Adult and Teen Classes and Workshops
Adult Dance series with Mumford Academy of Irish Dance
Saturdays, May 10 - June 21, 10:30AM - 11:30AM (6 sessions)
$150
Pasta Making Workshop with Diana Testa, of Italian Cooking Lessons
Saturday, May 10, 5PM - 7:30PM
$125, all supplies included.
Participants will work with Italian Chef, Diana Testa to create from scratch items the way Nonna used to make. Learn to create Ravioli and two sauces, while gaining culinary skills the Italian way.
Just in time for Mother's Day! Spaces are limited and this program will fill quickly.
https://www.italiancookinglessonsjax.com/
Springtime Florals - Acrylic Painting Series with Charlotte Chastain
Tuesdays, May 13, 20, 27, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (3 sessions)
$145 members, $165 future members
Join Charlotte Chastain for a fun-filled series of painting vibrant flowers, either as botanicals, or in landscapes, garden scenes, etc. We will delve into color mixing, composition, brush strokes, how layering creates depth and dimension in your paintings, and more to discover your unique style.
This class is perfect for both beginners and those looking to refresh their acrylic painting skills. You may find this the perfect opportunity to unwind, socialize, and discover your hidden artistic talents!
Natural Stone and Silver Ring Workshop with Eve Huggins
Saturday, June 14, 10AM - 2PM
$100, all supplies included!
Come learn about setting small stones (cabachons) on a ring band.
You will learn to solder silver wire to design and make a ring band, solder a bezel onto the band, and finally to set the stone in the bezel.
The semi-precious stones could be tourmaline, turquoise, or diopside.
All are beautiful with spectacular color and no treatment to ‘enhance’ the beauty of the natural stones.
Seascapes Watercolor Series with Roseann Egidio
Mondays, Aug 18, 25, Sept 8, and 15 (4 classes), 10AM - 12PM
(No class on Labor Day)
$250, All supplies included!
Roseann is back!
Students will follow step by step instruction and learn various techniques of watercolor. They will also receive personal attention from award winning teacher Roseann Egidio.
These classes are designed to encourage and guide the beginner and the intermediate student.
Drawing Basics series with Nofa Dixon
Thursdays, October 9 - October 30, 2025, (4 sessions), 10AM - 12PM
$189 members, $210 future members
Nofa Farha Dixon, assistant professor emerita at the University of North Florida, has been an art educator, a professional artist and an active member of the Jacksonville Community for several decades. She served as Curator of Education at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville for twelve years prior to becoming a faculty member in the Department of Art and Design at UNF where she taught drawing, painting and design classes. She served as an Artist-in-Residence for Duval County Schools, 1997–1999, and in 1998 was awarded the Art Educator of the Year by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville.
Dixon earned her BFA with an emphasis in Fine Arts and Art History from St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, North Carolina, and her MFA in painting and drawing from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. In 1993, she began teaching as an adjunct while being a productive studio artist exhibiting her art throughout the United States. In 2001, she was promoted to a Visiting Professor and to an Instructor in 2004. Later in 2006, she was promoted to an Assistant Professor and in 2009 to an Associate Professor. Dixon teaches drawing, painting, design and special project classes (Art-in-Public Places or site specific art).
We will use collage images and using acrylics to paint on canvas. She conducted numerous collage workshops and enjoy working in both two and three-dimensional formats. She is challenged in maintaining an experimental approach to thinking and to creating and works to pass this attitude to her students.
Past Programs
Shibori Fabric Dyeing Workshop with Marie Andrée
Sunday, April 27, 1pm - 3pm
$45, All supplies included!
