VOLUME 10 ISSUE 8

FOCUS FIRST

What's In This Issue

The end of May brings the end of the school year, and that means Summer 2024 TAA is almost here!

Each week in the TAA newsletter, profiles of two of our 2024 Summer Arts Academy star faculty members will be highlighted. The newsletter will also continue to include announcements of guest performers and speakers, as well as articles about TAA alumni, board members, community arts-related announcements, and upcoming TAA special events.

In this week's newsletter, Faculty Focus will introduce you to and Upper Middle/ Secondary Music Instructor Robert Russell Pethel and Elementary/Lower Middle Theatre and Arts Integration Instructor Lynn Hoare.

Read on to find out the winners of the 2024 TAA Dorothy Gillespie Visual Art Scholarship and the Theatrical Rights Worldwide Theatre Scholarships!

Plus - TAA is installing a new phone system. See the article below for details. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we install and test the new phones.

Faculty Focus

Summer 2024 TAA

Robert Russell Pethel

Upper Middle/ Secondary Music

Core TAA Session: Guitar Class is Where It's At!



Robert (Rob) Russell Pethel is a musician, educator, and content creator based in Atlanta, Georgia. Pethel holds degrees from Georgia State University, including a doctorate, and a master’s degree from Auburn University. He has worked for Atlanta Public Schools since 2008 and taught at Sutton Middle School and Peyton Forest Elementary. Pethel currently serves as the lead technology teacher, music instructor, Apple learning coach, and eSports coach at the Atlanta Virtual Academy. He is also active as a professional development speaker and has presented for the Georgia Music Educators Association, Louisiana Music Educators Association, and the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Pethel is the creator of BlueGuitar Classroom Curriculum (www.BlueGuitar.us), Music Prism (www.YouTube.com/@MusicPrism), and Armuchee Craft (www.ArmucheeCraft.com).

MORE ON TAA 2024 MUSIC SESSIONS

Faculty Focus

Summer 2024 TAA

Lynn Hoare

Elementary/Lower Middle Theatre

Focus Area: Arts Integration, Creative Drama, and Movement

Core TAA Session: Learning and Literacy Through Arts Integration

Lynn Hoare is a facilitator, educator, and director working in the field of applied theatre and arts education with regional, national, and international partners. She was the senior director of school-based programs at Creative Action, the largest arts and education nonprofit in central Texas. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, a co-founder of the Center for Imagining and Performing Justice, and the co-director of the Performing Justice Project which devises original theatre with young people about gender and racial justice. Her co-authored book, Devising Critically Engaged Theatre with Youth: The Performing Justice Project, won the distinguished book award from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education in 2021. Hoare collaborates with others to use theatre as a tool for imagining justice, building connection and community, and fostering critical dialogue.

MORE ON TAA 2024 THEATRE SESSIONS

Announcing the 2024 TAA Scholarship Winners!

Dorothy M. Gillespie TAA Visual Art Scholarship &

Theatrical Rights Worldwide Theatre Arts Scholarship

The Tennessee Arts Academy is incredibly grateful to both the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation and to Theatrical Rights Worldwide for partnering with TAA to make scholarships available to well-deserving teachers to attend the Academy this summer. 

Thank you to everyone who applied. Both selection committees were thoroughly impressed by the qualifications of all scholarship applicants. After reviewing all of this year's wonderfully qualified applicants, the 2024 Dorothy M. Gillespie and Theatrical Rights Worldwide scholarship selection committees are delighted to announce this year's winners.

DOROTHY M. GILLESPIE

TAA VISUAL ART SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

Gary Israel, president of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation and Flowerree McDonough, TAAF board member and chair of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Scholarship committee are pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Dorothy M. Gillespie Tennessee Arts Academy Visual Art Scholarship.

Congratulations to . . .

Heather Martin (Visual Art Teacher)

Stewart County High School; Dover, TN; Stewart County Schools

The Dorothy M. Gillespie Scholarship includes full tuition, housing, and travel expenses for the winner to attend the upcoming Tennessee Arts Academy on the Belmont University campus in Nashville, Tennessee. 

ABOUT DOROTHY M. GILLESPIE

Dorothy M. Gillespie (1920-2012) was an American painter and sculptor who enjoyed an artistic career spanning more than seventy years. Her work encompassed many significant twentieth-century trends in art, including abstract expressionism, decorative abstraction, site-specific installations, the women's movement, and art in public spaces. Her work can be found all over the country. In 1997, Gillespie was a celebrity muser at the Tennessee Arts Academy. In 2017, a retrospective exhibition of her work was mounted and displayed during the Arts Academy in Belmont University's Leu Art Gallery. 

Special thanks to Flowerree McDonough and her committee for helping select the Dorothy M. Gillespie scholarship winner.

