Experience Level: Beginner

Take part in a new wine education class at Talking & Tasting Wine on Friday, March 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Mansion Solarium.

Renowned wine educator and television personality Mike Lee will lead this delightful and delectable wine class, where he will walk students through the art of wine tasting as an introduction to Wines of the World. 

Each class will include tastings of 5 to 6 wines. You must be at least 21 years old to participate. Consider making it a weekend getaway and book a room overnight as part of Allerton's Weekend Wind Down series.

$60/person (Ages 21+). Register by March 5. All sales are final.

Weekend Wind Down room rates are $110/night. To make a reservation, please call 217-333-3287.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

About the Instructor

Mike Lee is an accomplished wine, spirits, and beer educator with 9+ years in the alcohol industry. Having achieved the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (London) Certified Educator achievement in Wine, Lee is certified to teach levels 1 and 2 internationally. With experience with class sizes large and small, he is known for his ability to adapt to any learning environment with excellent facilitation skills.

Experience Level: Beginner

Learn how to decorate cookies for spring at Spring Cookie Decorating on Saturday, March 15 from 12 to 3 p.m. in the Greenhouse Café.

Learn to decorate spring-themed cookies with royal icing, crusting butter cream and rolled buttercream! Instructor Jennifer Holhubner will demonstrate and explain wet-on-wet technique, outlining and flooding and make flowers. Each participant will receive directions to decorate five cookies.

$75/person*. Register here by Feb. 28. All sales are final.

*Students should bring a take-home container.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Champaign-Urbana native Jennifer Holhubner taught herself how to decorate cakes when she was 16 years old and took up cookie decorating in 2019.

“Although they intimidated me, I forged on and got better with each order. I still have room to grow as we all do in whatever task we take on,” she said. “But I love to share the aspects of baking and decorating. I can actually now say, I am cookier!”

Jennifer also teaches decorating classes at Parkland College.

Inspired by nature and the bountiful natural elements found at Allerton, Heartland Community College art professor Jane Camp will offer Teen Art Studio: From Realism to Abstraction on Saturday, March 15 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Greenhouse Auditorium.

Open to budding artists 13- to 18-years-old, students will focus on observational drawing in graphite, pen and ink and charcoal that move into abstractions of nature through collage and the various drawing media.

All materials will be provided and no previous experience is necessary.

$45per/person (13-18). Register by March 1. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, email Sarah Putman at sputman2@illinois.edu.

About the instructor

Jane Camp is an art educator in addition to a working and exhibiting artist. A Professor of Art at Heartland Community College since 1994, she has also taught at Tennessee State University, Illinois State University and Richland College. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and Master of Science and Master of Fine Arts from Illinois State University.

Jane’s photographs, drawings and paintings have been shown in many local and national exhibitions. She successfully co-operated a photography business, Outer Glow Photography for 10 years.

Much of her drawings and paintings focus on what she calls “Random Pages”: Random bits from nature that become enlarged and abstracted to suggest something beyond their origins. She also uses a medium format Holga film camera to encapsulate an ethereal vision, which is a dominant trait in her art.

You can view Jane’s art on her website.

Experience Level: Beginner

Learn about the process of making sourdough bread at Beginner Sourdough Breadmaking on Sunday, Feb. 9 and March 16 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Mansion Kitchen and Carriage House. (Each class will cover the same material).

Instructor Hannah Fink will cover the basic biology of a ferment and what it means to a sourdough culture, how to mix sourdough, how to maintain a healthy starter in your home and the importance of baking with regionally grown grains. Students will also get hands-on experience as they learn to mix sourdough.

Prepared dough will be available to showcase baking and for students to prepare a snack toward the end of class. Students will take home their own jar of sourdough culture, a sample of gains from Janie’s Mill, as well as printouts of everything covered, simple recipes and a thorough list of resources.

$75/person. Register 10 days before each workshop. All sales are final.

Registration links:
— Feb. 9
— March 16

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate, please email owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the Instructor

Hannah Fink — a baker and local food enthusiast — started Tooth Butter Cottage Bakery in Urbana so she could be at home with her son and still keep her hands in dough. She revels in naturally leavened bread and quality pastries and focuses on organic whole grains, mostly stone milled from Janie’s Mill in Ashkum.

She is of the firm belief that a “toothy dose of good butter” is the best start, which led to the name of her business that bakes for special orders and pop-up collaborations with fellow creators.

Hannah started baking about 10 years ago while working in the music industry in Nashville and ended up falling in love with enough to change careers. She started as a bread delivery driver, then worked as a kitchen manager at Pear Tree Estate in Champaign and as a pastry manager in Michigan.