Watercolor Landscapes with Roseann Egidio
Mondays, April 7, 14, 21, 10am - 12pm
with Master Artist Allison Watson
Realistic Flower Painting from a Photo 2025
with Master Artist Christina Mastrangelo
April 5 and 6, 2025, Saturday/Sunday
10AM - 5PM
$250 members, $270 future members
Art History Presentation:
Greetings from Florida! Art Histories of the Sunshine State
Friday, March 14, 10AM
$10 members, $15 future members
Presented by:
P. Scott Brown, Ph.D.
Professor of Art History
Department of Art, Art History & Design
University of North Florida
From Fort Caroline in the sixteenth century to Henry Flagler's Alcazar in the nineteenth, Disney's Magic Kingdom in the twentieth, and the Villages in the twenty-first, Florida has been represented through art and architecture to tourists, visitors, and transients as being someplace else: France, Moorish Spain, the Past, the Future, and so on. In this talk on art and history of the Sunshine State, we will explore fantasies of Florida from the earliest colonial era to the present.
Saturday, March 8, 10AM - 2PM
$99 members, $115 future members, all supplies included!
Tuesdays, February 18 - March 11, 10AM - 12PM (4 sessions)
$199 members, $220 future members
Musical Performance with Sitarist Arvid Smith
Saturday, January 25, 2025, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
$25 members, $35 future members
You do not want to miss this legendary musician! Arvid plays sitar, Balinese harp and many more exotic, captivating instruments.
Acrylic Inks Workshop with Sandy Harrington SOLD OUT
$45 members, $55 future members
This workshop will explore the experimental painting process using watercolor canvas, acrylic inks, air pressure, and creative composition techniques.
About the instructor: Sandy Harrington is an award winning Jacksonville ink and watercolor artist.
Her professional art background began in illustration and advertising, and she created large scale murals, costumes, and set design for the stage.
https://www.sandyharrington.com/
Painting Demonstration with Master Artist Allison Watson
Thursday, December 12, 10 AM
$15 non members, $10 members
A nationally known American artist specializing in Southern landscapes, Allison Watson has had more than 45 solo exhibitions including major museums and private galleries, nationally. She has work in more than 450 public, private and corporate collections including Jacksonville office of the Mayor, the Jacksonville Libraries, Queens College, NY, Baptist Medical Centers, and more.
Her vivid landscapes reflect her love of the wild rivers, lakes, springs and woodlands of her native Florida. She paints from her own photography taken locally and internationally. She has taught painting at the Cummer Museum for 21 years and maintains a studio at CoRK Art District where she teaches acrylic painting classes in the CoRK classroom. Please contact her for information on classes or commissioned work.
Allison will discuss and demonstrate her process to create landscape paintings on canvas in acrylic from concept to finished painting. She will showcase the use of value (light and dark), perspective and various painting techniques like glazes and underpainting. She will show how to begin a painting, mix color and create a composition.
Explore Landscapes and Seascapes in Watercolor with Charlotte Chastain
Tuesdays, November 12, 19 and December 3, 10, 10AM - 12PM (4 sessions)
$220 non members, $199 members
Submerge yourself into new watercolor techniques and receive individual feedback from the Instructor. Charlotte will
share composition tips, color mixing, and how to maintain true colors- darks and lights- with this less-forgiving medium.
Luxury Coach & Lights Tour SOLD OUT!
Friday, December 6, 4:00PM - 8:30PM
6000B Sawgrass Village Circle
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
Silver Jewelry Making Workshop with Eve Huggins
Join Eve Huggins in a stacker ring workshop. Several types of funky and fancy sterling silver wires will be available to you to make up to 4 stacking rings that you can mix and match or give as a gift! You will not only make these beautiful rings, but gain confidence in basic silversmithing skills, including designing, sizing, filing, soldering, and finishing.
Come join the fun and explore your creativity and develop a new skill.
During the class the following equipment is used: butane torch, pliers, sandpaper and or files, hammers, and citric acid.
Holiday Shoppes
November 16 and 17, 2024
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
6000B Sawgrass Village Circle
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
Watch Holiday Shoppes Video on Facebook Here.
