Interludes

With nineteen years’ experience as a balloon entertainer, Sam the Balloon Man is one of Nashville’s premier balloon artists. He performs at more than three hundred events every year and travels the world as a renowned balloon art instructor. He has received multiple multinational awards for his work, both as an artist and a performer. Sam the Balloon Man will also perform for the Arts Academy Arts Expo on Thursday.

Ronda Friend is a Tennessee children’s author, professional storyteller, songwriter, and musician who has entertained students, staff, and families in more than two thousand schools across America. Friend has also been a children’s director and writer of many children’s musicals.

Catherine Harris is a Nashville-based, board-certified art therapist, registered yoga instructor and mindfulness teacher with fifteen years of experience in the field. She currently works through her own private practice HeartSpace Wellness Studio LLC, and  is a past president of the Tennessee Art Therapy Association.

Catherine Harris is a Nashville-based, board-certified art therapist, registered yoga instructor and mindfulness teacher with fifteen years of experience in the field. She currently works through her own private practice HeartSpace Wellness Studio LLC, and  is a past president of the Tennessee Art Therapy Association.

Amanda Cantrell Roche has more than two decades of experience as an arts integration teaching artist for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. She is also a lead trainer for the organization Narrative 4.

Stephen Coleman is a founding member of ArtsEd Tennessee, a statewide coalition of advocates working together to ensure that every Tennessee student has access to a comprehensive and sequential arts education.He has been a music educator at the middle school, high school and university level. 

‍

Dru Davison is a music program leader for the Memphis-Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, and an active researcher in areas of creative leadership, education policy, and program development. Davison recently served as project chair for the Tennessee State Board of Education’s Standards Revisions for Arts Education. He is active with the National Association for Music Education, with past service as chair of the council of Music Program Leaders, where he oversaw the revisions of Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Music Instruction. Prior to his work in administration, Davison taught instrumental music in rural and urban areas, was an adjunct jazz and saxophone instructor at Arkansas State University, and was a teaching fellow at the University of North Texas, where he received a doctorate in music education. He recently developed a course in creative leadership for Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is also active as a freelance saxophonist in the Memphis area.

Amanda Galbraith is an art educator with the Bartlett City Schools in Tennessee. In 2017–2018, she was an educator fellow with the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, a Tennessee-based nonprofit education research institution. Her students have consistently received recognition and awards, and many have gone on to successfully pursue further studies in the arts. Galbraith has served on the Tennessee Department of Education’s subject matter expert committee, two standards revision committees, a textbook and instructional materials advisory panel, and numerous curriculum development teams. She’s received the Tennessee Art Education Association’s West Tennessee Art Educator of the Year award two times—in 2011 and 2013. In 2019 Galbraith was named the Tennessee Art Education Association Art Educator of the Year. She is a frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences.

Tiffany Kerns is the executive director of the Country Music Association Foundation

Candace Adams has taught music for twenty-two years. She currently works at Freedom Intermediate School in Franklin, Tennessee, where she teaches fifth and sixth grade general music, Orff Orchestra, and honors choir.

Elijah Adams has been a music educator for sixteen years. He is in his eighth year at Moore Elementary School in the Franklin Special School District in Franklin, Tennessee.

‍

Sandra Babb is an assistant professor of choral music education at Oregon State University, where she teaches choral methods, vocal pedagogy, and choral conducting. She also directs OSU Bella Voce, which was recently featured at the 2021 National American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conference. With degrees from Florida State University, Babb is an active conductor and clinician throughout the United States and is well known for her work in developing choral tone. She has co-authored articles for the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, The Journal of Music Teacher Education, and Choral Journal. She is a contributing author for Composing in Choirs and Teaching Music through Performance in Choir: Volume IV, available from GIA Publications, and Voices in Concert, published by the Hal Leonard Corporation. She is also a National Center for Voice and Speech certified vocologist. Babb currently serves as the Oregon ACDA chair for treble choirs and the North West ACDA chair for student activities.

Brenda Gregory hasjust completed forty years as a music educator in Tennessee. She iscurrently the director of choral activities and the fine arts department chairat Siegel High School in Murfreesboro, where she directs the concert choir,chamber choir, Select Singers, and Siegel Chorale.

