Sumac Arts operates at the intersection of science, creativity, and human capacity.
About Sumac Arts
Sumac Arts is a creative resilience practice translating insights from neuroscience, contemplative traditions, and the arts into practical experiences for individuals and organizations.
Through workshops, keynotes, and immersive sessions integrating structured art-making, sound, and meditation, Sumac Arts helps people restore attention, regulate stress, and reconnect with their innate creative capacity.
The work is grounded in a growing body of research demonstrating that creativity, focused attention, and sensory environments play a critical role in modulating the stress response and building psychological resilience. By combining scientific insight with embodied practice, Sumac Arts offers accessible tools that support clarity, well-being, and sustainable performance in both personal and professional contexts.
Programs are delivered for organizations, schools, nonprofits, and community institutions across South Carolina and beyond.
Founded by Sudha McFadden
I have always been drawn to two things that don’t obviously belong together: rigorous evidence and the vastness of human experience. My background spans economics, public policy, classical music, and the arts. Over time, these paths began to converge.
For much of my early career, I worked at the intersection of public health, human rights, and migration — researching gender-based violence, leading workshops with refugee women, and contributing to policy and research distributed by the United Nations. That work revealed something profound: as human beings, we can be remarkably resilient. Moreover, resilience is not a fixed trait. It is a capacity that can be cultivated.
I came to understand this in my own body as well. A diagnosis of Addison’s Disease — a condition that disrupts the body’s cortisol response — sent me searching for practices that could do what medicine alone could not. Long before I had a diagnosis, I had already discovered that structured creative practice, sound, and meditation were producing real physiological effects.
When I later encountered the neuroscience, it confirmed what my body had already learned: these practices are not simply expressive or reflective. Rather, they function as neurobiological interventions grounded in how human physiology regulates stress and restores balance.
Sumac Arts grew from that convergence: research and lived experience, ancient practices and modern science, a lifelong commitment to service and a deep personal understanding of what it means to need restoration.
Today I work with organizations, educators, and leaders to translate these insights into practical experiences that support resilience, capacity, and well-being.
I am a Montessori-trained educator, a multi-instrumentalist, and an instructor with Newberry Arts Center. I love teaching, I love learning, and I believe creativity is one of the most underutilized forces for human flourishing available to us.
I'd love to hear from you. I reply personally to every email.
Academic Background & Training
MEconSc, Policy Analysis — University College Dublin
BA, Public Policy — Duke University
Additional Training
Core Components and Skills for Trauma-Informed Practice — University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Selected Engagements
Children's Trust of South Carolina
Dominion Energy
Urban Land Institute South Carolina
York School District One
SC Network of Children's Advocacy Centers