Sautee-Nacoochee Community Association
The Art Studio at SNCA

The Art Studio at SNCA has as its sole purpose to serve the general community as a visual arts school which provides a place, an atmosphere, and instruction that will most effectively cultivate in each individual student the self-actualization, self-appreciation, and self-enrichment which by nature inhere in the arts.

We believe that every person is born with a unique way of seeing and can learn to express that uniqueness, and that the teaching of art should be concerned with tapping this distinctiveness and providing techniques for it to flourish on.

And so, because our attitude is that art should never be imitation, but rather a manifestation of self-direction, we are committed to an ideal of instruction that focuses on the development of the individual.

Our teaching is designed so that those who seek instruction with us need never fear being forced into any mold or any style nor being scorned if their latent direction differs from that of the instructor or other students. Rather, we focus on equipping our students with the traditional basic skills and on encouraging them to use these skills in finding and pursuing their own visions.

The value of art, we hold, is human variety made manifest and visible, so anyone with a sincere desire to study art is welcome at the The Art Studio at SNCA. We do not discriminate on any basis of sex, race, religion or ethnic origin; the sole requirements are a minimum age of 18 and a high school diploma or equivalent. To insure individual attention to all students, class sizes are kept very small, never exceeding 12 students in any one session.

The Art Studio at SNCA was originally co-founded by Dianne Mize, MFA, and Howard G. Hanson, PhD, in 1984 as the Dianne Mize Studio. After a long and successful journey teaching art to hundreds of students, the Studio merged with The Sautee Community Association so that it could continue indefinitely as a non profit art educational studio. In 2001 the studio relocated to SNCA and became the wonderful learning environment you see today. After a year long search in 2006, a replacement was found for the retiring Dianne, and the Studio is now under the direction of Robin Miltner.

Robin's varied and extensive professional art career, teaching and educational background brought a rich variety of instructional opportunities for the Art Studio students, and we hope you will have the opportunity to take one or more classes at the studio.