Sameera Lowe
How to Advocate for the Arts
(Wednesday Only)
Sameera Lowe will talk about the importance of arts advocacy relative to the state budget situation. She will share the latest tools developed in conjunction with the Tennessee Arts Commission and give suggestions to help you make a difference in working with our communities to promote the arts.

Sameera Lowe is the Executive Director of Tennesseans for the Arts and has extensive experience in public relations, marketing, and event planning.

Michael Alvey
Music Learning Theory for K–4 General Music
(Monday only)
Are you looking for new ways to develop the musicianship of your students? Dr. Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory (MLT) can help. Come explore how easily MLT can both be integrated into your present teaching and harmonize with your personal philosophy of music education.

Michael Alvey is a music instructor at Moore Elementary School in Franklin.

Rhona Brink
Meaningful Performance Experiences
(Wednesday only)
Performance experiences in the elementary grades give students an opportunity to integrate the fine arts. A music program for parents may include both visual and performance arts in ways limited only by the creativity of the teachers and students. Learn how to take the arts curriculum and turn it into an award-winning performance opportunity. While many published materials offer quality music programs, fine arts teachers are their own best resources for producing quality performances.

David Chambers and Peggie Terrell
The New Standards (Elementary)
(Monday only)
Preview the revised elementary music standards. This is a chance to get a head start on planning for next year.

David Chambers is a music specialist for the Fentress County School System, where he teaches Pre-K–8th grade.

Peggie Terrell is a music specialist for Sumner County Schools, where she teaches K–5th grade.

Elise Dumser and Karen Henning
The New Standards (Secondary)
(Monday only)
Preview the revised secondary music standards. This is a chance to get a head start on planning for next year.

Elise Dumser teaches choral music to grades 7–12 at Marshall County Middle School and High School.

Karen Henning is currently the Director of Bands at Liberty Technology Magnet School in Jackson.

Dr. J. S. Kofi Gbolonyo
Drumming and Dance
(Wednesday only)
This session will employ Orff-Afrique techniques for defining “music” in its holistic terms. It will involve drumming, dancing, singing, and analysis of in-depth cultural and philosophical meanings, including physical and social affects.

V. Keith Mason
Midi: Still the Cornerstone of Music Technology
Even though Midi is now entering its 27th year of existence, questions still remain about its place in music. This session will break down the “bits and bytes” of Midi. From music notation to the digital audio workstation, the mystery and confusion of “What is Midi?” will be resolved by observing the role and function of Midi in creating music.

V. Keith Mason has been the Coordinator of Music Technology at Belmont University for the last twelve years. He has more than twenty-five years of professional experience in the Nashville music industry as a composer, arranger, producer, and music technologist.

Rob Rumbelow
Detail and the Artist Musician—Past the Threshold
An interactive discussion about details in the arts and situations in which significant minds of our time have transcended popular awareness will be the focus for this session. Bring an example or story to share.

Judith Thompson-Barthwell
A Look at Birds Through Music, Art, and Drama
(Wednesday only)
The study of the natural habitats of birds will be used as a source to create music, art, and drama. You can choose your media to explore and work in tandem with others who bring their artistic talents. You will be enriched through the experience of working with other artists and increase your understanding of birds.

Evan Tobias
Improvisation, Experimentation, and Exploration
Participants will journey through a variety of exercises and approaches that keep exploration, experimentation, and improvisation of sound and music as a central focus. Participants will learn how they might encourage their students to think musically and creatively through sound, and at the same time consider how to create an environment conducive to imaginative musical thinking.

Jonas Basom
Speaking Skills for the Stage and Classroom
Jonas Basom will lead a model lesson in vocal projection, articulation, and expression that will work with all ages of students to improve reading aloud, acting, and any kind of oral presentation. Developed over ten years of working with elementary teachers and students, this lesson distills the essential skills and training of an actor into practical concepts and activities that have immediate results with students.

Jonathan Becker
Moving Out Loud
Discover and work with the art of listening with the whole body, the presence of the actor, and the dynamics of extending the physical senses to another or to the ensemble. Or you can just explore playing with the spaces between.

Carole Miller
Developing Social Literacy through Drama
Today’s classrooms have become one of the few places where we can practice the skills of social literacy. Using two drama strategies that can be applied in many different contexts, participants will generate collective understanding and deepen their knowledge of who they are within a community of learners.

Michael and Valerie Nelson
Instant Drama
This hands-on workshop will show you how to take a story (or event from history) and turn it into a guided drama-play with student actors who have not rehearsed and may not even know the story!

Luis Perez
Acting the Song
Broadway veteran Luis Perez will explore the techniques behind bringing truth of character to the musical theatre song. Lyric analysis, music analysis, and script analysis unite to become the essential tools for helping the student actor create full, believable characters while singing.

Michael Anthony Williams
Mirror and Object Work
Michael Anthony will share mirror and object exercises that can enhance the development of character performance. Teachers will find strategies to help their students create more specific and defined characters.

Jackie Spaulding-Wright and Erin Gokounous
Step Up and Speak Out for Art Education
(Monday only)
Jackie Spaulding-Wright’s whimsical art shoe serves as a springboard for her personal art advocacy campaign. Learn how her efforts attracted media attention and helped shape Tennessee’s Youth Art Month campaign.

Jackie Spaulding-Wright is an award-winning art educator in Knox County and owns Creative Kids in Seymour, Tennessee. She has used a shoe theme for an art advocacy campaign that is stepping across the nation.

