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.
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 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.
In the late 1990s, when poet Ted Kooser was recovering from cancer surgery, he started sending postcards to his friend Jim Harrison, a novelist known for Legends of the Fall and numerous other books. On each postcard, he wrote a poem. Harrison did the same in return. In 2001, Kooser turned his half of the exchange into Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, a collection of engaging, witty, clever, insightful poems that serve simultaneously as snapshots of a friendship and a view into a poet’s daily observations.
Nature Book Club: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
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 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.
Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the inspiring and intimate story of her year-long encounter with a Neohelix albolabris—a common forest snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches as the snail takes up residence on her nightstand. Intrigued by its molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making ability, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence.
Enjoy learning about digital art with your fellow veterans and families members. Please download the proper software to your phone.
A smartphone is required for this class.
Prior to class Download ArtRage (free for Android, $2.99 for iPhone). Make sure to also open the app prior to class. This will ensure we can start right away if there are updates or login needed for the app.
Activity Expectation: Indoors and seated; a smartphone is required for this class.
Sensory Expectations: Indoors
Available Accommodations: No language interpretation available.
Snacks will be served; please let us know if you have any food allergies. Registration required.
For questions, accessibility or mobility concerns, please contact Veterans Program Specialist, Jessica Klinge at jklinge@brushwoodcenter.org
On June 28, 2024, Gorton Center in Lake Forest hummed with conversation and rang with applause as audiences experienced Convergence for the first time. Brushwood Center debuted the world premiere performance of music and art inspired by the findings of our recent report Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, Illinois, that links access to clean air, water, and nature to healthier lives.
Convergence: Health Equity in a Changing Climate, is a bilingual (English and Spanish) performance, guided by Brushwood Center’s Ensemble-in-Residence, Black Moon Trio. It translates the lived experiences of communities in Lake County, Illinois, affected by environmental racism and health inequities through original music, illustration, and storytelling.
This signature concert experience features live music performed by Black Moon Trio (Parker Nelson, Jeremy Vigil, and Khelsey Zarraga), including two commissioned compositions from composers Marc Mellits and Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Visually, it includes original artworks from five artists from across the country: Natashna Anderson, Kelley Clink, Laura Horan, Lakosh, and Naimah Thomas. The live performance is complemented by filmed narration in English and Spanish.
Since 2024, Convergence has quickly become a conversation-starter in communities in the region. Audiences in Waukegan saw a performance in August 2024. In the winter and spring of 2025, Convergence was condensed into a shorter program for educational and community settings. It connects students to the important data of health equity through art, while promoting social and emotional learning, and music and art literacy skills.
“Some of my favorite responses that I’ve gotten from audiences are things like the music program that we visited in North Chicago, where the program had grown from about five students to over 150. The students were just really excited to have real live musicians in their school, something that they had never dealt with before, something that they have never experienced before. Just having a chance to connect with these young musicians and talk a little bit more about how they can use their artistic talent to make change in their community was something that was really, really special,” says Parker Nelson, Director of Public Programs and Music at Brushwood Center.
“Brushwood Center is working with our artistic and community partners to make this data as accessible as possible,” says Catherine Game, Executive Director of Brushwood Center. “As an organization committed to improving health equity through community, nature, and the arts, we also know that art is a powerful tool for social change. By translating the research of the report into a multi-disciplinary performance, we hope to mobilize even more people and communities in this movement for a healthy and just future.”
Nature, Art and Wellness Day for Women Veterans and Family Members
Join us at Brushwood Center for a day of recharging and relaxing in community with fellow women Veterans and family members in the peace and tranquility of Ryerson Woods. Enjoy wellness activities in connection with nature!
Activities for the day include: yoga, forest bathing, and a reflective art activity.
Breakfast & Lunch will be provided.
Please wear comfortable clothes and dress for the weather.
__ Please note, that this event is for Veterans, current service members, and their families only.
Contact Jessica Klinge at jklinge@brushwoodcenter.org if you have questions or concerns.
For questions and/or accessibility information, contact Veteran Programs Specialist Jessica Klinge at jklinge@brushwoodcenter.org
Kirsten Saunders began working with clay in college in 1982 and was hooked right away. Though her B.A. is in Psychology/Sociology, she took many fine art classes and workshops through the years to hone her skills and develop her own style. She taught children’s art classes while raising her own children, and still enjoys teaching occasionally and experiencing children’s playfulness and discovery.
See Kirsten’s art on display at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods August 30 – September 27, 2025.
