Experience Level: All Levels

Learn the skills of improvisation, including scene creation and team dynamics at Improve Your Improv on Thursdays, Aug 21 through Oct 2 in the Music Barn.

Kyle Tasch returns to The Farms to teach this popular course, which will be jam-packed with improvisational fun that will use both short-form games and long-form scenes in its sessions.

This will not be a place to sit down, hear lectures, and take notes, as students will be performing as much as possible! It will be a get-up-and-perform kind of class. The class will emphasize the mechanics needed to act out an entertaining and meaningful scene on the spot with no script.

Students who have already completed this class are welcome to join again. Beginners and those experienced in improv are all encouraged to join! 

$100/person for the series or $25/class. Register for the entire series by Aug 14 or one week before each subsequent class. All sales are final.

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

About the instructor

Kyle Tasch is an improvisor, improv teacher, filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian and musician from the Chicago suburbs. He started performing improv in 2004 and has been improvising in front of audiences regularly since 2015.

He has also taught classes both in-person and remotely at Westside Improv in Wheaton, Illinois. He performs live across the state in various comedy and music acts and has produced hundreds of videos and songs.

Experience Level: Beginner (16+)

Learn about various stitching methods at Intro to Hand Sewing on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 9 to 11 a.m. in The Studio.

Instructor Jennie Ingram will help students learn the basics of practical hand sewing including the basting stitch, running stitch, back stitch, whip stitch, hem stitch, slip/ladder stitch, and how to attach a button and hook & eye.

Closed-toe shoes are recommended.

$50/person. Registration will close Sept. 11 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. 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

Jennie Ingram is a lifelong crafter who has been sewing, costuming, quilting, crocheting, and making jewelry since childhood. She received her MFA in Costume Design from UIUC in 2007 and has worked in costume shops across the country including Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Williamstown Theatre Festival.

She spent six years as the Costume Shop Manager at Western Kentucky University, where she enjoyed expanding her student’s skill sets by offering workshops in quilting, corsetry and jewelry making. Since leaving academia she has run an Etsy shop selling handmade charm bracelets, and other gifts.

Jennie is also a moderator and active member of LettuceCraft.com, a forum where members share their handmade creations. Her Halloween sampler quilt, titled Stitch ‘n Witch, was shown at the 20th Annual Festival of Quilts in Urbana.

Experience Level: Beginner

Learn how to jam with other musicians at Beginner Jam Sessions on Saturdays, Sept. 13, Oct. 11, Nov. 8 and Dec. 13 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in The Studio. Learn to play as a group and learn new songs at a gentle pace in a friendly environment.

Jams sessions are open to beginning mountain dulcimer players and other instrumentalists.

$5/person. Registration closes one day before each course begins or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

—Sept. 13
—Oct. 11
—Nov. 8
—Dec. 13

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.

Experience Level: Beginner (Ages 13+)

Learn about crocheting at Granny Squares 101: Crochet for Beginners on Sunday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in The Studio. 

Led by fiber artist Billie Theide, students will learn the basics of crochet, create basic stitches, change colors, read work, fix mistakes and bind off.

Each student will leave with at least one uniquely designed crocheted “granny square” that can serve as a start for a bigger blanket, scarf, bag, and more!

$95/person* (Ages 13+; 13-17-year-olds must be accompanied by an adult, who does not need to register.) Registration will close Sept. 11 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

*Students should bring:
— 2 skeins Lilly Sugar ‘n Cream 100 percent cotton yarn or 2 skeins Loops & Threads Classic Cotton (1 each of two different contrasting solid colors) — 1 U.S. H/8 crochet hook
— 1 small sharp scissors

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

Billie Theide is a former chair of the Crafts Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is Professor Emerita. Theide is a metalsmith, jeweler and ceramicist. Her work is in public art collections around the world including the Smithsonian, Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and the Racine Art Museum, among others.

She is the recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and five Artists Fellowship Grants from the Illinois Arts Council. Theide has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and is a Distinguished Member and Past-President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Experience Level: Beginner

Give the beloved PBS series Downton Abbey a proper sendoff at Historical Dancing: A Downton Abbey Ball on Monday, Sept. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Mansion Library.