Otto Gross recently held the role of creative director for QuaverEd, where he helped create thousands of musical compositions and resources for the general music curriculum. He is known by teachers for his popular “Otto Daily Ditty” social media series, in which he turns everyday objects into instruments for musical masterpieces.

Alice Hammel is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She is a member of the faculty of James Madison University and has taught instrumental and choral music for many years in public and private schools. She was the Virginia Music Educator Association Outstanding Educator in 2011, and currently serves as the president of the Virginia Music Educators. Hammel has put her varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for four texts: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach, Teaching Music to Students with Autism, Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings, and Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Practical Resource. Hammel is a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children’s division for visual and performing arts education.

Mark Kinzer currently serves as director of fine arts for Williamson County Schools in Franklin, Tennessee. Prior to this appointment, Kinzer served as director of bands at Fairview High School, Ravenwood High School, Dickson County High School, and was assistant director of bands at Harpeth High School.

Corin Overland is a nationally recognized author, conductor, and educator who specializes in twenty-first century approaches to vocal and general music education. He is an associate professor of professional practice at the University of Miami Frost School of Music and currently serves as the chief academic editor of the Music Educators Journal. Overland is a member of the professional division of the GRAMMY Recording Academy and regularly appears as a guest speaker and clinician for professional development seminars and honors choirs around the country. He has more than fifteen years of experience as a vocal and general music teacher in public and private school settings. His research on labor and economic issues related to arts education can be found in the publications Journal of Research in Historical Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, College Music Symposium, and the International Yearbook on Research in Arts Education.

Kay Piña is a Ph.D. candidate at Pennsylvania State University where she supervises student teachers pursuing certification in music education. Piña has degrees from Texas State University in San Marcos and the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she completed her Dalcroze Eurhythmics certification under David Frego and Marla Butke. She has been named Master Teacher Artist by the American Eurhythmics Society. Before moving into her current role, Piña taught general music to fifth and sixth graders, as well as sixth-grade choir, at Laura Ingalls Wilder Intermediate School in Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District, located near San Antonio, Texas. She also taught elementary music at David Crockett Elementary, now David Crockett Academy, in the San Antonio Independent School District. Piña has completed levels one and two in Kodály music education and level one of Orff-Schulwerk certification.

Julia Heath Reynolds is the newly appointed assistant professor of music education at Belmont University. Before joining the faculty at Belmont, Heath Reynolds taught courses in elementary and secondary methods, music in special education, and coordinated student teaching at Indiana State University. Heath Reynolds is an active presenter and clinician for many organizations.

Matthew Stensrud is an award-winning elementary music and movement teacher who currently teaches music and movement to students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade at Sidwell Friends Lower School in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, and received degrees from George Mason University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Stensrud is an Orff-Schulwerk approved teacher educator of movement and teaches movement for Orff certification courses in New Jersey and Oregon. He is also on The Orff Echo editorial board and was a key content contributor to the book Responsive Classroom for Music, Art, PE, and OtherSpecial Areas. He is well-known on social media as @MisterSOrff and offers newsletters, mentoring, lesson plans, and more through his website MisterSOrff.com

Lois Wiggins is a retired band director who taught for thirty-three years in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. She holds degrees from Austin Peay State University, the University of Georgia, and Western Kentucky University. Wiggins is past state band chair for the Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA) and served for ten years as band content area leader for the Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky. She is currently a co-conductor with the Central Kentucky Youth Repertory Orchestra. During her career, she has served as a guest conductor for numerous honor bands and has adjudicated at concert band, marching band, and solo and ensemble festivals throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Wiggins is a 2016 Grammy Music Educator Award National finalist. Additional recognitions she has received are Outstanding Bandmaster by Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity in 2010 and KMEA Middle School Teacher of the year in 2000. In February 2022, Wiggins was inducted into the Psi Chapter of the Phi Beta Mu Band Masters Fraternity Hall of Fame.

Nancy Beard recently retired from the Shelby County School District, where she worked with English language learners. Prior to this, Beard taught Orff Music in the Memphis and Shelby County schools. She has also taught band, chorus, and general music in Illinois and Kentucky.