Turtle at the pond, by Kirsten Saunders. Media: Pottery
Kirsten’s Artist Statement
Kirsten is most inspired by her ever changing garden, whimsy, and her love of nature and its amazing creatures. Each piece is one of a kind, created in her home studio in Gurnee, Illinois. Working mostly with Terra Cotta clay, pieces are wheel thrown, hand built, or a construction of both. Her mosaics are a blend of crockery, her own pottery, glass and other enticing items.
Image: Loving Hands, by Kirsten Saunders Media: Pottery
Artist of the Month Events
August 30 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | Free Open Art Workshop with Kirsten Saunders
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!
Create & Sip is a monthly workshop hosted at Brushwood Center where participants can explore fun projects using supplies and tools from the Brushwood Art Supply Exchange, BASE. It’s an opportunity to get creative, try something new, and enjoy the company of fellow art enthusiasts in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
Image: An monarch butterfly ornament by Kirsten Saunders
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.
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.
January 11, 2026 @ 1:00 pm – February 22, 2026 @ 3:00 pm
Artist of the Month is a program at Brushwood Center featuring artists who align with Brushwood Center’s mission and explores themes of health, equity and justice, nature and the environment. Each month we feature an artist who will:
Display their work at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods
Teach a Create and Sip Workshop in their area of expertise
Demonstrate their work at an Open Art Workshop
Meet Susan Teller
Susan Teller graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with a BFA in 1979. She worked at Spring Studio 1979-1982, United Letter, 1982-1984, and the Marshall Fields Advertising Department, 1984-198. She was Staff Artist/ Librarian at the Skokie Public Library, 1997-2022. She currently teaches workshops in paper making, watercolor painting, and book binding. She also teaches classes about women artists, process of making art, and storyboard drawing and development.
See Susan’s art on display at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods July 26 – August 28, 2025.
A Rock Is Just a Kiss, by Susan Teller. Media: MDF board, book pages, leaves, nails, string, prints, oil stick, color pencil, acrylic, pigment, soot, found objects, rice paper, cheese cloth, ink, and seeds.
Susan’s Artist Statement
“With all the noise around us everyday it is difficult to find a place for peace and rejuvenation. I know I live in a bubble of certain beliefs and that my truth and what I see happening in the world may be different from what others see. Art making and connecting with nature makes me slow down and see things from a new perspective.
Through my creative practice I can observe beauty in the natural world and in a few scraps of cardboard and rusty pieces of metal that are representative of our time and environment. I meld both traditional and non-traditional materials in my artwork. My mixed media works are rooted in the gestures and textures of the physical world and guided by the growing conflict between man-made industrial objects, disposable materials and our stressed natural environment. Combining recycled objects and natural forms into a new kind of beauty allows me to create a kind of time capsule that is sensitive to the environmental challenges we face in today’s world.
I am inspired by what I have seen on vacations to our National Parks and the everyday world in my own backyard in Skokie, Illinois. I went to visit Glacier Park in Montana about 40 years ago and again just two years ago. During my recent trip I saw the park in a very different light. It was still majestic and beautiful but my awareness of threats like climate change, mining, and human encroachment made me think more about our impact on the natural environment. I am amazed at the power that the earth has and its ability to heal from all the damage that is inflicted upon it. Moving water, ancient rocks, beautiful forests and native plants makes me think about the history of these places and how much they have changed and that makes me feel real and here today.”
Image: Stone Island, by Susan Teller Media: mixed, MDF board, gesso, book pages, modeling paste, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, oil stick, pigments, cheese cloth, rusty pieces, ink, and seeds
Artist of the Month Events
July 26 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | Free Open Art Workshop with Susan Teller
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!
Image:23/30 Reflections Series, by Susan Teller Media: Cardboard, rusty objects, art paper, pencil.
August 13 | 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | $20
Create & Sip – Accordion Art Books
Create & Sip is a monthly workshop hosted at Brushwood Center where participants can explore fun projects using supplies and tools from the Brushwood Art Supply Exchange, BASE. It’s an opportunity to get creative, try something new, and enjoy the company of fellow art enthusiasts in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
Nurture your creativity and your spirit. In this class, you’ll paint a pot with meaningful designs and re-pot a plant to take home—a living reminder of growth and resilience. This grounding experience blends artistic expression with the calming rhythm of nature and the therapeutic act of planting.
Register by calling the Chicago Vet Center at: 773-962-3740.
