Has the past year left you in a bit of a fog or just uncertain about how you want to proceed with your goals or just life in general?

A good place to help get reacquainted with yourself is House of Shine in Grapevine.

The nonprofit self-discovery museum helps visitors become more confident, self aware and make the most of their talents  through interactive exhibits, and K-12 curriculum and programs.

“Whereas other museums might exhibit the priceless art of famous people, what we do at the House of Shine is consider you to be the priceless piece of art, and so the entire space is a deep exploration into you and what you can learn about yourself,” said House of Shine Founder and Executive Director, Claudia Beeny, Ph.D.

House of Shine actually started as a blog about 13 years ago when Beeny was working in higher education. The goal of the project was to share one creative idea a day for college students who arrived on campus not knowing exactly what interested them.

Token Tuesday is an opportunity to paint a Shine token to give away. Photo: Jack Beeny/House of Shine

She hadn’t planned on doing the project for more than a year, but the posts led her to explore the idea of promoting excellence, which requires greater self-awareness. Soon, she was hosting workshops and live events for women, children and parents, which led to the creation of the SHINE framework and the Principles of SHINE–the Strengths, Hobbies, Interests & Irritants, Needs, and Experiences that make people unique.

The organization’s physical space opened in Grapevine last fall and advances those principles with a variety of workshops and programs.

This month’s events include a StrengthsExplorer Workshop which helps students explore their top three strengths; a workshop for girls 10+ that uses journaling as a tool for self reflection; and a Rise and Shine Workshop series for women where participants start the day off with community learning, sharing and being inspired together.

And every Tuesday, House of Shine offers an event called Token Tuesday, which Beeny says is an easy way to find out more about the Museum.

“It’s way for people to just come into our space, sit down and paint small tokens that we give away to people. They’re made of ceramic, so there’s no need for creative artistic ability, but it is just a simple, low stakes way of kind of checking our community out.”

One of the interactive self-discovery stations at the new House of Shine. Photo: House of Shine

There are also interactive spaces in the Museum like the Shine Bench where visitors sit down and reflect on their own self-discovery using each letter of the word SHINE; a fun bathroom where you find your birthday with a descriptor on the wall and you get to decide whether it represents you or not; and a payphone that delivers a message to you, but it’s based on the on the notion that the world is getting louder and it’s hard to escape the buzz of constant noise.

Beeny says the challenges of the past year have made House of Shine a positive, uplifting space that people need right now.

“We are a bright spot. Not only is our physical space bright and sunny and colorful, but in addition to that we are a place that is being able to gather people in community for interaction in small, manageable, safe ways. There are a lot of people in transition right now who don’t know exactly what they’re going to do, and whenever people are in transition it’s nice to be in community where you can be anchored. So I find our positive space is actually kind of a magnet for people and it feels good to go there.”

House of Shine is open Tuesday thru Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Daily admission to the Museum is free, fees apply for programs and workshops. For more information visit House of Shine’s website.

Got a tip? Email Therese Powell at tpowell@kera.org. You can follow her on Twitter @TheresePowell13

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