent member, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Pratiques Spectaculaires, University of Paris VIII. (1991)