Jessica Grotberg is the owner and instructor of Orange Park Art Classes, an independent multimedia art studio and classroom for students aged 5 years to adult. Born in Germany to artist parents, Ms. Grotberg moved to New Mexico with her mother as a child, where she was awestruck by her mother’s new career as a high school art teacher. She remembers feeling a sense of magic in her mother’s classroom, and remembers her later transition to teaching art classes out of their home as a major influence on her own path. Constantly working and planning, Ms. Grotberg studied fashion design at New Mexico State University and launched another small business before relocating to Florida in the early 2010s.
In 2012, Ms. Grotberg opened Orange Park Art Classes, where she teaches introductory and intermediate classes four days a week. Covering a broad range of two- and three-dimensional media including ceramics, printmaking, and stained glass in addition to drawing and painting, her curriculum is carefully crafted to grow with each student as they age. Ms. Grotberg is passionate about working with children and believes that having fundamental art skills and vocabulary, as well as the confidence and creative thinking ability that come from time spent in the studio, have the potential to open students’ eyes to new ways of exploring the world and expressing their ideas.
Since opening the studio, Orange Park Art Classes have grown to more than 140 students, and Ms. Grotberg hopes to open a second location in the coming years. As a successful entrepreneur and the proud mother of four children, she credits her success to the values she learned from her mother: perseverance, self-reliance, faith, and a strong belief in her abilities and vision. In addition to her presence in the area’s arts community, Ms. Grotberg is an active member of the congregation of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.