Education & Classes in East Chattanooga

Music Instruction Studio's university-educated teachers dispense harmonious how-tos during music lessons for students 6 years and older. Offering instruction in pop, jazz, and classical styles, the instructors equip vocalists with belting skills, teach pianists masterful ivory tickling, and inspire bassists to lay down funkier grooves than Bootsy Collins retiling a bathroom. Music Instruction Studio stocks its interior with instruments as well as an entire library of sheet music that students can use during lessons; pupils may also rent out equipment for at-home practice. After stepping up their skills, students can draw on MIS's extensive music studio to showcase newfound abilities and hair-metal power slides during semiannual recitals at no additional charge.

When they were just little girls, Marian and Laura Jones cooked up the dream of working together once they were old enough. Years later, after both had undergone classical training in metallurgy and jewelry making, the dream became a reality. Today, the duo draws inspiration from organic textures such as the surface of seeds and the shape of raw stones as they sculpt wax, batter metal, and cast objects in bronze to create custom necklaces and earrings. In just four years, their designs have made a splash, leading to collaborations at Chicago Fashion Week and a LA Oscar gift-bag giveaway.

Their collections center on specific themes, such as with earrings and bangles that echo the texture of banana leaves. They also shape pendants whose sterling-silver and semiprecious-stone arrangements evoke antique architecture or New York windows that haven’t yet been cracked by Santa.

Marian and Laura also share their passion for and understanding of the process of jewelry making through classes. During in-studio workshops, they delve into the skills needed for beading, basic metalsmithing, and casting. Their pupils form shapes imitating organic materials such as leaf pendants or strawberry-smoothie bracelets.

The dishes of Bon'Appetite Bistro Catering's master chef, Jernard Wells, have graced the tables of celebrities including Steve Harvey and Paula Deen, earning him recognition from Cuisine Noir and Chatter magazines. Traveling to client's homes, Wells crafts customized menus in a variety of regional cuisines such as Cajun, American, Jamaican, Martian, and Italian. In addition, cooking classes for adults, teens, and couples illuminate the art of crafting cuisines with simple methods yet complex flavors. Chef Jernard is also the author of 88 Ways to Her Heart: Cooking for Lovers, which is mostly metaphorical and doesn't detail the process of riding a Cheerio directly to your significant other's left ventricle.

During her history of irrepressible creativity, Rhonda Wilkins has dabbled in fabric painting, woodcrafts, scrapbooking, stenciling, and more. She hoped to turn her passion into a career a decade ago by starting Fabulous Finishes, a decorative painting business, which eventually added a social concept: the painting party. Rhonda’s Create and Celebrate Studio now hosts easygoing classes that extend this variety of creative therapy to students of all ages and skill levels with step-by-step instruction. The focus of each session runs the gamut of art history, from serene Tuscan landscapes to iconic mustache graffiti. Groups of neophyte artists can also organize group and kid’s parties, which include materials, instruction, and time for cake and presents.

While parents and teachers navigate the dense underbrush of educational materials at The Learning Circle, their kids clamber through the one-of-a-kind tree house that dominates the aisles. Math, science, and language-arts materials for grades K–eight mask a dose of learning in a layer of fun, making education as easy to swallow as a buttered-up fruit snack. While teachers find all the resources they need among the colorful rows, parents also benefit from a smorgasbord of home-school workbooks and summer learning programs that help to stifle the learning loss that often results from months away from the classroom.

Tending fires of 1,300 degrees, the artisans of Designs by Sylvanye Glass Studio create jewelry, glass art, and dishware from molten materials. Their students, who range from aged 9 to adult, learn to use cutting systems, grinding equipment, and designing tools as they build their own pieces in a safe and supportive environment.

For inspiration or purchase, shelves and shelves of luminescent custom designs inhabit the studio's gallery and workspaces. The school also keeps independent artisans supplied with innovative products, including the pint-size MicroKiln, designed for use in a standard microwave oven.