Art & Wellness: Core to The Heights

Is creativity essential for wellness? Can making or experiencing art improve our well-being? The Art & Wellness Core class dives into these questions, exploring the powerful connection between art and personal and collective health. This course is designed for those interested in how art can serve as a tool for wellness, whether through creating art or experiencing it. Students examine how engaging with art can foster personal growth, enhance community health, and open new, accessible roles for artists to contribute to a healthier society.
Mandalas on the Plaza
On a beautiful fall afternoon, students in the Art & Wellness class gathered to create a mandala on the Grewen Plaza for the campus community. Kim Waale, Visiting Professor and Artist-in-Residence, shares more about the project.

This fall’s Mandalas on the Plaza public art event celebrated creativity and nature, focusing artists’ and viewer’s attention on stunning fall colors and circular mandala designs.


Sixteen students worked directly on the Grewen Plaza to make temporary drawings using colorful leaves, acorns, pine cones, pumpkins, plant stalks, and other fall foliage. The meditative process of making mandalas is as important as the final product for both artists and viewers.



Nature, in the form of weather, wind, squirrels and chipmunks determines how long the mandalas remain. This year squirrels happily invaded as soon as the artists left the site!
Explore Your Creative Side
We believe that the arts spark conversation, encourage creativity, and change people for the better.
See What's at the Core of Every Major
As a ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ student, you’ll share one thing with all of your peers regardless of major: your core classes.