The Columbia Museum of Art has offered free yoga classes for several years — sometimes outside on Boyd Plaza, and sometimes inside the galleries themselves. Now, the museum is expanding its free mindfulness programming to include tai chi, a form of Chinese calisthenics based on ancient martial arts.
Dana Witkoski, the museum's engagement coordinator, said the mindfulness activities are intended to be financially accessible. The museum provides yoga blocks and mats to anyone who needs them.
"I think that we spend time in the galleries doing yoga or meditation or some sort of thought growing, you really spend time sitting with the artwork," Witkoski said. "Oftentimes, it seems that folks just fly through; we don't take time to really absorb the artwork. So by offering these classes in a space with artwork, we are really being intentional about focusing on taking moments to really look at the artwork and think about it. "
The first tai chi class will be held on Friday, July 19, at 10 a.m. on Boyd Plaza outside the museum. The class will be led by Bob and Cathy Brookshire, members of the Taoist Tai Chi Society. Bob is a USC professor who has practiced tai chi for over 20 years.
"Our tai chi practice is available to anyone, regardless of their status, even if they have limited mobility," Bob said. "We still can help them, and we want to improve people's health and their strength and flexibility."
Bob also teaches tai chi at McGregor Presbyterian Church and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia. He said people are often more familiar with yoga than tai chi.
"Instead of standing in one place on a mat and doing the postures or poses like you do in yoga, tai chi is more movement oriented," Bob said. "We go through a routine of about 108 different postures, and it takes up quite a bit of area, actually. We're moving around from left to right, front to back and all that."
Yoga classes will also continue, even with the addition of tai chi to the museum's mindfulness programming. Similar to the new tai chi course, these classes are designed to be beginner-friendly and accessible.
Panna Chauhan, a yoga instructor who leads a class at the museum, started practicing yoga as a teenager in India before moving to the United States. Now, she primarily teaches yoga to children but also leads beginner-friendly classes for mostly adults at the museum.
"Just teaching yoga (at the museum), I was very happy," Chauhan said. "It was a pleasant crowd. They were very happy, and I saw a crowd coming in over and over again."
The classes draw a variety of people, including regulars, people who practice yoga elsewhere that want to give museum yoga a try and even people who have never visited the Columbia Museum of Art.
"These particular programs are all about accessibility and welcoming folks to the museum," Witkoski said. "A lot of times, it's people who have never been to the museum, so that's really exciting for us."
Kate Murphy, another yoga instructor at the museum, said it is important for the public to perceive yoga as an option for people of any ability or body type.
"What I hope I offer in classes is a space for people to explore what feels right in their body. It's why I gravitated toward teaching accessible yoga for people of all abilities, backgrounds and experience levels," Murphy said. "All I do is hold space for 60 minutes. And at the end of the day, the student is empowered to make the choices that they need to make."
Laura Solano, a yoga class attendee who recently came to her first session at the museum, said she felt grateful to connect with her community there.
"There were some homeless people around us (at Boyd Plaza), and there was one guy doing the movements with us," Solano said. "We're all feeling the same thing. And I was feeling great. He was feeling great. Really, the gratitude of it, I think that's why I'm getting so emotional. It's just a really beautiful experience."
The next yoga classes offered at the museum are on Wednesday, July 17, at 9:30 a.m. and Friday, July 26, at 7 a.m.