Classes

Ryan Cooper is a lifelong artist and maker who is passionate about helping people combine the emotion of art with the power of technology. He has a BA in education and has years of experience in the classroom teaching students how to explore, imagine, and create with confidence. He believes art should be fun, personal, and hands-on. When he’s not teaching, you might find him enjoying the outdoors with his family or in his home workshop building robots. Ryan loves making cool stuff and looks forward to helping his students learn to make cool stuff too!

Hi! I'm Jamie Gilbert. I've been doing digital art ever since I had access to a tablet — I started with a Wacom Bamboo on my computer before transitioning to an iPad, Apple Pencil, and Procreate around freshman year of high school, and I've used it ever since.

I graduated from MTSU with a BS in Visual Arts and a double minor in Mass Communications and Animation. Currently I work as a behavioral therapist and do commission and freelance work on the side. I absolutely love art and am so excited to introduce others to the digital world!

My favorite traditional art mediums are watercolor and alcohol markers. I also dabble in photography, VHS tape restoration, puppet making, jewelry, fish tank aquascaping, and sculpture.

With a career spanning five decades, Sandy is one of Sumner County’s preeminent art educators and a revered instructor at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center. She began teaching in her home state of Pennsylvania in the early 1970s before moving to Hendersonville to work at Hawkins Junior High School. In 1985, she moved to Hendersonville High School, where she remained until her retirement in 2022. From the outset, Sandy never limited her creative activities to her day job. In the mid-1970s, she joined the newly formed Hendersonville Arts Council. She remained with this organization when it moved to Monthaven Mansion in the 1990s, and she continues today working with the hundreds of students enrolled in classes at the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center. Sandy has sparked the creative imaginations of several generations of students. In the process, she has made Sumner County a more art-minded place. For Sandy, it has always been a labor of love.

“I love teaching and love working in mixed media. I’m blessed with four grown children and a flock of grand and great grandchildren”

Brooke is a Nashville-based artist with a passion for painting and sculpting. She expresses herself through creating surrealist art inspired by nature and self-discovery. She is enthusiastic about teaching art and helping others experience creative learning. Brooke teaches Color and Clay, Expressive Arts Fusion, and Sculpted Expressions. These classes cover everything from acrylic and oil painting to sculpting with clay and recyclable materials. She also works with the MACC’s arts outreach department and its marketing team.

Sadie Collins is a director, actor, writer, stage manager, and graduate student of Randolph College studying Theatre Directing. While pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she revitalized a student-led Shakespeare Company and was a co-creator of the Chattanooga Film Festival: The Roosties. Throughout her career in the performing arts, she has had the opportunity to work with many wonderful theatre companies including The Chattanooga Theatre Centre, The Robertson County Players, and Obvious Dad. 

A life-long theatre advocate, Collins is interested in directing performances that show the importance of the arts in our everyday lives. 

Megan is an artist and experienced educator with a BFA in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Atlanta. She has been devoted to empowering kids and women through art for the past 10 years. Her mission is to inspire women to tap into their artistic potential, manage anxiety, and reduce stress by fostering intuition and self-expression. With a rich background in both art and teaching, she loves helping women discover their creativity. Megan teaches collage, mixed media and watercolor classes at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center.

Robin McDowell graduated from Belmont University with a BA in Art Education.  She received teacher of the year in 2025 at the elementary school she currently teaches at. Robin is an artist that works in a variety of media and continually pursues learning new skills.  Her time as a stay at home mom allowed her to build an Etsy shop focusing on textiles and she currently uses her school breaks to pursue printmaking, painting, digital art and surface pattern design.  

Allie Beshearse is a multimedia artist based in Nashville. She earned a BFA from Tennessee Tech in 2023 before moving to Nashville to pursue art and graphic design.

Allie's practice spans a wide range of media, from traditional techniques like oil painting to the fast-paced, ever-changing world of digital art. She loves making all kinds of work and experimenting along the way. "I often love to bring the tactile feel of the outside world to the digital side of it," she says — for instance, capturing textures from outdoor pavement and transforming them into poster textures in Photoshop.

When she's not making art, you'll find Allie outside kayaking, picnicking with friends, reading, or baking.

Janice Patrignani is a design professional, visual artist, and art educator who develops custom teaching programs in a variety of media including watercolor, acrylic, silk painting, fiber arts, mosaics, bookmaking, encaustic wax, and clay. Her wearable art features layered Shibori techniques on silk—transparent, translucent, and opaque—dyed and discharged with natural, fiber-reactive, and acid dyes. She often enhances these pieces with needle-felted wool to accentuate pattern and texture.