Fink is a member of the Artisan Grain Collaborative and is looking forward to passing on the knowledge she has gained on breads and grains.

About The Farms

The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, offers classes, workshops, and gatherings focusing on art, health & wellness, history, nature & outdoor education, or science. All experiences value hands-on, experiential teaching and learning, and are facilitated by and for the members of the community.

See the complete Spring Session schedule here.

Experience Level: Beginner (ages 10+)

Learn about soft pastels and ways to use them through basic mark-making techniques at Introduction to Pastel Painting on Tuesday, March 18 from 12 to 3 p.m. in the Mansion Library.

Serious artists ages 10 and older can sign up for this course, where award-winning artist Mandy Roeing will help students learn about pastels and paint to create a simple still life to take home. More than just a one-time painting project, this class in intended to give you basic pastel painting skills and knowledge that you can build on to continue creating.

$115/person (Ages 10+. Ages 10-15 need to be accompanied by a registered adult). Register by March 13. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Award-winning artist Mandy Roeing resides in Downs with her husband and their two daughters. Inspired by the beauty and tranquility of nature, Roeing creates color-filled landscapes and beachscapes that go beyond representation to capture the emotion of a place.

All of Roeing’s paintings are done in soft pastels, a beautiful and versatile medium that she is passionate about sharing with others through both her work and classes. She is an instructor at the McLean County Arts Center and the Peninsula School of Art and holds regular classes in painting and drawing at her own studio and gallery space in downtown Bloomington.

Mandy earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina in 2004. She is the Vice President of the Illinois Prairie Pastel Society and an active member of the Peoria Art Guild. Her work has been published in The Pastel Journal magazine and the IAPS Globe and is in numberous private collections throughout the country and abroad.

Experience Level: Beginner

Learn the basic mechanics of using a spinning wheel to make your own yarn at Learn to Spin Yarn on Tuesday, March 18 from 5 to 8 p.m. in The Studio. 

After a brief introduction from instructor Stephanie Block, students will have time for hands-on spinning practice and the opportunity to spin alpaca fiber into yarn using Ashford scotch tension Traditional or Traveler wheels. Discussion of fiber production and preparation methods will also be included.

$100/person. Register by March 15. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

About the instructor

Stephanie Block is the co-owner of Sundrop Alpacas near Bement. She has been producing popular yarn from her own alpacas for more than eight years. Stephanie’s spinning style is self-taught, and she is continuously learning so that she can share that knowledge with others.

Experience Level: Some weaving experience needed

Continue your journey into the world of weaving at Beginning Weaving II from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 22-23 in the Greenhouse Auditorium.

This 2-day class with instructor Sharon Bowles will be a continuation of Beginning Weaving 1, but instead of everyone doing the same article, students will pick their own project, measure the warp, beam the warp, thread the heddles to their selected pattern, thread the reed, tie the warp to the cloth beam rod, wind bobbins and weave a sample of their selected yarn. Students will then weave samples from the other looms, giving them a wide variety of weave structures they can try out.

$235/person. Register by March 15. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

About the Instructor

Sharon Bowles has been weaving for 34 years and teaching beginning weaving for almost 33 years. She was taught to weave in a one-on-one class and wove 2 table runners in 12 (approximately) 2-hour lessons, and she teaches the same method.

Sharon has experience in weaving with silk, lace weaving, 8-shaft pattern weaving, parallel weaving, block weaves, and Shaker reproduction towels. She has taught many workshops and classes to weavers’ guilds in Florida, Ohio, and Champaign-Urbana. She earned her Journeyman certification from the Weavers Guild of Boston in 2021 and a master’s certification in April of 2022.

Most recently, Sharon taught Beginning Weaving I at The Farms, and a 2-day workshop in 4 shaft patterns for the Champaign-Urbana Spinners and Weavers Guild.

Experience Level: Beginner

Gather with your fellow dulcimer musicians and create some music at Mountain Dulcimer Jam Sessions on March 22 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. in the Studio. This gathering is perfect for those who have taken Beginner Mountain Dulcimer at The Farms and want a space to practice with fellow players.

$5/person. Register a day prior to each jam session. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia Bunting at owarren@illinois.edu.

About the instructor

Lou Ann Koebel currently leads a weekly dulcimer jam for the East Central Dulcimer Illinois Dulcimer Club at Lincoln Square. She also plays in a local band that visits and performs at local assisted living facilities.

Last fall, she taught a beginning dulcimer class for The Farms, where she had a wonderful time teaching the group and realized her love of teaching and passing on the tradition of playing a mountain dulcimer. Lou Ann also plays at area music festivals.