THEATRICAL RIGHTS WORLDWIDE (TRW)

THEATRE ARTS SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

Steve Spiegel, President and CEO of Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW), is

proud to announce three winners of the 2024 Theatrical Rights Worldwide

Theatre Arts Scholarship. 

Congratulations to . . .

Saralyn Archibald (Theatre Teacher)

Arlington High School; Arlington, TN; Arlington Community Schools 

Curtis Butler (Theatre Teacher)

Dickson County High School; Dickson, TN; Dickson County Schools

Kaleb Stone (Theatre Teacher)

Legacy Middle School; Franklin, TN; Williamson County Schools

Allison Isom (Theatre Teacher)

Hill Creek Middle School; Nolensville, TN; Williamson County Schools

The TRW scholarship includes full tuition, housing, and travel expenses for the winners to attend the upcoming Tennessee Arts Academy on the Belmont University campus in Nashville, Tennessee. 



ABOUT THEATRICAL RIGHTS WORLDWIDE

Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) opened its doors in October 2006, proudly representing musicals from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and the West End, as well as shows originating in regional theatres and elsewhere. TRW's mission is to cultivate and introduce new work along with extending the production life of musicals to all theatrical marketplaces.

Special thanks to Steve Speigel, President and CEO of Theatrical Rights Worldwide, for his support in establishing the TRW Theatre Arts Scholarship and to Jim Hoare, Theatrical Rights Worldwide Vice President of Education and Community Initiatives, for the work he and his committee did in selecting the 2024 TRW scholarship winners.

TAA Office Telephone Upgrade

New Phone System Being Installed and Tested

The TAA office on Belmont University’s campus is undergoing a phone system upgrade. Please bear with us while the new system is being installed and tested this week. Our phone number for now remains the same (615-460-5451). If no one answers, wait for the voice mail prompts and then leave us a message. Please note: it currently takes several rings for the voice mail message to activate. Once you leave a message, we will return your call quickly. Alternately, if you are unable to reach us by phone, please send an email to taa@belmont.edu and we will get back with you within a few minutes. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Tony, Emmy, Grammy Winner David Yazbek Musically Muses at TAA 2023

"I had an amazing experience at the Academy! Coming from an extremely small district in which I am the only visual arts teacher in the system, it was wonderful to collaborate with other teachers and to get new ideas from the core content teachers! Everything was extremely well organized, and all of the staff were friendly and helpful. I cannot believe I have missed this experience for the first 18 years of my teaching career and am excited to attend again next year!!"

 - Sherry Cooley, Middle TN

TAA 2023 Upper Middle/Secondary Visual Art Participant

Academy Essentials

 What You Need To Know



WHO, WHEN AND WHERE: The Tennessee Arts Academy is held on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville on July 14-19, 2024. The Academy is designed for K-12 arts specialists, elementary classroom teachers, librarians, pre-service college education majors, and school administrators.

WHAT: Intensive discipline-specific training, nationally renowned speakers and performers, unique interdisciplinary workshops, and a host of fun and festive special events are all part of the TAA schedule.

FEES: The registration fee is only $449.00. On-campus housing is available for a nominal additional fee.

REGISTRATION INFO: Click here to apply for the 2024 Academy. First-time applicants receive priority acceptance. Regular registration continues through the end of June or until classes have been filled.

Don't miss the 2024 Tennessee Arts Academy! 

It is a life changing and awe-inspiring week.

TAA MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Tennessee Arts Academy is to provide exceptional quality professional development, arts training, support, encouragement, information and renewal to K-12 teachers and to promote and honor the role of the arts in the lives of all Tennesseans.

The Tennessee Arts Academy is a project of the

Tennessee Department of Education and is funded under a grant contract with the State of Tennessee.

Major corporate, organizational, and individual funding support

for the Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation in 2024 is generously provided by:

Significant sponsorship, scholarship, and event support for the

Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation in 2024 is generously provided by:

Madeline and David Bridges; Marion and Stephen Coleman; Rena Ellzy; Morel Enoch; Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation; Jim Holcomb; Patricia A. Hudson; Ron and Karen Meers; Michael Meise; J. Tabor Stamper; Theatrical Rights Worldwide; Jeanette and Bill Watkins; Watkins College of Art at Belmont University; and Talmage Watts.

The Tennessee Arts Academy is funded in part by

Metro Arts / Nashville Office of Art + Culture. 

Special thanks to the Robert K. & Anne H. Zelle Fund for the Fine and Performing

Arts of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee for their

funding support for the 2024 Tennessee Arts Academy programs.

Help Support TAA by purchasing a Tennessee Specialty License Plate. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of Tennessee Specialty Plates goes directly to the Tennessee Arts Commission, which in turn, provides grants to the Tennessee Arts Academy. Click here to learn more about the Specialty License Plate program. Buy one today!