The Art Salon: Equestrian-Themed Presentation
Artists Ellen Diamond and Debbie Pounders will illuminate the history of the Artists' Salon with an emphasis on the subject matter of horses. Debbie will share some of her techniques and inspiration to represent horses in her subject matter.
Many artists, such as George Stubbs, Edgar Degas, Franz Marc have represented horses as a central theme throughout art history.
Enjoy watching contemporary artist Debbie Pounders demonstrate her painting one of her horse compositions.
Saturday, 10/26/24
Artist Presentation with Papercut Artist Hiromi Moneyhun
Friday, October 25, 10:00AM
$15 non members, $10 members
Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun is a papercut artist. She was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, the capital city for close to a thousand years before Tokyo. She moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2004. Hiromi has been written of in every major publication in the Jacksonville area, including the city’s largest newspaper, the Florida Times Union. She has been featured in Huffington Post and was the subject of one episode of a syndicated Japanese television show. Her work has appeared numerous times throughout Florida in group and solo shows, in New York City, London, and most significantly in Bentonville, Arkansas, in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s 2014-15 show, State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now. Hiromi began drawing at a young age, and by her teen years had developed a style of her own. With no formal art training, she has evolved a unique, homegrown artistic voice that combines traditional Japanese visual art forms with the super-modernity that is now found in all of Japan’s biggest cities.
Hiromi’s three-dimensional cut paper pieces are the result of a multistep process that generates an art that is at once amusingly lighthearted and startlingly alive. Her pieces invite the viewer in; indeed, one feels compelled to reach out and touch the images. Like the works of all the great masters, Hiromi’s pieces are best appreciated when viewed in person. Join the presentation to learn more!
Acrylic Painting Series with Master Artist Ellen Diamond SOLD OUT
Master Artist Portrait Features Workshop - Oil Painting with Master Artist Christina Mastrangelo
Friday - Sunday, October 18, 19, 20, 2024, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
$370 non-members, $330 members
Rather than trying to paint an entire portrait, this workshop will focus on painting the eye, nose, and mouth after a master painter. We will paint one feature per canvas, to end up with a tiny trilogy of studied anatomy. This three-day workshop is pivotal for portrait artists and those wishing to explore the elements of painting that define the work of master painters. A guided examination of the master’s work will reveal much about palette choices and value structures and enable correct identification of colors and values as they relate to accuracy in color mixing. Students will examine the structure and anatomy of the eyes, nose, and mouth as portrayed by a master painter. Most importantly, students will learn to observe the subtle value shifts and edge variety that allow master portraits to look so powerfully realistic.
*Geared towards seasoned beginners through advanced*
Cultural History Presentation
Religious Vision for Natural Spaces: Frederick Law Olmsted, Founder of American Landscape Architecture
Join us for an exciting lecture and refreshments in our new building
Friday, August 30, 10 AM - 11 AM
$15 non-members, $10 members
Presented by:
Brandi Denison, Ph.D.
Associate Professor | Program Director
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
University of North Florida
A Taste of Italy: Gourmet Experience (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, August 24, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
$120 non members, $99 members
Geometric Patterns from the Alhambra Palace: Drawing and Watercolor Painting with Dima Kroma
Saturday, August 3, 2024 10 AM - 12 PM
$50 non members, $40 members
Constructed during the 13th to 15th centuries, the Nasrid Palace of Alhambra stands as a testament to Islamic civilization's sophistication and its artistic achievements in Andalusia.
Join us in exploring the most distinctive surface patterns within this architectural marvel. We will study the intricate patterns and tessellations, guiding you through step-by-step drawings where math and art meet.
This workshop is designed for beginners, and the more experienced individuals seeking to refresh or develop their skills in Islamic Geometric Pattern design.
A Taste of Spain: Gourmet Experience (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, July 27, 2024 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
$120 non members, $99 members
Experience a Mediterranean Summer evening with our CEO, Donna Guzzo, who is Cuban and Spanish. Chef Charlotte Chastain will lead the tastings.
