At Annandale nonprofit, weavers of all learning levels and abilities can create

ANNANDALE, Minn. -- About an hour outside the Twin Cities, you'll find some unique art. It's an array of colorful pieces that are handwoven with looms. As WCCO found out, the art is impressive, but it's the artists who depict true beauty.

Inside Annandale Art and Textile shop, you'll find an array of bright inventory. And you will find an array of dazzling humans.

The skilled weavers are part of Heart of the Lakes Weavers.

Elizabeth Cabalka Bayer opened the store and co-founded the program with her husband.

"This is a really joyful place. We are about jobs with connection and there's joy, you can feel it on the air," she said.

Elizabeth and her husband started a place where people with all different learning styles can create -- they spend months on their projects.

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Annika Wanha is one of the artists on staff. At her beloved workplace, she told WCCO she feels "happy and safe and that I can actually do something out of my creativity."

It's where Abby Welter, Annadale's Homecoming Queen, also shares her creativity - telling WCCO she is a "weaver and a good artist."

These great artists are simultaneously creating self-worth, as Michael Millner explains.

"All these years I've been drawing pictures and I just wanted to be an artist when I grow up - and here I am, my dreams have finally come true," he said.

And they have more than art to show for it. Turns out that as hard as their hands are working, their brains are working even harder.

Diane Nelson is a former special education educator and director of the weaving program.

"I believe it's the cross line we do while weaving, it fires right and left and it fires another side of their brain," she said.

They were inspired by a study by Columbia University, but they've yielded some astounding data of their own. Diane says when Michael came in he would use only four words. And now the boy who barely spoke is basically the program's spokesperson.

"It's a job full of dignity and Annandale Arts is a joyful place," Michael told WCCO.

"More than one parent has said: 'From the time my child was born I wondered if there was a place for them,'" Elizabeth said. "There is a place in the world for them. It's at Annandale Art and Textile Center!"

It's a center where talent and purpose intertwine.

There are two ways to support the Heart of the Lakes Weavers; the nonprofit runs on donations or you can head to the Annandale Art and Textile Center and purchase some of the handmade art.