Firstlight Art hopes to offer something that you won't find any where else in our area. We teach children who are highly interested or even gifted in the visual arts, so our program is geared towards them.

The curriculum, written by our director, Dennas Davis, takes artists from beginners through advanced, and builds their skills and knowledge throughout the years until they can pursue their dreams with confidence.

Our approach is discovery oriented too. We don't teach style, but try to help each student find their own way. It takes more work, but we feel that teaching this way is best, which is one reason why we have small classes. The instructors work with each student individually, and help them at their own level of skill. The goal is to direct artists to realize their own vision as opposed to teaching them to copy the teacher's style and methods.

Class for children range from age 6 through teenage and we also have adult classes.
Read about Firstlight
in the August/Sept. '06 issue of Southern Exposure Magazine. (pdf)

Firstlight Art Highlights:

  • Drawing & Painting as well as Cartooning offered.
  • Full year-round art academy with school-year and summer sessions..
  • Small class sizes of 10 students or less
  • Focused on kids who want to pursue art with enthusiasm
  • On-going curriculum for long-term development
  • Classes are long enough to get some real work done.
  • Tuition (35 classes for $855) is broken into $95 equal monthly payments.
  • Several age groups
    Level 1 -Younger Kids 6 & 7
    Level 2 -Older Kids 8-10
    Level 3 -Preteen & Teens 11 & up
    Level 4 -Adults

The Academy's facility address is
2420 Bethlehem Loop Rd.
Franklin, TN 37069

The mailing address for the ART dept. is:
109 Chapelwood lane
Franklin, TN 37069

STAFF:

Dennas Davis, director and instructor.
Betsy Caldwell, instructor.

Dennas has been illustrating children's books and painting for 30 years, living first in Nashville, and for the last 8 years, in Franklin. He is illustrator of The Beginner's Bible, Betty Crocker Kids Cook, God's Best Promises for Kids, The Friends Series, The Praise Party Parable Series, and the brand new: I The Fly, with millions of copies of these books in print.

Betsy Is an amazing addition to our staff this year. She is a talented and accomplished artist, painting in several different mediums for many years. With a background in both art and teaching, it would seem a perfect fit for Firstlight, and that is just part of the story. Betsy also has managed an art store, and will be taking on our new Student Art Store that we plan to open at Firstlight this summer.

"Betsy has a special gift for teaching, that is the most important thing for our classes. She is encouraging, as well as knowledgeable, and she loves and respects the kids. I actually didn't think we could find such a combination so quickly when we needed to add more classes, but God brought us together. I'm very excited about her involvement next year."
Dennas Davis, director of Firstlight.

Our instuctors and director are Christians, and while we don't preach during classes, neither do we hide who we are. At Firstlight, we feel that God is the most wonderful creator, and since we are made in His image, He must want us to create as well!

The arts have sometimes followed the world in ways that we don't want our children to be exposed to. That's one of the reasons we began Firstlight. We want to do our part in redeeming the arts for our children, as well as for us - hopefully pleasing our creator as we create too.

We're always seeking ways to make learning fun and exciting, as well as safe and challenging. Please take a few moments to view our site and get to know us. Thank you for stopping by!