The Nourishment Projects NFP invitation

The Nourishment Projects NFP is an invitation to be surprised! A Chicago classic in the making, our educational not-for-profit organization’s motto – let your mind frolic – communicates the curiosity and courage nourished by the workshops we offer. Marrying Philosophy with the Arts and Sciences, The Nourishment Projects NFP makes learning an intellectual, sensual and spiritual experience. Chicago, a microcosm of global diversity, is our school of exploration.

High school students at the Art Institute of Chicago
High school students enthralled by R. Shaw’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago

A visit to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra resulted in the creation of a chess set, by a young student, where the pieces are based on musical notes and the board is ornamented with a five-line stave.

Lorena with her music-inspired chess set
Lorena with her creation, a music-inspired chess set

The Adler Planetarium’s Orpheus Clock transforms an institution typically associated with the study of the universe, the solar system, mathematics and science, into one for the exploration of Literature (Greco-Roman mythology), Music (Liszt’s Symphonic Poem # 4), and Art (Leighton’s Orpheus and Euridice).

Orpheus Clock, Adler Planetarium
Orpheus Clock, Adler Planetarium

What better than Newberry’s artist books to make children devotees of the printed word?

Elementary school children with pop-up book
Elementary school children fascinated by the pop-up book on the Persian national epic, Shahnameh

Incorporating the Humanities into Science and Technology nurtures future audiences for Chicago’s performing arts venues. Inspired by the arias from the opera Der Rosenkavalier, Edwin – an electrician and first time opera goer – welded a metal rose for his girlfriend.

Edwin's LED rose

Nostalgia unfolds when multiple generations share moments of eye-watering loveliness. A recent AP Psychology workshop at Hinsdale Central High School included a pre-opera discussion, sushi lunch and tickets to Madama Butterfly for a seventy-four-person group of students, staff, and their family members.

Pre-opera sushi lunch
A pre-opera sushi lunch for Albin and his mother
John at the opera with his daughter
John was delighted to spent an afternoon at the opera with his daughter

Grandmothers, aunts and nephews, fathers and daughters etc., took a school bus field trip to Lyric Opera and experienced recognition with characters from another time, another place, another culture. Along with creating new subscribers, these unforgettable moments of learning develop empathy and a sense of community.

Through our numerous collaborations, we invite the world to Chicago.

When meeting our students who’d attended the Madama Butterfly performance, British Consul General Mr. Richard Hyde humorously declared that, unlike the behavior of the opera’s American Consul character, matchmaking was not part of a Consul General’s job description.

Our elementary school students were the picture of hospitality despite being initially bewildered why their guest, Sir Peter Crane, was a ‘knight’ though he had neither a sword nor a suit of armor.

The Nourishment Projects NFP workshops arouse curiosity about our world and the courage to redefine one’s place in it. The workshops synthesize founder Soma Roy’s belief that life is amazing and it behooves us to be amazed.

The upcoming articles are invitations to fall deeper in love with our world class cultural and academic city, Chicago.

Soma Roy with student Antonio
Soma proudly presents her student Antonio’s work