Help Growing Arts Set Down Roots - Garage turned Art Studio!

Growing Arts is a woman driven project powered by a mom with a passion for community and creativity.

Since 2001, Iris Nason, the founder of Growing Arts, has been bringing creative movement and process oriented art to schools, child care centers, community spaces and libraries in each area she has lived, but the program has never had a home of its own. In 2019, Iris Nason and Isaac Fellows, a Youth Services Librarian at Happy Valley Library, bought their home in SE Portland and the possibilities of setting down roots became an actuality.

Having her community work be uprooted by the pandemic and no longer having an income, Iris spent her sudden free time completely transforming her lawn and driveway into a lush and calming oasis. This wondrous, creativity-nurturing garden and food forest complete with active compost, soil building paths, chickens, cats, house bunnies and a hand-built recirculating stream was featured in the 2024 Sellwood Garden Tour as From Lawn to Lush By One Woman's Hands.

At the end of a curving pathway, under the shade of a towering pin oak, sits a detached insulated garage. This will be the home of Growing Arts. The garage is being transformed into a studio where the community will be invited to share in Iris' creative world. Iris’ multigenerational curricula will focus on playful and meaningful interactions through multifaceted art projects, movement and garden experiences. She enjoys showing how you can view and use simple materials, found objects and natural items in surprising and creative ways. Something as simple, and headed to the landfill, as a toothpaste cap can become the pot for a handmade miniature plant made out of painted masking tap and wire. There is pure joy seen when this awakened creativity is discovered by participants!

Since Covid very little work has been available at the same places Iris previously taught such as libraries and preschools. Some librarians retired and the new librarians aren't scheduling programming or have already filled the schedule, some libraries have construction going on so can't schedule programming, some preschools have closed or have too low enrollment to hire a specialist to visit. In 2017 Iris' migraines and fibromyalgia intensified to include a movement disorder and balance difficulties (due to vestibular migraine) and when some preschools ended their contracts with Growing Arts she was unsure about seeking more in fear of falling. Adding in art workshops for adults felt more secure. She still hopes to add in more Stretch, Dance, Play! classes (she loves teaching in large open rooms with many participants!) as she is invited to.

Growing Arts will offer educational programming for all ages and stages and hopes to be a foundation for community cheer. Iris' garden will be a welcoming respite to wander through and engage in a vast array of hands on opportunities.

Growing Arts will welcome artists and educators into the studio to teach, connect and inspire.

Offerings will include:

Funds have gone towards

Remaining Amount Needed: $2,450.

Funds will go towards

Making the curving garden path ADA accessible is important to us and will be a future project.

Your generous donation, no matter how small, will go directly into making the Growing Arts Studio a warm and welcoming community space.

Iris Nason - Founder and Principal Educator

Iris has always been a creative individual. As a child she did ballet, theater, and played the violin. In high school she longed to find compassion and connection and dreamed of teaching teachers how to teach neurodivergent learners such as herself. Drama classes such as Improvisation and Drama of Social Issues allowed her to be her spontaneous, outgoing self. In college, at UMass Amherst, she designed her own Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration, “Expressive Education,” combining theories of education, psychology, theater, art and dance.

Iris began Growing Arts as parent and child creative movement classes lovingly called "Wiggle and Giggle" in Boulder, CO. She continued to reach families and youth of all ages each time she moved to a new city or neighborhood. Iris has experience working with children of all ages. She worked with Expressive Art Therapists at a day camp, the dance and drama education group Turning the Wheel, led an experiential art table at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, taught at preschools learning about Montessori, RIE and Reggio Emelia, and participated in a Rainbow Kids Yoga training.

Her Master’s in Education from Lesley University specialized in Creative Arts in Learning. During that study she further developed Growing Arts, offering creative movement, tactile art and free play in Newton, MA through the Parks and Recreation Department, renovating a small field house.

As a parent Iris wants to have a safe place for her teens to gather with friends, find creativity and create connection. Welcoming teens to teach one another about their passions such as animal rights, playing D&D, directing a theater piece, drawing, making jewelry, and whatever else they are inspired by, is the kind of alternative learning center Iris longed for as a kid. Once the studio is warm and cozy this can be realized!

ADHD has played an interesting role in Iris' education and her facilitation style. She is able to focus on every member of a group and the group as a whole at the same time. Her immense imagination and vast interests allow her to try new projects at a moment's notice. She is a hands-on learner and relishes discovering alternative learning modalities. Her strong sensory needs enable her to view the potential needs of others, be it a soothing ambiance rather than high contrast visual busyness, soft lighting rather than flickering or noisy fluorescents, and creativity stations to work at that offer sitting, standing or sprawling options (all of which she regularly utilizes herself).

Iris deals with severe fatigue and vestibular migraines. She is incredibly capable, then down for the count. This dichotomy is a major frustration to her - someone that imagines herself as always up for anything. The process of gardening, making art and tending to animals keeps her in the present when she feels good and gives her something meaningful to surround herself with when she is unable to be present. Iris is looking forward to the deep connections that will be made at Growing Arts Studio.

click here to view the Growing Arts Community Studio website

Iris sounds familiar, but from where?

You or your family may have participated in one of Iris' eclectic offerings at a Library, Preschool or After school program. Or maybe through her volunteer work at an elementary school in Open Garden or facilitating auction art pieces. Or perhaps you participated in a preschool teacher training or joined her training at the Oregon Library Association Children's Services Department (CSD) Spring Workshop, or saw her on stage at the Oregon Library Association Performer's Showcase. You may even remember Iris from a children's birthday party!

Or, maybe you purchased art from wild iris creations at a craft fair such as Room Boxes, Miniature Conservatory Lanterns, Suitcase Scenes, Miniature Handmade Plants, Teacup Gardens, Framed Watercolor Butterflies in Flight, Sewn Paper Garlands or Special Ordered Family Photo Star Book Ornaments.

Some of Iris' previously offered classes and workshops: Baby Moves, Stretch, Dance, Play!, Yoga Go!, I Dance (Improvisational Dance), Journal It Book Making, Nature Mandalas, Planted Fairy Gardens, Story Sand Boxes, Seed Bomb Making, Personalized Birthday Parties, Open Garden (Kindergarten gardens, School Milk Carton Crafts, Fall Harvest Herb Bundles, Winter Sowing, Winter Bird Feeders), Self-Expression Collage, Painted Birds on a Wire, 3 Dimensional Paper Arts, Floral Paper Wreaths, Handmade Miniature Faux Plants, Teacup Gardens, Star Book Ornaments