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Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion »
Address: 500 E. Peabody Drive Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 333-1861
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• Stretched and balanced

Beginning June 5, yoga instructor Deb Lister will lead hour-long classes introducing the fundamentals of Hatha Yoga at Krannert Art Museum. Classes are free and limited to 20 people on a first-come, first-serve basis. The classes will be every Thursday from noon to 1 p.m. until June 26.

Hatha Yoga is the most popular form of the practice from which Power, Bikram, Ashtanga and Kundalini Yoga all originate. When someone says they are taking a “yoga” class, they are most likely referring to Hatha Yoga. This 15th century practice came to be through yogic sage Yogi Swatmarama in India. The word “Hatha” originates from the Sanskrit words “Ha,” or sun, and “tha,” moon.

Lister, 51, has been teaching yoga for almost 10 years and currently teaches at the Living Yoga Center in Champaign. She says Krannert approached her with the idea of teaching yoga at the museum after more prominent art museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York introduced the concept. Krannert first began their yoga classes in the winter of 2007.

“It was so well-received that I did it in the summer for a couple of months and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Lister said. “It’s great, and the people are wonderful, and they really appreciate that it’s free.”

The classes are held in the Collections Research Laboratory, which Lister describes as room that professors use to put specific pieces on display they would like students to see.

“Sometimes we’ll have new displays on the walls or a statue in the corner,” Lister said.

Both faculty and students attend these classes, but the majority of attendees are faculty, Lister said.

This summer will be the last summer Lister teaches the classes at Krannert because she is enrolled in a masters program in the fall. Her interns from Living Yoga will continue the yoga program at Krannert in her place.