Andy Bleiler serves as assistant professor of theatre, scenic designer, and production manager at Lipscomb University. His resume includes scenic designs for Lipscomb University, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Vanderbilt Opera Theatre, Blackbird Theater, and the Thalian Theatre in North Carolina.

Katie Bruno is the director of education at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. She has been a professional actor and musician for the past ten years in New York and Tennessee and proudly holds a degree in Musical Theatre from the University of Miami, in Florida.

Denice Hicks has been the Nashville Shakespeare Festival executive artistic director since 2005. An advocate for empowering students through creativity, she has edited and directed touring productions of Shakespeare’s works, developed workshops for students of all ages, and created the Festival’s Apprentice Company Training and Shakespeare Allowed programming.

Faith Hillis is a teaching artist, poet, and performance maker from Houston, Texas, and the capacity building manager for Arts Connect Houston. Hillis has worked with various national and global communities and organizations including: Drama for Schools, Voices Against Violence, Creative Action, the Performing Justice Project, and the United States Embassy in Sarajevo. She has degrees from Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Her master’s thesis, Emergent Strategy in Applied Theatre with Youth: Traversing Fear and Creating Justice, examines how artist-facilitators can use performance-based work with youth to help their bodies move past fear in order to envision and perform justice. Hillis is passionate about continuously working in and with communities that actively center justice, equity, and love as an embodied practice.

‍

Jim Hoare is the executive vice president at TRW and the author of Your High School Improv Show Playbook and Your School Theatre Director’s Playbook. This is his forty-fifth year in educational theatre. Hoare has presented workshops throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2011, he received the New York State Theatre Education Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jim Hoare is the executive vice president at TRW and the author of Your High School Improv Show Playbook and Your School Theatre Director’s Playbook. This is his forty-fifth year in educational theatre. Hoare has presented workshops throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2011, he received the New York State Theatre Education Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Colleen Hughes is a teaching artist, movement director, and choreographer, as well as a certified intimacy director with the organization Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, where she is also on the staff. Hughes is trained in trauma-informed practices, which are central to her work. She builds her work on a foundation of trust in the humanity of artists and the importance of theatre as a means of connection, communication, and compassion. Her work has been seen in dozens of regional and off-Broadway productions along the east coast, including the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Lantern Theatre Company, Curio Theatre Company, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Simpatico Theatre Company, Drexel University, and Commonwealth Classic Theatre. Hughes holds a degree in theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has also trained at the Stella Adler Studio. She has taught dance and theatre to students in grades kindergarten through twelve for more than a decade.

Kendra Kahl is a performer, director, and teaching artist based in Tempe, Arizona. She currently teaches for Childsplay Theatre Company, Desert Foothills Theatre, and Arizona State University. She has previously taught, directed, and performed with the Rose Theater, Lexington Children’s Theatre, IMAGINE!, and the Virginia Samford Theatre. Kahl’s teaching artistry includes conservatory acting training, social justice building with teens, applied theatre workshops in non-theatre work and education settings, and residencies and classroom partnerships in elementary and middle schools. She is also a playwright. Her work has been performed at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Thought Bubble Theatre Festival, the Rose Theater, and Samford University. Her newest commission, The One Between, will premiere at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Kahl is an active member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education for which she chairs the New Guard Network.

Jennifer Keith is the founder of the Grassland Middle School drama program in the Williamson County Schools. In 2014, she was named Grassland Middle School Teacher of the Year and in 2022 was named as a Tennessee Excellence in Education award finalist. Keith is an avid traveler who regularly brings global experiences back to her students and curriculum.

E. Roy Lee has been performing improv for more than a decade. He is an alumni of iO Chicago’s improv program, and has learned from many wise improv gurus over the years, including Laura Hall (Whose Line Is It Anyway) and Kevin McDonald (Kids In the Hall). Roy is also the founder of M-Prov (Murfreesboro Improv) and a former member of Nashville Improv Company.

Morgan Matens has worked in the Nashville area for the last ten years as a puppet designer and fabricator, set designer, and arts educator. Matens graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in set design and also received a degree in sculpture. She currently works as a freelance illustrator and sculptor.

Mileah Milstead is a teaching artist and performer in the Nashville area. She has worked with children from age four to eighteen and has taught with Nashville Children’s Theatre, Expression City Arts and Fitness, and the Rose Theater in Omaha, Nebraska. She has taught a variety of classes, including creative drama adventures, sketch comedy, and script analysis.

