The Tennessee Arts Academy is the nation’s premier professional development institute for arts education. A program of the Tennessee Department of Education since 1986, TAA offers a wide variety of year-round services to K-12 arts educators including a summer institute, workshops, master classes, scholarships, award recognition programs and mentorships.
This page serves as the starting point whenever there is a need to conduct virtual TAA programming. Information will be provided on upcoming TAA events, including dates, times and how to access the virtual site.
Please feel free to contact the TAA office by email (taa@tnartsacademy.org) or by phone (615-988-6250) if you desire further information.
Josh Drews is an artist and art educator who lives in Columbia, South Carolina, and has been teaching visual art at Spring Valley since 2001. He has assisted in the development of an arts curriculum for South Carolina, including co-authoring the state’s Media Arts standards, and he has written state curriculum guides for media arts and printmaking. Drews serves as the National Art Education Association (NAEA) southeast region vice president, the chair of the NAEA Advocacy Task Force, and is the former president of the South Carolina Art Education Association. He has been recognized as the 2020 NAEA National Secondary Art Educator of the Year, the 2021 Winthrop University Fine Arts Alumni of the Year, and he received the Mac Arthur Goodwin Award in 2022 for his work in visual arts education through the utilization of community arts resources. Drews is also an avid print maker and working artist.
Many educators have been seeking ways to advocate for art education. This session will provide ideas for sharing what is happening in arts classrooms with decision makers and provide ideas for applying classroom leadership practices in new ways.
Kevin Thomas, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Montreal, is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and educator. He’s been performing internationally for a decade, beginning his professional career as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and later becoming a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Thomas has performed leading roles in numerous ballets, including The Prodigal Son, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Nutcracker. Among other credits, he has appeared with the Royal Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera. In 2006, Thomas co-founded the Memphis-based company Collage Dance Collective with Marcellus Harper to promote diversity in classical ballet. The organization has quickly grown to boast an international touring professional company and nationally recognized conservatory, training more students of color in a classical art form than any other nonprofit in the region. Collage was recently named a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts and the Ford Foundation.
Kevin Thomas, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Montreal, is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and educator. He’s been performing internationally for a decade, beginning his professional career as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and later becoming a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Thomas has performed leading roles in numerous ballets, including The Prodigal Son, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Nutcracker. Among other credits, he has appeared with the Royal Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera. In 2006, Thomas co-founded the Memphis-based company Collage Dance Collective with Marcellus Harper to promote diversity in classical ballet. The organization has quickly grown to boast an international touring professional company and nationally recognized conservatory, training more students of color in a classical art form than any other nonprofit in the region. Collage was recently named a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts and the Ford Foundation.
.png)
