Mentone Arts Center

Tucked along Alabama Highway 117 in Mentone, the Mentone Arts Center serves as a gathering place for painters, potters, photographers, and musicians drawn to the Lookout Mountain area’s long-standing creative streak. The center operates inside a building known locally as the Chuck Sennett Center for the Arts, and it functions as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit rather than a commercial gallery, meaning its programs depend on ticket sales, gift shop purchases, and community donations to stay running.

The organization took shape in 2020, when a group of local supporters worked to formally establish the center as a nonprofit. Its stated purpose is to provide education about the history of the arts in the Lookout Mountain region and the Mentone community, and to help protect the area’s artistic, musical, and cultural roots for future generations. To carry that mission forward, the center partners with other regional groups, including the Little River Arts Area Council and the Mentone Educational Resources Foundation, both of which support arts and cultural programming on the mountain. Those partnerships help the center reach beyond its own walls, tying its classes and exhibits into a wider network of small organizations working to keep Lookout Mountain’s cultural life active year round.

Classes make up a significant part of what happens inside the center. Its most popular offering is a series of Paint Like Bob Ross sessions, taught year-round by instructors certified through the Bob Ross Institute, where students work through wet-on-wet oil techniques in a single sitting. Beyond that, the schedule rotates through beginner-friendly drawing classes that focus on translating objects and photographs onto paper, along with painting sessions led by both local artists and visiting instructors, some of which are held offsite in the Bill Berry Room at Moon Lake Village.

The center also houses a black-and-white film and darkroom photography program, limited to small groups of about five students per session so each person gets individual instruction through the full development process, from shooting to printing. Specialty workshops in glass beadmaking, also called lampwork, and linocut printmaking appear on the calendar periodically, giving visitors a chance to try mediums they might not otherwise encounter. On the performance side, the center hosts live music in a listening-room format featuring musicians across genres, along with occasional songwriting and acting instruction. Current class dates and sign-up details are typically posted on the center’s Facebook page rather than printed in advance, since the offerings shift with instructor availability.

Inside, the gallery and adjoining gift shop display work made almost entirely by regional artists. Shelves and walls hold oil and watercolor paintings, pottery, woodwork, jewelry, woven pieces, sculpture, and glasswork, including pieces from Orbix Hot Glass, a nearby glassblowing studio. The gift shop side of the building rounds things out with center branded t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats, along with books and candles, and buying from the shop is one of the more direct ways visitors can put money back into the center’s programming.

The center keeps a modest schedule, open Monday and Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Because it runs as a nonprofit, the center also depends on volunteers, noting that it would not function as well for the local art community without their help, and interested residents are encouraged to call the center directly to ask about openings. Donations can be made through a PayPal link on the website, and the center’s leadership has framed those gifts, along with gift shop purchases, as central to keeping the doors open.

For visitors exploring Mentone’s small commercial district near the Alabama Highway 117 corridor, the arts center offers a low-key stop that doubles as a working classroom, a small museum of sorts for Lookout Mountain’s craft traditions, and a shop stocked with pieces made close to home. Anyone planning a visit around a specific class or workshop is best served by calling ahead at 256.674.3366 or checking the center’s Facebook page, since sessions fill by instructor and season rather than on a fixed annual calendar.