Support Brushwood this season and help us meet this moment

September 7 @ 1:00 pm November 2 @ 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424


Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You

Lydia Cheshewalla is an Osage ephemeral artist from Oklahoma, living and working in motion throughout the Great Plains ecoregion. Through the creation of site-specific land art and ephemeral installations grounded in Indigenous land stewardship practices and kinship pedagogies, Lydia engages in multivocal conversations about place and relationship.

Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You will open at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods on Sunday, September 7th. This exhibition is an ephemeral, site-specific installation by Cheshewalla, and will be created during her August residency at the Center for Humans & Nature in Libertyville, Illinois.

Once the work is created, it will be carefully transported to Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods for installation. Because this work is time and season reliant, what it will look like remains to be seen.

Cheshewalla’s practice is built on an ethos that views all beings as sacred, with their own agency, and with a right to complete their cycle of life and death. She works mainly with naturally shed material and seeds that are ready for collecting. At the end of installations, each being is returned to its original place in nature where it was gathered, closing the circle of creation.

A selection of Cheshewalla’s work will be published by the digital branch of Humans & Nature Press. The Digital Press celebrates diverse sources of wisdom about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.   

Please join us at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods on September 7 at 1:00 pm for an Opening Reception and Artist Talk.

Before Dreams Are The Last Place We’ll Find You is part of the Smith Nature Symposium.

September 7 @ 1:00 pm 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Opening Reception:
Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You

Lydia Cheshewalla is an Osage ephemeral artist from Oklahoma, living and working in motion throughout the Great Plains ecoregion. Through the creation of site-specific land art and ephemeral installations grounded in Indigenous land stewardship practices and kinship pedagogies, Lydia engages in multivocal conversations about place and relationship.

Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You will open at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods on Sunday, September 7th. This exhibition is an ephemeral, site-specific installation by Cheshewalla, and will be created during her August residency at the Center for Humans & Nature in Libertyville, Illinois.

Once the work is created, it will be carefully transported to Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods for installation. Because this work is time and season reliant, what it will look like remains to be seen.

Cheshewalla’s practice is built on an ethos that views all beings as sacred, with their own agency, and with a right to complete their cycle of life and death. She works mainly with naturally shed material and seeds that are ready for collecting. At the end of installations, each being is returned to its original place in nature where it was gathered, closing the circle of creation.

A selection of Cheshewalla’s work will be published by the digital branch of Humans & Nature Press. The Digital Press celebrates diverse sources of wisdom about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.   

Please join us at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods for an Opening Reception and Artist Talk.

Water(color) for the Soul: Music of Lake MIchigan

February 19 @ 1:00 pm February 25 @ 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs and At Ease: Art and Nature for Veterans
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Water(color) for the Soul: Music of Lake Michigan

Pop-Up Exhibition

Come enjoy the original culminating works of this residency at The Brushwood Gallery in a Pop-up Exhibition! These pieces of music, that at first glance appear to be pieces of abstract art, will be displayed at Brushwood Center accompanied by QR codes that will link to performances of the works by Black Moon and allow the general public to listen to the pieces as they were intended to be heard by the Veteran composers who wrote them.

Singularity is a Forest,  Photography and Poems of Álvaro Alejandro López.

January 25 @ 1:00 pm 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Singularity is a Forest Reception

Join us on Saturday, January 25th to explore Singularity is a Forest at a reception and program at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods.

Singularity is a Forest is an exhibition of photography and poetry by Mexico City artist Álvaro Alejandro López.

He describes his series: “In our different languages the trees are mainly a generic symbol. However, if we contemplate them closely, we will find in them the diverse and the singular.This series is an aesthetic approach to the features and scars that give life to the individuality of each tree.”

The reception will feature a forest bathing experience with Jess Rodriguez of Reciprocal Forest Bathing at 1:00 pm. This will take place outdoors, please dress for the weather. At 2:00 pm, Kim Shearer of Morton Arboretum will lead a walk-through of the exhibition, sharing her expertise on the science of trees.

Presenters

Kim Shearer

Kim Shearer

Kim is the Curator of Collections and Manager of New Plant Development at the Morton Arboretum. Kim advances the Arboretum’s mission to make the world a greener, healthier, and more beautiful place by introducing plant selections with broad adaptability, disease resistance, and pest resistance. She is an expert on trees and shrubs.

Headshot of Jess Rodriguez

Jess Rodriguez

Jess Rodriguez is a certified forest bathing guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Bathing. Jessica was introduced to forest bathing in 2019 while interning in Costa Rica with a certified guide. Together, they worked on a proposal to have forest bathing recognized as an official nature wellness practice by the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). 

In 2021, Jessica underwent a six month long training and four day intensive, during which they developed a true sense of what it means to be a guide and work in partnership with the more-than-human-world. Jess is also the Coalition Building Manager at Brushwood Center.

Singularity is a Forest,  Photography and Poems of Álvaro Alejandro López.

January 5 @ 1:00 pm February 23 @ 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Singularity is a Forest

Singularity is a Forest is an exhibition of photography and poetry by Mexico City artist Álvaro Alejandro López.

He describes his series: “In our different languages the trees are mainly a generic symbol. However, if we contemplate them closely, we will find in them the diverse and the singular.This series is an aesthetic approach to the features and scars that give life to the individuality of each tree.”

The exhibition is open to the public during regular operating hours at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. Join us on Saturday, January 25th from 1:00 – 3:00 pm for a reception and program about the exhibition and its themes.