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Hobbies & Home   

  • Advanced Homebrewing with all Grains
  • Fee: $15.00
    Dates: 11/5/2025 - 11/5/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: W
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 108
    Instructor: Richard Miller, Gary Gilles

    Learn about advanced brewing techniques which you can do in the comfort of your kitchen or back patio.
    In this class, you will learn:

    • Methods of extracting Wort from Malted Grain: Traditional Mash and Sparge, Recirculation Full Volume Mash, and Brew in a bag.
    • Water: basic water chemistry
    • Malts: Base Malts, crystal Malts, and other specialty malts.
    • Hops: Bittering and Flavoring, and Calculating International Bitter units from their Alpha Acids.
    • Yeast: Dry and Liquid, and how to make a yeast starter.
    • Fermentation: Ales and Lagers, Pressure Fermentation, and types of fermenters.

     


    Instructor: Gary Gilles and Dick Miller
 

  • Art Workshops - Challenge Your Artistic Mind!
  • Fee: $29.00
    Dates: 6/10/2025 - 6/10/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 103
    Instructor: Terry Spayer

    Turn everyday objects into art! We are all capable of creating art from nothing. Together, we will create small, unique tabletop sculptures using common items found all around. Through practicing how to cut, tear, and more, we will explore various ways to assemble pieces together.

     

    Please bring a shoebox-size container of miscellaneous pieces you would like to use to create your sculpture. All other materials will be provided.

 

  • Art Workshops - Lines, Lines, and More Lines
  • Fee: $29.00
    Dates: 6/24/2025 - 6/24/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 103
    Instructor: Terry Spayer

    Dive into the world of repetition, rhythm, and creativity. Through playful experimentation and layered techniques, explore the power of lines and bring it all together in a vibrant, abstract acrylic painting that is bursting with color and movement on stretched canvas. All materials will be provided.

 

  • Art Workshops - Duct Tape or Not!
  • Fee: $29.00
    Dates: 7/8/2025 - 7/8/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 103
    Instructor: Terry Spayer

    Unique and challenging, this is something that will stick with you forever! Learn how to cut, roll, and construct with a variety of colored duct tape to create a reproduction of a visual still life, rather than using other traditional methods. All materials will be provided.

 

  • Art Workshops - Painting Abstract Landscapes
  • Fee: $29.00
    Dates: 7/22/2025 - 7/22/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 103
    Instructor: Terry Spayer

    Ever wanted to learn how to paint an abstract landscape using a one-stroke dry brush technique? In using this technique, the limitations in nature representation can be limitless and expressive. All materials will be provided.

 

  • Beginning Floral Design
  • Fee: $119.00
    Dates: 6/26/2025 - 7/3/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Th
    Sessions: 2
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Kira Santiago
    Discover basics of floral design. You’ll learn how to process flowers to ensure a good vase life, how to select and prep a container/vase, best tools of the trade, and we will end the second session by creating a stunning arrangement of your own.

 

  • History at Home - Photography and the Civil War
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 9/9/2025 - 9/9/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    Photography was coming of age during the American Civil War. Mathew Brady and other photojournalists brought the carnage, suffering, and sacrifice of war to the home front. Soldiers posed in their uniforms to send final mementoes home to their loved ones. Lastly, photography documented the war from beginning to end with huge impacts to the nation’s morale.

    This class examines how photography was used during the war not only for news propaganda and documenting the ravages of war, but also in remembering and memorializing the dead.

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • History at Home - Lee's Surrender at Appomattox
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 9/23/2025 - 9/23/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    On April 9, 1865, and after four long years of war, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, officially ending the American Civil War. This class examines the events that led to Lee’s retreat out of the trenches of Petersburg, the surrender, the terms of the agreement, the impacts on the armies, and the reaction from the nation.

     

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • History at Home - Women in the Civil War
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 10/14/2025 - 10/14/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    The Civil War significantly affected the lives of American women. A handful disguised themselves as men and joined the fight. Others served as spies and nurses. Many more took on new roles at home after their husbands, brothers, and fathers responded to the call to arms. Thousands of enslaved women began the transition to freedom. This class will describe how the Civil War shaped, impacted, and transformed the lives of women.

