Design your Creative Practice: Visioning, Goal-Setting, and Prototyping

As an art professional, your path is rarely linear—and that’s a good thing. This workshop invites you to step back, zoom out, and reimagine your creative journey with a fresh perspective. Rooted in the Stanford Life Design methodology, this session will guide you through a process of visioning, goal-setting, and creative prototyping to help you align your artistic work with your values and open up a broader sense of possibility. Whether you're refining your art practice, pursuing new opportunities, or simply pausing to rethink what’s next, this workshop will equip you with a clear framework to realize your big-picture vision and identify small, actionable steps to move your creative practice forward—with clarity and intention.

Rooted in our core values of knowledge-sharing and building community, this 90-minute seminar will include 30 minutes of conversation with participants. Bring your experience and your questions to the group!

Participants may attend in person or online via Zoom. Registration is required.

$10 for the general public
$5 for CAC alumni
FREE for current residents (Registration still required)

Mara Baker is an interdisciplinary artist and educator interested in the myriad ways we experience color. Her current work employs plant colorants foraged and cultivated in her dye garden.

Baker received an MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2024, she completed the Stanford Life Design Studio training for educators. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including in Chicago, New York, Santa Fe, Minneapolis, Budapest, and Toronto. Some notable exhibition venues include Bert Green Fine Art (Chicago IL) Riverside Art Center Sculpture Garden (Riverside, IL), Currents New Media Festival (Santa Fe NM), The Soap Factory (Minneapolis, MN), The Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI), and The Luminary Arts Center (Saint Louis, MO). She has been the recipient of artist’s grants and residencies from Hambidge Art Center (Rabun Gap, GA), The Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Center Program Residency-Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL ), Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL) She has received SSA public art grants from Chambers of Commerce across the city of Chicago for the Chameleon Blind Window Project.

Baker is a professor of art at the College of DuPage, a nationally recognized community college serving the greater Chicago area.

**Read about the first project Mara Baker used the life design model to bring to fruition here.