‍

Mila Parrish is a professor of dance at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where she is the director of dance education. An active scholar, Parrish’s research has established new trends in curricula design, assessment, and teacher training. Her publications appear in the Journal of Dance Education, Research in Dance Education, Arts Education Policy Review, and Journal for Learning through the Arts, among others. She is internationally recognized for her scholarship in digital dance, somatics, and interdisciplinary instruction. A leader in the dance education community, Parrish has offered more than one hundred professional development courses, seminars, and workshops worldwide.  She serves as special guest faculty with the Dance Education Laboratory at the 92Y Harkness Dance Center in New York City and American Dance Festival. Parrish is the recipient of the leadership award for her community initiatives and theOutstanding Dance Teacher in Higher Education Award from the National Dance Education Organization.

Before her retirement in May of 2008, Susan Ramsay was a music specialist at Franklin Elementary School in the Franklin Special Schools District and was named Teacher of the Year for that system. She has received National Board Certification in Music and holds degrees from Peabody College and Middle Tennessee State University. Ramsay is past president of the Middle Tennessee Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Middle Tennessee Elementary Music Educators Association and has served as regional representative on the National Board of Trustees for AOSA. She has presented at Orff and Kodaly national conferences and for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). She serves as an adjunct professor at several colleges and universities and maintains an active schedule of performances as a storyteller and as a musician.

Before her retirement in May of 2008, Susan Ramsay was a music specialist at Franklin Elementary School in the Franklin Special Schools District and was named Teacher of the Year for that system. She has received National Board Certification in Music and holds degrees from Peabody College and Middle Tennessee State University. Ramsay is past president of the Middle Tennessee Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Middle Tennessee Elementary Music Educators Association and has served as regional representative on the National Board of Trustees for AOSA. She has presented at Orff and Kodaly national conferences and for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). She serves as an adjunct professor at several colleges and universities and maintains an active schedule of performances as a storyteller and as a musician.

Marcelo Tesón is an award-winning filmmaker and teacher with more than two decades of classroom experience. He started his career as a sound editor at Sony Pictures and Universal Studios, where his professional credits included the TV shows Law & Order, Arrested Development, and Psych, as well as the Peabody Award-winning documentary Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four. As an instructor, Tesón teaches young people the art of filmmaking and radio with organizations such as the Traveling Film Institute and Texas Folklife, where he was the director of the award-winning Stories from Deep in the Heart, a radio program for teachers. He is founder and director of the Creative Action Youth Cinema Collective, a program that brings young people together from all over Austin to make socially relevant cinema. In 2016, the collective won the South by Southwest Community Award for their work lifting up the youth voices of Central Texas. A first-generation immigrant from Argentina, Tesón is currently in post-production on his first feature film as director, Touchy-Feely, which is scheduled for release in 2023.

‍

Marcelo Tesón is an award-winning filmmaker and teacher with more than two decades of classroom experience. He started his career as a sound editor at Sony Pictures and Universal Studios, where his professional credits included the TV shows Law & Order, Arrested Development, and Psych, as well as the Peabody Award-winning documentary Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four. As an instructor, Tesón teaches young people the art of filmmaking and radio with organizations such as the Traveling Film Institute and Texas Folklife, where he was the director of the award-winning Stories from Deep in the Heart, a radio program for teachers. He is founder and director of the Creative Action Youth Cinema Collective, a program that brings young people together from all over Austin to make socially relevant cinema. In 2016, the collective won the South by Southwest Community Award for their work lifting up the youth voices of Central Texas. A first-generation immigrant from Argentina, Tesón is currently in post-production on his first feature film as director, Touchy-Feely, which is scheduled for release in 2023.

‍

Daniel Bird Tobin is a director, performer, science communicator, and theatre archaeologist. He has performed solo shows across the United States and in England (An Iliad and Conqueror of the Western Marches are two favorites). Tobin has worked with fabulous artists, such as Liz Lerman, Danai Gurira, and Aaron Landsman, and assisted the amazing directors Emily Mann, John Doyle, and Sam Buntrock. A graduate of the master’s degree in performance program at Arizona State University, Tobin has trained and worked with Dance Exchange, the SITI Company, Tectonic Theatre Project, and the Globe Theatre in London. Currently, he is a theatre specialist in the English Department at Saint Anselm College and a Senior Faculty Fellow in the Center for Communicating Science at Virginia Tech. You can find examples of his work at DanielBirdTobin.com.

