Education & Classes in Oak Park

Since the visionary artistic husband-and-wife team of Chris Nordin and Michelle Plucinsky began Glass Academy, the state-certified glass-arts trade school has instilled glassblowing, stained-glass, and other silica-shaping know-how into community members. The duo leads classes for all skill levels of craftsmen, ranging from introductory sessions to private lessons with a master glassblower. An on-site gallery showcases the fruits of their labors, which customers take home once they are completed. Handcrafted, custom works such as paperweights, beer mugs, and signature piece Detroit puddle, created by pouring hot glass over a sewer cap, are available for purchase.

When not shaping delicate masterpieces, the staff shares their love of art with the outside world, leading educational tours of their 14,000-square-foot studio space. They also host gatherings including parties with demonstrations and explanations of the glass-blowing process as well as corporate training events, during which employees participate in a teambuilding, hands-on workshop. Glass Academy frequently hosts other fun events and fundraisers, including beer tastings, coffee nights, and drop-in workshops.

Aim4A's mission is encoded in its name: armed with advanced degrees and years of teaching experience, its tutors help their students acquire skills and concepts, improve them through practice, and measure their progress, all for academic excellence. In systematically structured group and private sessions, kids can either catch up to their peers by finally mastering skills they've missed or jump ahead of the class with new concepts. Whether helping students get through third grade, ace the ACT, or earn their GED, instructors can conduct virtually all courses on a one-on-one basis via Skype, ideal for those intimidated by groups or cursed to turn anything they touch to gold.

For Amber Gilbert, dancing isn't just an alternative to walking. She sees dance as a chance to explore one's personality and express it through movement. As owner and director of The Dance Academy, she presides over staff members as they help students of all skill levels to unlock artistic potential through dance classes. The team of seasoned instructors teaches styles including hip-hop, Hawaiian, and classical ballet amid the studio's barres and mirrors. During classes for youngsters, pint-size students hone motor skills through activities that pair music with moves culled from the worlds of ballet, tap, and jazz.

In addition to torching calories during salsa and swing classes, adults can sculpt svelte physiques through relaxing yoga and Pilates sessions and Zumba workouts packed with Latin-inspired aerobics. The studio's competitive training program prepares dancers for national contests and helps them to look natural when they get a single red rose stuck in their teeth.

Sonoran Glass School may sound like a Hollywood stuntman school, since students are encouraged to play with glass, flame, and saws. However, their in-depth glass-working classes teach pupils how to create delicate objets d'art under the watchful eye of a host of experienced instructors. Torchworking classes teach pupils how to shape their own paperweights and vases out of molten glass, and facet-cutting courses let students create mosaics depicting abstract designs or themselves making mosaics of abstract designs. Kids' and adult classes offer age-appropriate instruction, and an 10-student class cap for most courses ensures plenty of one-on-one time with the teacher.

After learning to knit at her grandmother's feet in Romania, owner and clothes designer Mihaela Manitiu now marshals her crafting acumen to lead classes where, according to Splash, "students learn to understand the essence of their creations and are not only instructed, but inspired." Picking up pointers in the art of European-style knitting, visitors craft elegant woolly compositions such as scarves and other cozy accouterments while getting acquainted with the materials and techniques needed to knit their very own memoirs.