     

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • History at Home - Civil War Congresses
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 10/28/2025 - 10/28/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    Today’s political climate leaves Congress in constant gridlock and a reputation of achieving little. By contrast, the 37th Congress, elected in the Fall of 1860, was the most productive Congress in U.S. History. Why? Secession caused Congressmen and Senators to resign their seats and return to their homes in the South. Many of them became members in the Provisional Confederate Congress.

     

    This class will examine the accomplishments and failures of the 37th Congress (1861-1863), the 38th Congress (1863-1865), and the three Confederate Congresses.

     

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • History at Home - Thanksgiving During the Civil War
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 11/11/2025 - 11/11/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    Thanksgiving stands as one of the most American of holidays, honoring the harvest feasts of the earliest arrivals during the colonial days. Yet, Thanksgiving as an American holiday was influenced and created out of efforts during the American Civil War. This class examines the first Thanksgiving harvest feasts, its origins in the Civil War, Lincoln’s efforts to federalize the holiday, and how politicians still struggling economically with the Great Depression altered Thanksgiving forever.

     

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • History at Home - Christmas During the Civil War
  • Fee: $35.00
    Dates: 12/2/2025 - 12/2/2025
    Times: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Christina Smith

    By the time the American Civil War began, the whole concept of Christmas and the majority of our present day Christmas customs and traditions were already established. Through letters, diaries, stories, drawings, manuscripts, and books, this class reconstructs how soldiers and civilians celebrated the holiday during a period of battle and bloodshed. We will also follow Lincoln's holidays through his time in the White House.

     

    Zoom Class. Participants will need a computer with Internet access, webcam, and microphone to join the Zoom meeting. Zoom meeting information will be sent via email before the class starts.

 

  • Intermediate Floral Design
  • Fee: $119.00
    Dates: 7/17/2025 - 7/24/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: Th
    Sessions: 2
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Kira Santiago
    For those with some experience designing with flowers or for those who have completed the beginner's class. We will expand on the beginner series and delve into the mechanics of creating larger arrangements such as wedding arbors/garlands and smaller, wearable arrangements like corsages and boutonnieres.

 

  • Introduction to Photography - The Camera and The Image
  • Fee: $199.00
    Dates: 8/5/2025 - 9/9/2025
    Times: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 6
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Doug Bergeron

    In this Course, you will investigate and use your camera in the most creative mode, M (Manual). We will breakdown the functions of the camera that are manipulated to achieve properly exposed images including the Shutter, the Aperture, and the ISO. We will learn about the inter-relationships of the functions so that you will be able to select values of shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO which allow you to achieve the desired depth of field and motion capture. We will spend time talking about the most important aspect of photography, image composition. Impactful images are a combination of composition and camera craft. We will go on a class photo shoot where you will spend the session operating your camera in Manual mode, and applying some of the compositional techniques discussed. After the photoshoot, we will conduct an in-class critique of the images, using the opportunity to learn how to assess images for technical correctness and effective use of composition. We will spend time talking about lenses, why so many, why such a range of price, the crop factor impact, explain the limitation of lenses, which ones to use when. Finally, we will spend a session talking about lighting, how impactful it is, and some basic techniques and tools you can use to control it. A portable studio will be set up allowing you to work with lighting tools, seeing firsthand the effect of light manipulation.

    Students will be required to bring cameras with interchangeable lens capability, and which allow the Shutter, the Aperture, and the ISO settings to be manually selected (Manual Mode). Having multiple lenses is not a requirement, but students are encouraged to bring all of the lenses they may have.

