“In Contact with Nature” June 21

The 2025 Brownville Fine Arts Speaker Series kicks off Saturday, June 21, with “In Contact with Nature,” a free program featuring horticultural therapist Sue Kohles. This event will begin at 10:00am at the Schoolhouse Art Gallery, 427 Main Street in Brownville.

Sue is the manager of the Prairie Pines Partners nonprofit at the Prairie Pines Nature Preserve, a 145-acre wildlife preserve located in northeast Lincoln. The Prairie Pines Partners provide nature-based education and public access, and promote contact with nature.

The hour-long program will start in the gallery, then Sue will lead an optional short walk in the arboretum. Her program will touch upon contact with nature research, highlighting the innate human connection to nature and its potential benefits. A short walk will introduce attendees to “Forest Bathing” and demonstrate the practice.

Sue’s first career was as a nurse. Then she attended Peru State College and University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a BS in Horticulture. More recently, she attended the Denver Horticultural Therapy Institute to become a horticultural therapist and completed the Chicago Botanic Garden Therapeutic Garden Design Program.

These two programs increased Sue’s awareness of the multitude of contact with nature research supporting the multidimensional benefits of contact with nature, "Vitamin N" as it is often referred.  As a former employee of Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Sue is very familiar with Brownville and the Furnas Arboretum, and she been a curator for three NSA-affiliated arboretums.

For more information, contact Peggy Groff at 402.414.2082. For more information about the Prairie Pines Nature Preserve, visit https://prairiepines.org/