A: Is for Art that has us Exploring our minds

Starting on March 4, Laurie Anderson, Mario Batali, Lewis Black, Eric Fischl, Miranda July, Peter Matthiessen, Stephen Mitchell, Sharon Salzberg, Peter Sellars, Paul Simon, R.L. Stine, and Tom Wolfe will be sitting down with some of the world's most eminent neuroscientists for one-on-one explorations of how our minds work. Events featuring Paul Simon and Lewis Black have already sold out, so be sure to act fast. The idea of reading what’s on other people’s minds has always held allure, but a feat even more challenging than telepathy is reading your own mind — in essence figuring out how it works. The Rubin Museum of Art has volunteered to act as tour guide for our unknowable inner world by organizing Brainwave, a festival devoted to the way we think. “It comes about quite naturally because we’re a museum with a lot of Buddhist art in it, and Buddhism is about controlling your mind in order to focus it for meditation,” said the museum’s producer, Tim McHenry, who conceived of the festival. This two-month event, in its second year, its programming will included talks in which the participant reacts with psychologist and audience. Paul Simon will bring his guitar in for an exchange with the neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin about how our minds process music. Tomorrow (March 4). The opera director Peter Sellars explores visual perception with the neuroscientist Semir Zeki (March 21). There are countless other reasons to visit The Reuben Museum: the documentary “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” narrated by Harrison Ford, follows thinkers who visit the Dalai Lama to discuss how to change the world and the premiere of a work by John Tavener will ring out on multiple levels in the museum’s galleries (April 23). The Reuben is located at150 West 17th Street. Information, including a full schedule and prices: 212-620-5000, rmanyc.org. A true meeting of minds enables us to better understand our own and that is a F.A.C.T.