Her mixed media sculptures incorporate found and forgotten objects, juxtaposing materials and keepsakes to create metaphor-rich works that reflect personal and collective resilience. Creating is a cathartic process for Janice and a lifelong survival skill.

Her current focus, the “Wide Blue Open Series,” explores texture, shadow, and memory using indigo-dyed Shibori and WWII parachute fabric, combined with encaustic wax. Janice has received multiple grants for her work in arts education, sculpture, and community art. She shares her passion for the healing power of art through workshops, public projects, and exhibitions throughout the tristate area.

In 2011, Breanna completed her Bachelors of Fine Arts at Watkins College of Art, Design and Film, where she was a recipient of the full-tuition Commissioner’s Scholarship. For over 15 years, Breanna has worked as a teacher, commissioned artist, graphic designer, professional musician and filmmaker in Nashville, TN. During her time working with adults, high school students and prison inmates, Breanna has designed portfolio development and songwriting courses which focus on the arts as vehicles to communicate the deepest stories of the human experience and to connect us with our hearts, healing, and hope. As a teacher and healing arts facilitator, Breanna’s greatest joy comes from empowering others with the tools of self-expression and facilitating a compassionate atmosphere where people can process and feel, explore and release, transform and grow. To her, making art is a practice in living and a means to open us up to a greater understanding of who we truly are and to the possibilities of what our lives can be.

Fiona was born in Istanbul and raised in New York City. She has a B.A. in Psychology from New York University and an MFA in Writing from The New School. She  is dedicated to helping people reclaim their voice through creativity, compassion, and story. She leads empowering writing and art workshops that nurture resilience and self-discovery. Her approach blends structure with imaginative play, encouraging participants to transform lived experience into meaningful expression. As a long-time teaching artist, she brings creative writing lessons to rehabilitation programs, elementary and middle schools, public libraries, summer programs, after-school spaces, and citywide arts initiatives. Across her work, she believes that creativity is both a refuge and a bridge — a way to connect with others, and rediscover inner capacity for growth, healing, and joy.

Val Adams is an artist and healing arts facilitator. Best known as a master metal sculptor, Val works with found metal objects transforming discarded materials into captivating works of art. For Adams, the act of repurposing old things into something new symbolizes the profound allegory of the resurrection of spirit in humanity. He firmly believes that all that is broken is not lost, and through his art, he channels this belief into each intricate creation. As a retired Air Force officer, Adams found solace and healing in metal sculpting, using it as an artform to surpass the harrowing experiences of warfare. Through his art, Adams aspires to inspire others to embrace their own life experiences, encouraging them to rise above their challenges and transform themselves into champions of their lives rather than victims.

Jason William Adams is a multidisciplinary American artist working across drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed-media installation. His work embraces immediacy, improvisation, gesture and material transformation. As an advocate for the therapeutic benefits of art as a vehicle for communication and human connection, his teaching approach prioritizes experimentation over perfection, encouraging tactile exploration, spontaneity, and intuitive problem-solving.

For over 30 years, Gwen has enjoyed sharing stories with groups of all ages at schools, libraries, churches, museums, bookstores, conferences, and festivals throughout the country. Often using music and audience participation, she enlivens stories from around the world as well as original and personal stories.  Much of her work is with students but she also enjoys sharing the joy of stories with adults.   Gwen has recorded a CD of personal stories called, “The Lime Green Truck and Other Stories of Remembrance.”   

 Gwen has taught in both public and private schools, adult literacy programs, and in her own piano studio. These experiences enable her to create and teach meaningful storytelling workshops to a variety of groups. 

Gwen founded the North Forty Storytellers’ Guild.  She is also a member of Tejas Storytelling Association and was honored to have been selected as a touring artist with the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Brandan is a video production professional, business owner, and educator.  He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor's degree in New Media/Film Studies. Brandan's career began in the corporate world, where he served as the full-time videographer, photographer, and editor for the largest Independent Real Estate brokerage in Middle Tennessee. His professional experience equipped him with the skills to produce content that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also solution- and goal-oriented. Now as the founder/owner of Errantry Studios and a college instructor at Nossi College of Art, he aims to use his experiences to positively impact the 3 C's : Corporate, Creative, and Community.

