Pastor Cliff Hudson, left, and Patti Kuhns, director of the fine arts program of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, stand behind the jail bars in the “dungeon” of the church on Second Street in Cleveland, Tenn. The church was once the Bradley County Jail.CLEVELAND, Tenn.-If walls could talk, some of them at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church might begin the conversation with their most recent memories – the successful first year of the Fine Arts Academy, with students exploring the piano keyboard and music.
The academy, however, is housed within the walls of what decades ago was the Bradley County Jail, now owned by the church.
Many churches have fine arts academies, conceded Patti Kuhns, director of First Cumberland’s program. But what other church can say that its arts students pass through the same doors once frequented by the county’s most troublesome characters?
“You would be surprised at the number of people who come to see me for the first time who are hesitant because they were here once in another role,” minister Cliff Hudson said.
The academy occupies part of the old building once used for jail office space and the radio dispatcher. Upstairs, Hudson’s study is in what once was the women’s detention area. There are holes in the wall behind his work table, reminders of the iron bars that once crossed the room and that church members worked so laboriously to remove a decade ago.