This evening soiree — led by instructor Jeanette Watts — will feature fun and easy-to-learn dances covering the era of 1912 to 1930, from the time of the Titanic sinking to the birth of the bias-cut dress and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Students are encouraged to wear costumers appropriate to the time period. Partners are not needed, but the urge to find out what it was like to dance like a Crawley in Downton Abbey is recommended!

A bar will be provided.

The evening is also a primer for the multi-week Historical Dancing: Titanic to the Talkies series being offered on Sept. 23 through Oct. 28. Get more information here.

$30/person. Registration will close Sept. 11 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. 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.

Experience Level: Beginner

Learn what stars and constellations can tell you at a Beginner’s Guide to Astrology on Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. in The Studio.

In this introductory class, instructor Charlie Rainbow Wolf will share the background of astrology, the different types of astrology and astrological signs and planetary correlations. Students will look at how the planets and signs fall into their own chart — and what this could mean for them on a personal level.

$45/person. Registration will close Sept. 13 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations 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

Charlie Rainbow Wolf describes herself as an “old hippie” who has studied the “weird ways of the world for nearly 50 years.” She is happiest with her hands in the mud, either making pottery in an ‘artbox’ or tending things in her ‘yarden’ (yard + garden).

Astrology, tarot and herbs are Charlie’s greatest interests, but she has also dabbled in metaphysical topics in the last five decades — because life always has something new to offer.

She is a contributing author for Llewellyn Worldwide, is a ghostwriter for renowned psychic celebrities, and makes a wicked batch of fudge! Charlie lives in central Illinois with her very patient husband and special needs Great Danes.

Experience Level: Beginner

Explore the botany, natural history and flavors of several local wild edible plants at Edible Midwest Natives on Wednesday, September 17 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in The Studio.

Heidi Leuszler, the owner and head chef of Berries and Flour in Champaign, will focus on native plants that are harvestable at the time of class. Those could include spicebush, common milkweed, nettles, sweet Cicely, black raspberry, American persimmon, common prickly ash and violets.

Students will learn ethical and sustainable foraging practices, look at different types of harvesting gear, and take a short walk into the woods to find, identify and forage edible parts from selected species. Students will then clean, process and eat what was foraged, and will go home with a handful of recipes, samples and plants (resources permitting).

$65/person*. Register by September 3. All sales are final.

*Students should bring work gloves and snippers/clippers.

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

Heidi Leuszler grew up harvesting and foraging wherever she lived: mangos in Florida, morels and mustang grapes from the back acre in Missouri, wild strawberries and holly grapes in the Colorado mountains and chokecherries in North Dakota. Those passions remained as she added culinary skills in addition to becoming a professor of environmental science, ecology and botany at Parkland College.

She started Berries and Flour in Champaign as the synergy of several passions: culinary, ecology, growing of plants, foraging and teaching people about the plentiful Midwest land. Berries and Flour teaches how to harvest, process and consume regional foods, collaborates with others to promote food accessibility and justice, and produces value-added products from its commercial kitchen.

Experience Level: All Levels

Learn the skills of improvisation, including scene creation and team dynamics at Improve Your Improv on Thursdays, Aug 21 through Oct 2 in the Music Barn.

Kyle Tasch returns to The Farms to teach this popular course, which will be jam-packed with improvisational fun that will use both short-form games and long-form scenes in its sessions.

This will not be a place to sit down, hear lectures, and take notes, as students will be performing as much as possible! It will be a get-up-and-perform kind of class. The class will emphasize the mechanics needed to act out an entertaining and meaningful scene on the spot with no script.

Students who have already completed this class are welcome to join again. Beginners and those experienced in improv are all encouraged to join! 

$100/person for the series or $25/class. Register for the entire series by Aug 14 or the Monday before each subsequent class. All sales are final.

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

About the instructor

Kyle Tasch is an improvisor, improv teacher, filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian and musician from the Chicago suburbs. He started performing improv in 2004 and has been improvising in front of audiences regularly since 2015.

He has also taught classes both in-person and remotely at Westside Improv in Wheaton, Illinois. He performs live across the state in various comedy and music acts and has produced hundreds of videos and songs.