David Arnold has been a caricaturist based mainly in Nashville, Tennessee, for more than forty years. He learned his craft while in high school so he could work a summer job at Opryland USA theme park. Through his company, Caricatures, etc., Arnold provides art entertainment, such as caricature artists, face painters, balloon artists, and magicians, to the public.

Jeremy Blair is an assistant professor of art education at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Jim Dodson has been an art teacher in the Oak Ridge school system since 1987. In 1998, he was recognized as the Tennessee Art Educator of the Year, and in 1999, he was named the National Middle School Art Educator of the Year. He is currently serving his second four-year term as a city councilman in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Beth Edwards was born in Alabama and lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee. She received degrees from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and from Indiana University. Edwards has had an active thirty year career in painting, exhibiting, and teaching. She taught painting at the University of Memphis for twenty-one years and is the recipient of many awards, grants, commissions, and residencies. Recent awards and honors include the Distinguished Research Award and the Alumni Association Distinguished Achievement in the Creative Arts Award from the University of Memphis, and the Arts Accelerator Grant and the Emmett O-Ryan Award for Artistic Inspiration from the organization ArtsMemphis.  In 2013, Edwards was awarded a commission from the city of Memphis for her Willow Park mural and was also named artist for Memphis in May honoring Sweden. Edwards has participated in solo and group exhibitions in galleries, museums, institutions, and organizations across the United States, including the Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Alabama; the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis; the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago; the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock; Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi; and the San Francisco International Fine Arts Exposition. She is represented by the David Lusk Gallery.

Frist staff members who will present include Anne Henderson, director of education and engagement; Meagan Rust, interpretation director; and Jenneh Kamara, educator for teacher and school programs. Together, they have almost fifty years of combined museum education experience. Their areas of expertise include developing exhibition interpretation, educator resources, and programs that address a variety of audiences, including educators.

Janet Laws is a TAA visual art facilitator. She teaches secondary visual art at Brentwood Academy, in Brentwood, Tennessee. Laws is an advocate for collaboration and works with other local teachers to provide critique to AP portfolios in progress.

Best known for his monumental sculptures in Middle Tennessee, Alan LeQuire began his artistic career at the age of eleven, when he crafted his first objects in copper and tin. His most well-known works include the statue of Athena in the Parthenon in Nashville’s Centennial Park, Musica at the foot of Nashville’s Music Row, and the multimedia installation Dream Forest.

Danielle McDaniel, the Clay Lady, has dedicated her life to the transformative power of art by teaching clay to hundreds of thousands of children and ensuring clay would be taught in the classroom by educating art teachers. She created The Clay Lady’s Campus, an art community in Nashville Tennessee, which sees more than five hundred students and artists each week, filling studios and classrooms with enhancing, creative endeavors.

Lesley Patterson-Marx has exhibited her artist’s books, prints, and mixed-media works in many galleries, art centers, colleges, and universities across the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Craft, and ReadyMade and can be found in the permanent collections of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, Mississippi University for Women, and Noelle Hotel. Patterson-Marx received degrees from Murray State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 1999, she has taught classes and workshops in a variety of media for groups of all ages. She has worked as a college and high school instructor and has taught at Appalachian Center for Craft; Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film; University School of Nashville; and Tennessee State University. You can find examples of her work at LesleyPattersonMarx.com.

David Reynolds is in his tenth year teaching art to elementary students in the Franklin Special Schools District. He has presented workshops at the national level, served as a TAA visual art facilitator, and received the Tennessee Art Education Association award  in 2021 for distinguished service to the profession.

The process of painting on silk fabric originated in Asian countries such as India, Thailand, and Vietnam. Participants in this session will have the opportunity to paint on silk and walk away with a painted creation of their own.

Ken Snyder has twenty-eight years of experience teaching art classes to students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a rural elementary school in East Tennessee. Snyder has participated in TAA for more than twenty years and served as a facilitator for the last several years.