Located among pristine woodlands in the Ryerson historic home in Riverwoods, Il., Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods promotes the importance of nature for nurturing personal and community wellbeing, cultivating creativity, and inspiring learning.
July 12 @ 1:00 pm – August 22 @ 3:00 pm
Join us for a look at Brushwood’s past and a glimpse into our future. As we prepare for upcoming renovations, we’re taking a moment to explore the history of Brushwood, share more about upcoming changes, and to celebrate the people, past and present, who have brought Brushwood to this moment.
July 12 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Join us for a look at Brushwood’s past and a glimpse into our future. As we prepare for upcoming renovations, we’re taking a moment to explore the history of Brushwood, share more about upcoming changes, and to celebrate the people, past and present, who have brought Brushwood to this moment.
Schedule:
Exhibition opens at 1:00 pm
Exhibition program begins at 1:30 pm
Light refreshments will be available.
June 30 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
What special powers do you possess? What are your best qualities? Do you know you are
special? Why? You Are You Own Superhero!
Come out and explore your superhero powers by enjoying a FREE workshop with Creative Journal Expressive Arts Instructor learning “The Creative Journal method”
This workshop can help you to:
*Express feelings and thoughts
*Make more conscious choices and decisions
*Enrich your relationship with yourself and others
*Find deeper meaning in your life
*NO JOURNALING EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
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Street Parking Available
August 29 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Please note: This month we’re meeting at Mellody Farm Nature Preserve, not Brushwood Center.
The Brushwood Nature Book Club is a space to talk about and explore nature literature in a friendly environment. Each meeting includes discussion, creative writing, and/or art activities to engage with the themes of the chosen book, led by Brushwood’s Poet-in-Residence Kathryn Haydon, and writer-artist Megan Donahue.
This summer, we’re revisiting some of the classics of American nature literature and exploring how they resonate today.
Our August book is My First Summer in the Sierra, by John Muir. It was published in 1911, based on field notes from an 1869 trip Muir made to the Sierra Nevada, traveling with a shepherd and flock of sheep. The book was influential in popularizing the (complicated) idea of an American wilderness, and was crucial in building public support for the preservation of Yosemite National Park.
July 25 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Please note: This month we’re meeting at Mellody Farm Nature Preserve, not Brushwood Center.
The Brushwood Nature Book Club is a space to talk about and explore nature literature in a friendly environment. Each meeting includes discussion, creative writing, and/or art activities to engage with the themes of the chosen book, led by Brushwood’s Poet-in-Residence Kathryn Haydon, and writer-artist Megan Donahue.
This summer, we’re revisiting some of the classics of American nature literature and exploring how they resonate today.
Our July book is A Sand County Almanac: Sketches Here and There, by Aldo Leopold. Through science, history, humor and prose, Leopold uses A Sand County Almanac and its call for a land ethic to communicate the true connection between people and the natural world. First published in 1949, it became one of the most venerated conservation books in the 20th century.
Catherine Tully is a cyanotype artist from Des Plaines, Illinois, whose visual language is deeply shaped by more than five decades in the world of ballet. Her lifelong engagement with movement, balance, and line informs her distinctive approach to botanical cyanotypes and wet cyanotype experimentation.
Tully’s work is grounded in an attentive dialogue with the natural world, using sunlight, water, plant materials, and other substances to explore themes of impermanence, fragility, ephemeral beauty, and ecological interconnection. Her prints are marked by a dancer’s sensitivity to form and structure, paired with a willingness to explore and embrace the unpredictability of organic processes.
She currently serves as the Artist in Residence at Friendship Park Conservatory.
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See Catherine’s art on display at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods April 1 – 25, 2026.
“Sine sole sileo. Without the sun, I am silent—a truth that guides both the making and meaning of my work. After spending over five
decades in ballet, I find my eye most drawn to the elegance of line and form, which nature generously provides in abundance. In my
traditional cyanotypes, I collaborate with sunshine and water to honor the delicate architecture of botanicals in Prussian blue and white.
In my wet cyanotypes, various hues drift and mingle, producing multicolored, experimental images that flirt with chaos—a reminder
that nature, and life, rarely stay neatly in place.
Each print is a quiet act of presence, a pause to honor the fragile, fleeting moments that often slip by unnoticed. Making art becomes
a conversation with the natural world—a way to witness its beauty, feel its impermanence, and recognize how deeply intertwined our
lives are with the environment around us. My work invites the eye to observe, contemplate, and consider the delicate interconnections
of the natural world, connecting with the tender poetry of life in all its ephemeral richness.”
Image: Queen Anne’s Lace/Wild Carrot, by Catherine Tully
Media: Traditional cyanotype, print
April 25
10:00 am – 3:00 pm | Free
Open Art Workshop with Catherine Tully
Open Art Workshop is open to anyone who wants to make something in any area of visual arts and crafts, from the experienced artist looking for a community of others to work with, to the complete novice who just wants to try something out in a low pressure environment, or the family looking for a fun kids’ activity to fill their afternoon – this workshop is for you!
healing Together
By Jess Rodriguez
Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance (TIERRA) is the nature-based mental health intervention that was co-developed by Brushwood Center and DePaul University in collaboration with Highwood Library & Community Center, Roberti Community House, Mano a Mano Family Resource Center, Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center, Family First Center, and The HAP Foundation. Community Health Workers and Clinicians from these organizations have facilitated TIERRA to over 85 participants in Lake County from 2024-2025 and while we have received much feedback about the program, the most common piece of feedback we’ve received is that the participants want more TIERRA.
