The Tennessee Arts Academy honors individuals and organizations each year in a variety of categories during the Bravo Awards Banquet and Performance and during the TAA Finale luncheon. Current and previous award winners are listed below, as well as descriptions of each award category.
Donna Anderson is a much admired and devoted visual art educator from Knoxville, Tennessee. During her forty-year teaching career in the Knox County Schools, she won numerous awards and honors and held many leadership roles in state, regional, and national art education professional organizations. Her first teaching assignment was at Beardsley Junior High, followed by subsequent positions at both South-Young and South-Doyle high schools. She retired from teaching in 2015 from Hardin Valley Academy. As an educator, Anderson taught a wide range of courses in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and AP Art. She was named the South Doyle Teacher of the Year three times and received the Knox County Teacher of the Year award in 1997. She served as president of the Tennessee Art Education Association (TAEA) and was a recipient of the organization’s Tennessee Distinguished Service within the Profession award. TAEA also presented her with the Tennessee Secondary Art Educator of the Year award on more than one occasion, and in 2003, they named her Tennessee Art Educator of the Year. In 2005, Anderson received the Liz Whorley Bradley Professional Growth Award from Delta Kappa Gamma International.
A frequent National Art Education Association (NAEA) conference presenter, Anderson served as the organization’s southeastern regional director from 2005 to 2007. In 2008, she was named the NAEA National Secondary Division Art Educator of the Year. As a professional artist, her work has been seen in many exhibitions, including TAEA’s members art exhibition Connections; the Downtown Gallery’s ArtSource, for which she won best of show; and TVA’s You Gotta Have Art and Diversity. As a Fulbright Scholar, she did research and work in Japan, Egypt, and Israel in 1999 and 2000. She is the author of Experience Printmaking, which is part of a studio series produced for high school students by Davis Publications.
Jeff Calhoun is an award-winning choreographer, dancer, director, and producer. His work has been seen in countless venues from Broadway to London and in theatres across America.
Calhoun began his career as one of the seven brothers in the Broadway production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He then went on to replace Tommy Tune in the Broadway production of My One and Only starring Twiggy and the legendary Charles “Honi” Coles. His Broadway directing debut was Tommy Tune Tonite! at the Gershwin Theater. Calhoun’s collaboration with Tune led to the 1991 Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Will Rogers Follies. As a dancer in the film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Calhoun met Dolly Parton. Just this year, he worked with her again when he directed her show 9 to 5: The Musical on London’s West End as well as on its U.S. and U.K. tours.
Calhoun’s Broadway experience is extensive. He directed the hit Disney musical, Newsies, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards, including for best musical and best director. His revival of Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s Jekyll and Hyde played the Marriott Marquis Theatre following its U.S. National Tour. Also in collaboration with Wildhorn, Calhoun directed and choreographed the Broadway production of Bonnie and Clyde. Calhoun’s numerous other Broadway credits include his roles as producer, director, and choreographer of Brooklyn: The Musical; director and choreographer of the 1994 Broadway Grease revival; co-choreographer with Graciela Daniele of the Broadway Tony Award winning revival of Annie Get Your Gun; and the musical staging for the Tony Award winning Broadway musical Grey Gardens.
His additional projects across the United States include work at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where he directed the critically acclaimed production of Emma: A Musical Romantic Comedy, based on the Jane Austen novel, and co-directed Himself and Nora with Joe Hardy. Calhoun also directed the world premiere production and tours of Disney’s High School Musical: On Stage! and Disney’s High School Musical 2: On Stage! For the North Hollywood, California-based Deaf West Theatre, he directed and choreographed Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum and the company’s Tony Award winning production of Big River.
Calhoun is currently an associate artist at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. He also serves on the board of directors for Covenant House International, a nonprofit organization helping homeless youth in thirty-one cities across six countries.