Erin Gokounous is an art educator for Knox County Schools and serves as co-chairman for Youth Art Month through the Tennessee Art Education Association.

Tina M. Atkinson
Show Me the Money! The Top 10 Things Every Fully Funded Art Program Needs
This presentation will share the tools needed to secure funding and support for school art programs. The session will identify the top ten components needed to market art programs to the school community and promote high-quality visual arts education.

Tina M. Atkinson has been teaching visual arts in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System for twelve years and was named the Parthenon Teacher of the Year in 2005 and the Tennessee Art Education Association Middle Tennessee Art Educator of the Year in 2009.

Adera Causey and Anne Henderson
Art Museums and Their Resources: Hunter and Frist Museums
(Monday only)
Art museums develop specific teaching resources both for their permanent collections and for temporary exhibitions. These materials are available both online and in print. The presenters will share information about upcoming exhibitions at their respective institutions and related resources and programs.

Adera Causey joined the staff of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga in November 2003 as part of a large-scale reinstallation and new programmatic plan for the museum. She develops gallery interpretation and oversees the education department’s wide range of programs for children and adults.

Anne Henderson is the Director of Education and Outreach at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville and has been with the organization since 2000, when the first staff was hired. Ms. Henderson oversees the education programming for adults, youth, and families.

Kathy Dumlao and Hillary Steinwinder
Art Museums and Their Resources: Brooks and Cheekwood Museums
(Wednesday only)
Art museums develop specific teaching resources both for their permanent collections and for temporary exhibitions. These materials are available both online and in print. The presenters will share information about upcoming exhibitions at their respective institutions and related resources and programs.

Kathy Dumlao is the Associate Curator of Education for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. She has been a member of the Education Department at the Brooks Museum since 2000 and coordinates school and family programs.

Hillary Steinwinder is the Manager of Education and Public Programs for Cheekwood Botanical Gardens & Museum of Art in Nashville. She oversees a wide variety of educational activities and initiatives, including school and teacher programs, community outreach, and exhibition interpretation.

Suzanne Jack
We Are Our Stories: Students Tell All
(Wednesday only)
This session presents high school digital story telling based on the six essential senses defined by Daniel Pink in his book The Whole New Mind. Pink defines the twenty-first century as the Conceptual Age, which will value right-brain creative and empathetic thinkers. He believes that to have a competitive business edge in the twenty-first century, six essential aptitudes are necessary.

Suzanne Jack is a national award-winning artist. Her artistic sensibilities capture the beauty and spirit of nature through dynamic energy, luminous light, and a vivid color palette.

Daryle Grenead
Over/Under/Over/Under: Basic Weaving Projects for All
(Wednesday only)
Grenead will share simple and successful weaving lessons geared for all levels of students. Projects and lessons range from easy to complex for a variety of skill levels and make use of readily available materials such as cardboard, poster board, cake circles, and yarn.

Daryle Grenead is a past president of the Tennessee Art Education Association and has been named State Art Educator of the Year. He has recently served as Visual Art Director for the Tennessee Arts Academy.

Rachel Motta
Art for All! Making Your Classroom Inclusion Friendly
(Monday only)
A certified K–12 art teacher who serves students with special needs explores the definitions of multiple (dis)abilities that every teacher encounters in his or her classroom. Motta will share methods to adapt materials, modify lessons, and create a learning environment that nurtures all ability levels. Bring your questions about special needs to this presentation.

Rachel Motta is a third-year teacher at a private residential school for students with special needs. After earning her Art K-12 certification from Rhode Island College, she moved to Tennessee.

The following Interlude sessions are available to all Academy participants and will be offered on both Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 2:25 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated.

Paul Head
Academy Chorale
(Wednesday only)
Please come and join other participants as the Academy Chorale prepares a program of music to be performed at the Academy luncheon on Friday. The Academy Chorale is under the direction of Paul Head, secondary choral music faculty. Love of singing is the only prerequisite for this Interlude. Participants from any area of the Academy are welcome!

Theatre Faculty
Theatre Connections
Theatre faculty members will be in their classrooms to answer specific questions about their sessions and to provide one-on-one time with any participant who may desire additional information about theatre-related issues or arts education concerns.

Tina Crawford
Theatre Curriculum Caring and Sharing: Kindergarten through Sixth Grade
(Thursday only)
Elementary and lower middle school participants are encouraged to share their favorite classroom activities, teaching tips, and theatre lesson plans with other teachers from across the state. Theatre facilitator Tina Crawford will lead the session.

Imogene “Tina” Crawford’s teaching career has spanned almost three decades. She currently teaches creative writing and drama at Rozelle Creative and Performing Arts Elementary School in Memphis.

Pollyanna Parker
Theatre Curriculum Caring and Sharing: Seventh through Twelfth Grades
(Thursday only)
Upper middle school and high school participants are encouraged to share their favorite classroom activities, teaching tips, and theatre lesson plans with other teachers from across the state. Theatre facilitator Pollyanna Parker will lead the session.

Pollyanna Parker is a past recipient of the Tennessee High School Speech and Drama League’s Ruby Krider Teacher of the Year Award. She currently teaches at Rossview High School in Clarksville.

Visual Art Faculty
Visual Art Studio Connections
Visual art participants may choose this time to continue work in the studio, dialogue with their instructors, or network with fellow teachers about art-related issues and arts education concerns.