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      • Botanical Art Academy
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    • 2022 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
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Brushwood Center
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Our Board
    • Our Partners
    • Our Staff
    • In the News
    • Blog
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Visit Us
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • ART
    • Gallery >
      • Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
      • Past Exhibitions
    • BASE - Brushwood Art Supply Exchange
    • Classes >
      • Botanical Art Academy
      • Create and Sip Classes
    • Calls for Art
  • MUSIC
  • WELLNESS
    • 2022 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
    • Health, Equity, and Nature Accelerator
    • At Ease: Nature and Art for Veterans
    • It's A W.I.N. - Programming for Community
    • Senior Wellness
  • RENTALS
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate
    • Become a Partner
    • Volunteer & Job Opportunities
    • Our Sponsors
    • Shopping Cart

Our Mission and vision

Our Vision

We work toward a future of resilient and connected communities, both human and ecological, where all lead healthy and thriving lives.

Our Mission

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods works collaboratively with community partners, artists, health care providers, and scientists to improve health equity and access to nature in Lake County, Illinois, and the Chicago region. We engage people with the outdoors through the arts, environmental education, and community action. Brushwood Center’s programs focus on youth, families, Military Veterans, and those facing racial and economic injustices.
Support our Mission

Our Approach

Brushwood Center collaborates closely with community partners to offer art and nature programs with youth, families, Military Veterans, seniors, artists, and area residents. Our program strategy is rooted in the asset-based community engagement model, which is a bottom-up way of working with communities that focuses on community strengths and assets rather than on deficits and problems. Specifically, Brushwood Center prioritizes: 
  • Building authentic, long-term relationships with community-based organizations and partners; 
  • Collaborating with community assets to develop mutually beneficial programs and contributing resources where needed to advance the health of people and the planet; and
  • Combatting settler colonial legacies and false narratives, such as white saviorism, through cultural and artistic platforms.


​Land Acknowledgement Statement

Formally Adopted February 24, 2020
Land acknowledgement statements are designed to bring more awareness and understanding of the history of indigenous peoples and their territories, but they should also be more than that; they should be a call for us to rethink our relationship with the environment and the histories of all peoples, and to challenge the legacies of settler colonialism in our society. Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods honors this land as the traditional home of Algonquian speaking peoples. We celebrate their traditions and culture and their immemorial ties to this land.

​Today, Brushwood Center continues to be a place where many people from diverse backgrounds find healing, vitality, and relationship with nature. We honor the multi-cultural traditions of the land, the history of native peoples, and those who continue to maintain and shape these traditions today.

Our History

​Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods is nestled in 565 acres of magnificent woodlands in the heart of Lake County, Illinois. The preserve’s rich natural and cultural history is recognized by its dual designation as an Illinois Nature Preserve and as a Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places. This site was originally home and hunting grounds of the Potawatomi people and other local indigenous communities.

Brushwood Center was founded in 1984 to support the preservation of the woods following the transfer of the land and home from Nora and Edward Ryerson along with several neighboring families’ properties to Lake County Forest Preserves. Originally named Friends of Ryerson Woods, the organization began as an advisory committee of the Lake County Forest Preserves and evolved into an independent 501 c(3) organization now known as Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods.

Today, Brushwood Center operates through a license agreement with Lake County Forest Preserves and receives no direct financial support from the Preserves. Our programs thrive thanks to the generosity of individual, foundation, and corporate donors who support our high quality, educational and artistic programs throughout the year that encourage the preservation and care of our local greenspaces.
​
Thanks to our new strategic plan, Brushwood Center has renewed its commitment to the arts and nature with an invigorated focus on community partnerships, inclusion, and promotion of art and nature for personal and community wellbeing. We actively focus our programs on veterans and low-income communities in Lake and Cook Counties as well as our immediate community in Riverwoods.
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21850 N. Riverwoods Rd.
​Riverwoods, IL 60015

224.633.2424 info@brushwoodcenter.org
Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods is committed to enabling the participation and enjoyment of our programming and events for all visitors. At Brushwood Center, you will have open access to accessible parking and entrance to the house, a gender neutral bathroom, and changing tables.
If you require certain accommodations in order to observe or attend our events, or have questions regarding accessibility of our facilities, please contact our Manager of Public Programs and Communications, Parker Nelson, at pnelson@brushwoodcenter.org or at (224) 633-2424 ext. 1.
Programming and events at Brushwood Center is available to everyone, including but not limited to age, disability, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion, and sexual orientation.​
​
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​OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Mondays & Wednesdays: 10am - 3pm
Sundays: 1pm - 3pm
and by appointment 
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Our Board
    • Our Partners
    • Our Staff
    • In the News
    • Blog
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Visit Us
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • ART
    • Gallery >
      • Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
      • Past Exhibitions
    • BASE - Brushwood Art Supply Exchange
    • Classes >
      • Botanical Art Academy
      • Create and Sip Classes
    • Calls for Art
  • MUSIC
  • WELLNESS
    • 2022 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
    • Health, Equity, and Nature Accelerator
    • At Ease: Nature and Art for Veterans
    • It's A W.I.N. - Programming for Community
    • Senior Wellness
  • RENTALS
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate
    • Become a Partner
    • Volunteer & Job Opportunities
    • Our Sponsors
    • Shopping Cart