Catherine Gray is a creative producer and screenwriter at Shamrock Motion Pictures. She has worked in both Los Angeles and Nashville, creating content and telling stories for commercials, social media platforms, and churches. The projects she’s produced have gotten billions of views across social media platforms with several of the short film scripts she’s written having gone viral with over millions of views. She creates content that is funny and often thought provoking for a family friendly audience. In addition to her production work, Cat is a professional actor and has experience teaching theatre and creative writing classes for kids. 

Greg Wilson is a seasoned actor, director, and educator with extensive experience in both stage and on-camera performance. He is the Founding Artistic Director of Actors Point Theatre Company, Sumner County’s only fully professional theatre company, where he has trained and mentored performers of all experience levels.

Greg has appeared in film and video projects around the world and has produced and directed numerous music videos. His strong background in both stage and screen allows him to teach the key technical differences between the two, helping actors connect with the emotional truth of a scene while developing an awareness of framing and how to work effectively on camera.

Greg is passionate about helping actors build confidence and develop the skills needed to deliver compelling, natural performances, whether they are just beginning their acting journey or looking to strengthen their craft.

Miss Melanie is a lifelong artist, expressing her creativity through many avenues and mediums in different seasons of life. Beginning with hobby crafts as a child and moving on to college-level art classes, Melanie's creativity has found various outlets over the years: guiding patients in art therapy, leading summer camp art programs, painting backdrops for student theater, and dabbling in face painting, modern calligraphy, and storybook illustration.

She's recently shifted her energies to realistic botanical watercolor and urban sketching, and has enjoyed getting to know other local artists as part of the Art League of Sumner County and the Monthaven community. In addition to teaching art with the homeschool community, you might find Miss Mel painting portraits of local bluegrass musicians, showing her work at community art shows, and serving on the docent team at the MACC.

Miss Melanie is living proof that early exposure to art classes like those offered at Monthaven can lead to a life enriched by creativity. She is excited to help her students develop the mindset and skill set that will allow them to express themselves in a way that blesses the world.

Lily Grace Jackson has a BFA in animation from Lipscomb University and graduated magna cum laude. She graduated salutatorian in 2022 from high school. She has been drawing since age two and writing stories since middle school.

Lily's artwork has toured the libraries in Middle Tennessee and was on exhibit at the Nashville Public Library April–October 2022. Jackson has been in musical theater productions since she was nine. She has illustrated five traditionally published children's books and is one half of the singing duo Sisters J with her sister. They have three singles that have gone to number one and two on the World and Euro Indie charts.

The arts have played a significant role in her life and helped her through childhood trauma and being non-verbal as a child. Lily teaches digital art and 2-D animation.

Jackson's plan is to write stories that inspire and share messages of light and hope, empowering others to believe in themselves. Her goal with her art and music is to raise awareness about autism and other challenges and to help everyone accept each other just the way we are.

Brittany Wuthrich holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Emmanuel University. She is a writer and artist who blends traditional and digital mediums, and she has crowdfunded and self-published two children's books centered on social-emotional learning. A member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Brittany brings both craft and storytelling to her work. She's passionate about helping young artists build fundamental skills while exploring their own creative voice. Outside the studio, she explores photography, music, video editing, and a range of DIY projects. 

Megan Bouge is a Nashville native and lifelong artist who graduated from Watkin’s College of Art and Design with a BFA in Graphic Design. She spent her early career as a freelance graphic designer before shifting her focus after having children of her own.

 

Trading the downtown grind for preschool and art education turned out to be the most rewarding move of her career. Megan also spent 20 years as a technical dancer and professional dance instructor at local studios — experience she later drew on to help found and direct an integrated arts preschool program.

 

When she is not actively teaching preschool, homeschool, or art classes, you’ll likely find Megan at the local library, feeding her own love of learning, or at home with her family and rescued fur babies.

Robin Willis is the MACC’s Healing Arts Coordinator. She also works as the Exhibition and Events Manager and Director of Outreach. Robin has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She is a multi-discipline artist with emphasis in writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition to her art practices, she holds several healing modalities certificates, such as extensive kundalini yoga teacher training and education, Reiki master, systemic family constellation facilitator, and depth psychology-based therapy trainings. As an avid learner, she explores and encourages others in their exploration in art, psyche, and our relationship to the micro and macro worlds within and around us. Influenced by John Muir’s quote, When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe, she fuses art, healing, and organization throughout her work and personal life as a creative-scientist minded person.