 

  • Introduction to Photography - Post-Processing with Lightroom Classic
  • Fee: $199.00
    Dates: 9/23/2025 - 10/28/2025
    Times: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 6
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Doug Bergeron

    Capturing an image with your camera is only the first step to presenting amazing images to your audience. If you are not post-processing your images then your images are not all that they can be. In this course the instructor will introduce you to the basics of post-processing. This is a course to help you take a good image and make it a Wow! image. This is not about image fabrication and manipulation using a computer application. We will be introducing the basic concepts of image cropping and straightening, exposure adjustments, contrast control, local adjustments, white balance/color correction, burning and dodging.

    This course will be using the Adobe Lightroom Classic (LrC) application. Lightroom Classic is the de facto standard for post processing used by the photography industry. LrC is available with the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography bundle, which also includes Photoshop and Lightroom (Lr) for tablets and portable devices. You will be introduced to the Lightroom workflow, learn about the Lightroom catalog and how to create one, import and store images in Lightroom, learn how to do global enhancements and localized or targeted enhancements, fix common problems, save images for posting to the Internet or passing on to other applications, how to color register your monitor, create panoramic images. The instructor will also show you how to integrate your camera directly to Lightroom using the Tethering function.

    Students will be required to bring their own laptops, have Adobe Creative Cloud accounts already set up, and have Lightroom Classic (LrC) installed. Although this course was developed on and is presented using a Windows platform, students that will be working with Apple devices are welcome. All the functions in the Windows version are present in the Apple version, although some functions may be in slightly different locations.

 

  • No-Churn Ice Cream - Scoop into Summer
  • Fee: $45.00
    Dates: 6/21/2025 - 6/21/2025
    Times: 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    Days: Sa
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Online
    Room: Zoom
    Instructor: Paula Evans

    Summer’s coming, and the only thing better than a sweet, creamy bowl of ice cream is one made by YOU! Get the scoop on how to create indulgent, mouthwatering flavor combinations – no ice cream maker or complicated steps required. All you’ll need is a stand mixer (or large blender), simple ingredients, a little creativity, and some freezer space. You’ll be scooping up batch after batch of homemade deliciousness to treat yourself and to share all summer long.

    Please buy your own supplies before the class.

    Specific course information will be provided by the instructor via email closer to the start of the class. If you do not see the email, please check your spam or junk folder.

 

  • Quilting Workshops with Rita Latour - Sunsprite Lap Quilt (46" x 55")
  • Fee: $75.00
    Dates: 8/27/2025 - 9/10/2025
    Times: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    Days: W
    Sessions: 3
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 108
    Instructor: Rita Latour

    In this three-night lap-size quilt class, you will create a quilt using 6 Fat Quarters and 1½ yards of fabric. You will cut, sew, and finish your project during the sessions. On the last night of class, the final hour will be dedicated to instruction for those interested in quilting their quilts themselves.

    Supply List

    Final Product Example Image

 

  • Lighting Seminars - Lighting Technology
  • Fee: $49.00
    Dates: 9/6/2025 - 9/6/2025
    Times: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Days: Sa
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Doug Bergeron
    This seminar will introduce students to four different types of photography lighting technologies (speed lights, mono lights, studio strobes, continuous) and why each exists; different light modifiers including soft boxes, umbrellas, reflectors; light meters for continuous and flash lighting; flash triggering and controlling equipment; 1-, 2-, and 3-light systems, and more. This seminar is designed to help explain much of the technology and gadgetry surrounding photography lighting to a photographer who is ready to move to the next level but may be overwhelmed by all the options and choices. Bring your cameras and any lighting equipment you might have. There will be plenty of "hands-on" opportunities.
 

  • Lighting Seminars - Intro to Portrait Lighting
  • Fee: $49.00
    Dates: 11/1/2025 - 11/1/2025
    Times: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Days: Sa
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Peoria Campus - Hickory Hall
    Room: Hickory 106
    Instructor: Doug Bergeron
    This seminar will introduce students to four basic portrait lighting set ups which all advanced amateur photographers and those wanting to break into professional portrait work should know. We will be using only mono lights for this seminar, although the set ups are applicable to any lighting technology, continuous or flash. We will also be talking about appropriate lenses for portrait work.
 

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