SoIN Big Read at Jasteka

SoIN Big Read is a community reading event hosted each October by libraries and local organizations to promote reading and celebrate the joy of learning as a community. Jasteka has a special connection to this year’s Big Read book, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee, as it includes passages about artworks by James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson whose art is on view at Jasteka. 

We invite the community to visit Jasteka to experience these artworks in person and join us for our Big Read programs listed below. 

Creatives Connect is a free monthly gathering for those who think, make, write, or speak creatively to connect, learn, and find inspiration. Each program includes mingling, an open mic show & tell, and a featured presentation.

For the October Creatives Connect, printmaker Elizabeth Foley will lead a 30-minute Envisioning Joy workshop as an opportunity to think about and visually express ideas about joy. Through open response questions and free drawing we will explore the shapes, colors, and places of joy. The purpose of this time is to give participants a moment to pause and reflect on habits and understand for themselves what they need to have joy in their lives.

Positive emotions are often treated as pleasant extras — nice to have, but not essential. Research tells a different story.

Joy, gratitude, awe, hope, and love can broaden our thinking, strengthen our relationships, fuel creativity, and help us build lasting emotional resources.

In The Power of Positive Emotions, David Seckman, Director of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, explores what science reveals about these powerful inner states and how we can cultivate more of them in everyday life.

This is not about forced positivity or ignoring real problems. It is about learning to notice the opportunities for connection, meaning, beauty, and growth that are already around us — but that we are often too distracted to see.