The Crow Museum of Asian Art opened its Wellness Lab Sep. 6, providing students, faculty and staff with more options to participate in activities aimed at mindfulness and relaxation.
UTD hosts a wide range of stress-relieving events and resource, ranging from therapy services offered at the Student Counseling Center to the Office of Graduate Education’s one-off goat yoga sessions. The new Wellness Lab, held in the Athenaeum, aims to incorporate art and meditation habits into stress relief. Amy Hofland, senior director of the museum, said the Crow Museum aims to “honor the collections and what they teach us, and also to source ways to take care of ourselves, others and the environment.”
The Wellness Lab repurposes the Athenaeum’s museum space throughout the day each Saturday, hosting events and workshops back-to-back. The lobby, conference rooms and entrance to art galleries are turned into yoga studios in the morning, afternoon chai stands and evening dinner tables, with a rotating schedule of art and music-focused classes starting at 11 a.m. each week. All sessions from morning meditation to afternoon tea at the Wellness Lab are free to staff, faculty and students, but online registration is required due to limited spots.
“What drove me to create the Wellness Lab was a hope that the art museum might be a space of contemplation and restoration,” Hofland said. “Mindfulness and wellbeing, yoga and other practices are an important part of how we access arriving as a non-anxious presence.”
While the lab’s event calendar features extensive mindfulness and meditation-focused programming, it also hosts workshops centering art as an expressive outlet, such as an outdoor painting workshop scheduled for Oct. 4, and offers instruction on topics like sleep betterment.
The Wellness Lab is open until Dec. 6 on Saturdays at the Athenaeum. Visitors who are not UTD students or employees can participate for a $20 fee, with museum members receiving a $15 discount. To register for sessions, visit the Athenaeum page on EZ Pay. The full event calendar for the fall semester can be found on the Comet Calendar.