Classes

Jessica Taylor graduated from Cumberland University in 2013 with a BFA in Studio Art as well as a focus in K-12 education. She spent several years assisting in teaching elementary classes and most recently taught high school Art I and II classes for five years for Wilson County Schools. In 2021 Jessica went back to school to pursue her second love, in healthcare, and is currently working as a Sonographer at a Nashville hospital. She is excited to blend both of her passions into her daily life and teach art classes with MACC. She enjoys using a variety of mediums but finds her biggest love comes from the simplicity of drawing with graphite. Currently Jessica resides in Hendersonville with her husband and three dogs and in her free time you'll be sure to find her outside being inspired by Mother Nature. 

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.

Lisa Jennings’ art is deeply rooted in her love for nature. As a child, she spent many idyllic hours hiking outdoors, hunting for wood, stones and fossils that were later used in art projects. She continues this practice as a mature artist, creating sculptures and mixed-media works from natural materials found near woods and streams in Tennessee, Arkansas and sites out West. Her use of paper in the sculpture-making process has become a defining characteristic of her art. She often covers her sculptural figures in paper and then adds layers of color, giving her work a stone-like appearance. Added elements of wood, stone and twig-like branches embellish the final sculpture. Jennings describes her art as a “reflection of the peace that I maintain in my life from being outdoors. It provides a childlike contentment and a connection to the earth that is forever a calming factor.”

Lily Prince makes lush plein air paintings depicting the essence of specific places around the world. By utilizing linear and color vocabularies, she creates pictorial fields which resemble disorienting topographical maps where time is fluid and frozen simultaneously. Prince is a recipient of the highly prestigious international Pollock-Krasner grant award for her lifetime achievements in painting. She earned her B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design and her M.F.A. from Bard College.

Cole has been playing music for as long as he can remember. He first fell in love with music when he picked up the fiddle at age 3. He started touring at the age of 8 with a group of violinists and played all over the southeast. He picked up singing and playing the guitar at 13 when he was gifted his great-grandfather's instrument. This was the beginning of Cole's artistry. Cole’s favorite part about playing with his band The Night Owls is getting to share stories and precious moments with friends and fans. No one has passion for music like Cole. His soulful, jazzy voice mixed with his country and rock-and-roll roots gives his band a unique sound.

Annie Brito Hodgin is an oil painter living and working in Hendersonville, TN. Largely self-taught, her focus is on figurative work that explores absurdity, ambiguity, loss and control. Her rich, detailed paintings are often allusive, inspired by literature, mythology, memory and the subconscious.