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April 12 @ 1:00 pm 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs and Health Equity and Nature Accelerator
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Opening Reception: Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA

Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA features artwork created by facilitators of and participants in the TIERRA program—Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance—a research-informed, nature-based training program that supports Community Health Workers serving communities across Lake County, Illinois.

TIERRA equips Community Health Workers with tools to address the interconnected challenges of trauma, health disparities, and environmental injustice. Rooted in mindfulness, restorative practices, and the healing presence of nature, the program creates space for participants to explore their own experiences while strengthening their capacity to care for others.

Through visual art, reflection, and creative expression, participants in this program have translated their personal and professional journeys into powerful works that speak to resilience, healing, and connection to the land. The pieces on display offer insight into the inner landscapes of those working at the front lines of community health. These are individuals who navigate complex social and environmental challenges while supporting the wellbeing of others.

Created during guided sessions that integrated nature observation, contemplative practice, and artistic exploration, the artworks reflect themes of renewal, rootedness, and collective care. Plants, seasonal cycles, and the natural rhythms of the landscape serve as both inspiration and metaphor for growth and restoration.

By sharing these works with the public, the exhibition honors the vital role Community Health Workers play in building healthier, more equitable communities.

Schedule

1:00 pm – Exhibition Opens – Refreshments Available

1:30 pm – Artist Panel

3:00 pm – End of Reception

April 12 @ 1:00 pm May 3 @ 3:00 pm

Initiatives

Public Arts Programs and Health Equity and Nature Accelerator
Free
21850 Riverwoods Rd.
Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States
+ Google Map
224.633.2424

Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA

Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA features artwork created by facilitators of and participants in the TIERRA program—Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance—a research-informed, nature-based training program that supports Community Health Workers serving communities across Lake County, Illinois.

TIERRA equips Community Health Workers with tools to address the interconnected challenges of trauma, health disparities, and environmental injustice. Rooted in mindfulness, restorative practices, and the healing presence of nature, the program creates space for participants to explore their own experiences while strengthening their capacity to care for others.

Through visual art, reflection, and creative expression, participants in this program have translated their personal and professional journeys into powerful works that speak to resilience, healing, and connection to the land. The pieces on display offer insight into the inner landscapes of those working at the front lines of community health. These are individuals who navigate complex social and environmental challenges while supporting the wellbeing of others.

Created during guided sessions that integrated nature observation, contemplative practice, and artistic exploration, the artworks reflect themes of renewal, rootedness, and collective care. Plants, seasonal cycles, and the natural rhythms of the landscape serve as both inspiration and metaphor for growth and restoration.

By sharing these works with the public, the exhibition honors the vital role Community Health Workers play in building healthier, more equitable communities.

April 25 @ 10:00 am 11:30 am

Initiatives

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

Nature Book Club: April

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.  

Our April book will be The Place of Tides, by James Rebanks. This is a magical work of nonfiction in which James Rebanks reflects on a life-changing summer spent on a remote island off the coast of Norway, where his only companion was an old woman who practiced the ancient tradition of collecting eiderdown from birds that nest on this remarkable landscape each year. 

It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for gathering, like feathered gold.

Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not what he had previously thought. What began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.

Light shines through trees in a forest

March 31 @ 7:00 pm 8:00 pm

Initiatives

Health Equity and Nature Accelerator
Free

The Woods as Freedom: Hidden Black Nature Stories

The Woods as Freedom: Hidden Black Nature Stories is an interactive virtual webinar that uncovers powerful, often untold stories of how the natural world shaped Black survival, resistance, and liberation. 

While the woods are often remembered as sites of danger during slavery, they were also places of strategy, nourishment, spiritual refuge, and coded communication. This session explores the layered meaning of the forest through history, folklore, and cultural memory. This webinar invites participants to reimagine nature as a living archive of resilience and resistance. It is both an educational and healing-centered experience that helps participants reconnect with land as a source of identity, strength, and freedom. 

Participants will explore: 

-The role of the woods in slave narratives and escape routes 

-Folklore traditions such as the Drinking Gourd and High John the Conqueror 

-Nature as source of survival knowledge, medicine, and direction 

-How ancestral relationships with land inform modern healing practices 

Special thanks to support from Healing Illinois.

Healing Illinois is a racial healing initiative of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) in partnership with the Field Foundation of IL.

Light shines through trees in a forest

March 16 @ 12:30 pm 1:30 pm

Initiatives

Health Equity and Nature Accelerator
Free

Remembering the Woods: Ancestral Memory Circle

Remembering the Woods: Ancestral Memory Circle is a guided virtual gathering that invites participants into a space of reflection, remembrance, and racial healing. Rooted in the project Radical Hope in the Woods, this circle honors the deep and complex relationship between Black Americans and the natural world. 

Through storytelling, mindfulness, and shared dialogue, participants will explore how the woods served as places of refuge, resistance, and spiritual connection for enslaved ancestors. Drawing from slave narratives, folklore, and oral histories, this experience reframes nature as sacred space of memory, wisdom, and liberation.

