[Featured image is from Spring 2023 class Painting and Drawing Studio with Arts of Life.]

“According to the specialists, just 30 to 45 minutes daily – or at least, weekly – of any kind of art is said to help lower your stress levels and induce fewer physical and mental health problems, while also encouraging your brain to learn new things.”

TAC offers a variety of classes and programs that focus on mental, emotional, and even physical wellness. Classes and programs include The Art of Play with Carole Pearlman, Yoga in the Gallery with Katie Hoffman, and Moving Meditation with Vivian Wang.

Art Impact Project

The Art Center is committed to ongoing arts-related programs to help people continue to heal and come together as a community. TAC has created a long-term agreement with the Lake County organization, Art Impact Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing emotional wellness through creative expression, and one of the groups to assist with the immediate needs in July. Since then, Art Impact Project has continued to facilitate art-making events with TAC, focused on processing the events of July 4. TAC also participated in Art Impact Project’s Knitting Communities Together project, in which participants come together to use the therapeutic and community-building process of knitting to knit or crochet colorful yarn creations, culminating in a colorful and collaborative art installation on June 29 in Sunset Woods Park.

Arts of Life

Arts of Life is a 501(c)3 non-profit that aims to create a working, person-centric, artistic community while providing a work environment of equality for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Starting fall of 2022, Arts of Life has been leading weekly art classes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities at TAC.

Highwood Library 

TAC facilitates monthly art activities for ages 6 and up with the Highwood Library. Initially offered online in the Winter of 2021, the program moved to in-person activities led by TAC instructors in a variety of mediums. These activities help provide art-making opportunities for children and families that may not have access to regular arts programming. Now in our third year, we hope to continue connecting the Highwood and Highland Park communities through art.

Senior Center at TAC

Since 2021, TAC has been partnering with the Highland Park Senior Center to offer online and in-person art classes for Senior Center Members. These classes give seniors opportunities to explore new mediums, build upon existing skills, increase social interaction, and build connection to a broader community.  With twenty-six percent of Highland Park’s population being 65 and up, and the projected increase in adults over 65, the need for this type of programming will only grow.

 

Wellness Programs, including Senior Center at TAC and outreach with Highwood Library, are generously underwritten by