Enjoy creating and sampling delicious regional tapas, Malagueña salad, gazpacho, and dessert, each paired with Cava, Albariño and Rioja wines. It's a Spanish extravaganza, so wear your black, red, and yellow to this exclusive event!
Bring your aprons, and your appetite.
Only 10 spots are available for this culinary adventure!
Wine and Watercolors with Ellen Diamond (SOLD OUT)
May 8, 5-7 PM
$55 non members, $45 members
Sharpen Your Palette Knife Painting Skills with Jeff Desautels
Wednesdays, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
March 6- March 27 (4 sessions)
Intermediate level
$220 non members, $199 members
Wood Working Presentation with Norbert Ploetz
Saturday, March 16, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
Wood-working/wood-carving artist Norbert Ploetz presents an artistic demonstration from concept to process to completion in this exciting format,
surrounded by his current exhibit.
Acrylic Inks on Watercolor Canvas: A Unique Color Technique with Sandy Harrington
Friday, February 23, 10:00am-12:00pm
$55, $50 members
Post Impressionist Acrylic Painting with Master Artist Ellen Diamond SOLD OUT
February 10 and 11, Saturday and Sunday
10:00am - 3:00pm
First Coast Cultural Center
6000B Sawgrass Village Circle
Ponte Vedra Beach, 32082
Landscapes and Seascapes: Acrylic painting workshop inspired by Impressionist Masters,
Pissarro, van Gogh, and Monet with Charlotte Chastain
Friday and Saturday, January 26 and 27, 10:00am-3:00pm
First Coast Cultural Center
6000B Sawgrass Village Circle
Ponte Vedra Beach, 32082
$200
Art History Presentation Jacksonville and the Origins and History of American Art
Join us for an exciting lecture and refreshments in our new building
January 26, 10:00 am
Presented by:
P. Scott Brown, Ph.D.
Professor of Art History
Department of Art, Art History & Design
University of North Florida
First Coast Cultural Center
6000B Sawgrass Village Circle
Ponte Vedra Beach, 32082
$15 non-members, $10 members
Experimental Photo Transfer Workshop with Matthew Abercrombie
Saturday, November 4, 10 AM - 1 PM
$75
This workshop for ages 16 + will explore the experimental printmaking process of photo transfer. Participants can work with existing photos, photos from their phone or create all new images during the workshop. This is a mixed media process so be prepared to use water, paper, ink and a little bit of elbow grease. We will have fun making unique one of a kind pieces with a process that is perfect for those that "can't even draw a stick figure". Please bring old photos or photos on your phone and be ready to enjoy the process!
Pen and Ink Drawing and Watercolor Painting with Charlotte Chastain: Inspired by van Gogh
Tuesdays, 10 AM - 12 PM
October 3 - November 7 (6 sessions)
First Coast Cultural Center
$200
Friday - Sunday, 10 AM - 5 PM
October 13, 14, and 15
First Coast Cultural Center
$300
Whether you’re looking to explore, develop, or re-visit a hobby, meet new people, or enjoy a date night, we have classes for you. With a mix of stand-alone (one-time) classes and recurring series, keep up to date with our programs calendar throughout the year! We have classes and workshops on weekdays, evenings, and weekends to meet a variety of schedules and enhance your creative process.
Please note that we do not issue refunds to individuals who need to cancel after registering. In some instances, we may be able to transfer these fees to another program. Please contact the Director of Programs with any questions:
Please review our Program Policies before registering. If you are unsure about the status of your membership, please call 904-280-0614 ext. 1206. If you would like to become a member of First Coast Cultural Center, please visit membership. Supplies are not included unless otherwise noted. Our dedicated hotel sponsor, Hilton Garden Inn Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra, provides special room rates for First Coast Cultural Center workshop attendees, click here to learn more and book a room to use during your workshop.
These programs are sponsored in part by the Division of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