Participants will leave this virtual Lunch and Learn with a renewed sense of connection to the land, deeper awareness of ancestral resilience, and an invitation to continue reclaiming nature as a space for rest, belonging, and radical hope. 

Together, we will:

-Reflect on ancestral relationships with land and survival 

-Engage in grounding practices that reconnect us to nature 

-Explore folklore and stories that carried hope and freedom coded

-Begin a journey of collective healing rooted in remembrance

Special thanks to support from Healing Illinois.

Healing Illinois is a racial healing initiative of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) in partnership with the Field Foundation of IL.

March 28 @ 11:30 am 12:30 pm

Initiatives

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

The Nature of Sleep with Nancy Rothstein, MBA, The Sleep Ambassador®

What if better sleep could transform not only how you feel—but how you live, work, and connect with the world around you?

In this illuminating lecture, internationally recognized sleep expert Nancy Rothstein explores the science, rhythms, and restorative power of sleep, revealing why it is foundational to physical health, emotional resilience, cognitive clarity, and overall well-being. With warmth, clarity, and evidence-based insight, Rothstein unpacks how stress, light exposure, habits, and modern lifestyles impact our natural sleep cycles—and what we can do to restore balance.

Participants will learn:

  • How sleep affects immunity, mood, memory, and long-term health
  • The role of circadian rhythms and how nature influences sleep-wake cycles
  • Practical strategies to improve sleep quality without medication
  • How to create a restorative evening routine rooted in environmental awareness

In alignment with Brushwood Center’s mission to cultivate wellness through nature, this program highlights the profound connection between natural light, daily rhythms, and restorative rest. Attendees will leave empowered with tools to reclaim sleep as a pillar of vitality—nurturing both personal health and a deeper relationship with the natural world.

Ideal for anyone seeking to improve sleep, reduce stress, and enhance daily performance, The Nature of Sleep offers practical wisdom grounded in science and inspired by nature.

March 28 @ 10:00 am 11:30 am

Initiatives

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

Nature Book Club: March

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.  

Our March book will be Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing, by Lili Taylor

Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life and the will to survive.

Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie

May 1 @ 10:00 am 11:30 am

Initiatives

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: Sounds of the Prairie (Visit 6)

Returning in 2026, Black Moon Trio once again invites Veterans and their family members to create and perform their own original musical compositions in Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie. Grounded in the ecology and literary traditions of the prairie, this program explores how our own root systems run deep to withstand tumultuous storms and provide support in shaping individual and collective identity.

Using resources from Brushwood Center’s At Ease and Art Supply Exchange programs, Veterans participate in a six-week graphic score and poetry composition residency culminating in the creation of 15 original pieces of music performed and recorded by professional musicians. 

Black Moon Trio is honored to again be joined by poet and creativity expert, Kathryn Haydon and world-renowned botanical artist, Heeyoung Kim and members of her Botanical Art Academy. Together, they help provide expert insight on poetry, literature, and artistic methods and techniques inspired by prairie ecosystems designed to frame participant’s compositions. 

This is a six-week program–each week builds on previous work.

This program has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces initiative.

Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie

April 24 @ 10:00 am 11:30 am

Initiatives

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: Sounds of the Prairie (Visit 5)

Returning in 2026, Black Moon Trio once again invites Veterans and their family members to create and perform their own original musical compositions in Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie. Grounded in the ecology and literary traditions of the prairie, this program explores how our own root systems run deep to withstand tumultuous storms and provide support in shaping individual and collective identity.

Using resources from Brushwood Center’s At Ease and Art Supply Exchange programs, Veterans participate in a six-week graphic score and poetry composition residency culminating in the creation of 15 original pieces of music performed and recorded by professional musicians. 

Black Moon Trio is honored to again be joined by poet and creativity expert, Kathryn Haydon and world-renowned botanical artist, Heeyoung Kim and members of her Botanical Art Academy. Together, they help provide expert insight on poetry, literature, and artistic methods and techniques inspired by prairie ecosystems designed to frame participant’s compositions. 

This is a six-week program–each week builds on previous work.

This program has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces initiative.

Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie

April 10 @ 10:00 am 11:30 am

Initiatives

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: Sounds of the Prairie (Visit 3)

Returning in 2026, Black Moon Trio once again invites Veterans and their family members to create and perform their own original musical compositions in Water(color) for the Soul: Sounds of the Prairie. Grounded in the ecology and literary traditions of the prairie, this program explores how our own root systems run deep to withstand tumultuous storms and provide support in shaping individual and collective identity.

Using resources from Brushwood Center’s At Ease and Art Supply Exchange programs, Veterans participate in a six-week graphic score and poetry composition residency culminating in the creation of 15 original pieces of music performed and recorded by professional musicians. 

Black Moon Trio is honored to again be joined by poet and creativity expert, Kathryn Haydon and world-renowned botanical artist, Heeyoung Kim and members of her Botanical Art Academy. Together, they help provide expert insight on poetry, literature, and artistic methods and techniques inspired by prairie ecosystems designed to frame participant’s compositions. 

This is a six-week program–each week builds on previous work.

This program has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces initiative.