During TIERRA, participants were able to dive into themselves and remember who it is they truly are. In talking to participants, I could see that – without having even known them before- a shift was happening. The tides were changing. What once may have been muddy waters were now clear calm waves reflecting the infinite blue of the sky. The possibilities of their world have broadened.
What each individual could see of themselves and for themselves matched that of what they noticed in nature: abundance, love, gratitude, beauty, peace, transformation. The participants of TIERRA saw nature reflect themselves, in every form and facet. The participants of TIERRA have done something remarkable, they cleared the muddy waters. They walked through the labyrinth of life, they journeyed inward, expanded, and journeyed back outward, expanding. They have rediscovered who they are and without fail, they have rediscovered the iridescent web of interconnectedness.
Which is why they asked for more TIERRA, I knew they were not asking for a second intervention per say but rather they craved more opportunities to spin with the web.
Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA is an opportunity for the facilitators and participants of the program to move with that creative energy that they built up throughout the program and showcase their reflections through painting and other works of art. It has been an honor to collaborate with Nydia Gonzalez-Carson on these art workshops to offer facilitators and participants of TIERRA this moment, and hopefully create a ripple effect for more moments of grounding in the creative energy of nature for community healing.
May 9 @ 10:00 am – May 10 @ 5:00 pm
Saturday, May 9, 10 am- 5 pm
Sunday, May 10, 12 pm- 5 pm
The Mother Earth Market features and celebrates local artists, makers, vendors, and organizations who are inspired by “Mother Earth” and are working towards a more sustainable future. Check out the vendors and don’t miss the BASE Art Supply Clearance Sale.
Over 40 artists are participating this year. You’ll find paintings, jewelry, cards, ceramics, note cards, prints, gifts, and more!
In preparation for upcoming construction, the Brushwood Art Supply Exchange (BASE) is clearing out space with a super sale during the Mother Earth Market. Get your summer art and craft supplies before BASE closes for the season and tell the teachers, camp directors, parents, artists, and kids in your life!
May 3 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
rogue wave is a New York-based dance company led by Catherine Messina that presents work at the intersection of psychology and movement, often with a comedic twist. They are bringing their piece bouquet to Brushwood.
Neuroscientists classify individuals as dandelions (resilient and able to thrive in a variety of environments), orchids (highly sensitive and reactive), or tulips, who exist somewhere in between. These outcomes are partially determined by epigenetics, the way in which our upbringing, and the generations before, influences genetic expression.
bouquet challenges the cast to examine the unique cultural and demographic experiences that have played formative roles in their development. Various permutations of dancers are matched with the intention of analyzing how their movement changes based on the similarity, or lack thereof, of their respective “flower profiles.” In this, they ask the audience to consider what their own flower might be, and how it feels to be a part of the greater meadow, your community.
The 3:00 pm performance will be followed by a lecture with rogue wave’s Catherine Messina and Dr. Hector Rasgado-Flores, Ph.D from Rosalind Franklin University.
Schedule
1:00 pm – Family Performance Begins
1:45 pm – Family Performance Ends
3:00 pm – General Audience Performance Begins
3:45 pm – General Audience Performance Ends
4:00 pm – Special Lecture Begins
April 26 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Join us for a compelling afternoon of film and conversation with Ukrainian filmmaker, environmentalist, and Brushwood Center Videographer-in-Residence, Kateryna Sazonova.
This program features a screening of Sazonova’s environmental film series—three interconnected short films that examine the urgent realities of climate change and humanity’s impact on the planet through both documentary and speculative storytelling. Currently based in Chicago, Sazonova is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where she earned her MFA in Film and TV Directing in 2023. Her work has received international recognition, including a 2025 Emmy Award for her contributions to public television with WTTW / PBS Chicago.
Plastic (2018) is a documentary with experimental elements that traces the rise of plastic from its invention in the early 20th century to its overwhelming presence today. The film imagines a future where plastic has overtaken the natural world, offering a stark warning about the consequences of inaction.
200 Years Before 2389, a prequel to her latest work, is a short fiction film set in a post-environmental apocalypse. It follows a lone survivor navigating a world shaped by ecological collapse, providing an intimate glimpse into a possible future shaped by today’s choices.
2389: Coming Home continues this narrative in a sci-fi context, as two figures from a Martian colony—a scientist and a soldier—return to a devastated Earth to assess its habitability. As they confront the realities of a planet altered by climate change and resource wars, they face a moral dilemma that challenges the future of humanity itself.
Following the screening, Sazonova will lead a lecture and discussion on environmental storytelling and sustainability in the film industry. Drawing from her own creative practice, she will explore how filmmakers can reduce environmental impact and how audiences can translate these ideas into everyday life.
This event invites viewers to reflect on the power of cinema not only to tell stories, but to inspire meaningful change.
