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.
Silvia Scaife serves as director of career and technical education for Auburn City Schools, where she has reached across curriculum and discipline aisles to teach college and career readiness to secondary students. She has been named teacher of the year at every grade level from kindergarten to twelfth grade and was one of the top five 2006 finalists for Alabama’s Teacher of the Year. Scaife has degrees from Troy University and Auburn University, where she also received a PhD in curriculum and teaching. She serves as an elected governing board member for the Educational Theatre Association, is the mentoring coordinator for the Alabama Thespian Festival, and has adjudicated for Alabama, Georgia, and the International Thespians Festivals. With more than twenty-eight years of service to education, Scaife continues to explore and implement innovative ways that will foster a thirst for learning.
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.
Lynnette Young Overby is the former director of the Community Engagement Initiative and the founding director of the Partnership for Arts & Culture at the University of Delaware. She also serves as artistic director of the Sharing Our Legacy Dance Theatr and was president of the National Dance Association, the Michigan Dance Council, and the Delaware Dance Education Organization. Overby received the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Dance Education Organization. She is a member of the National Council on the Humanities and was recently inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship.
In this session, participants will experience the ways that any curriculum can move! No dance experience is needed to creatively embody concepts in science, math, or literature.
Lauralee Chambers has taught kindergarten through fifth grade students for more than twenty-five years as an art educator in the Mt. Pleasant School District in Westchester, New York. Chambers believes that children are born to create, express, and find both comfort and challenge in the arts. She has a passion for collecting ideas and putting things together in unique ways, both in her own art as well as with her students. Chambers has been instrumental in integrating the arts across the curriculum and developing unique programs such as Avenues to Artists, Artists to Authors, Discovery Days, Summer Voyage, and Unified Arts. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Artsonia Leadership Award.
This hands-on interlude will walk participants through the steps of creating a simple zine with learners. Ideas on how these mini-booklets can grow into engaging, meaningful projects will also be provided, all without the need for devices! A zine (short for "magazine") is a mini, self-published booklet that starts with an idea and evolves into a unique medium! Zines encourage creativity, build fine motor skills, and promote exploration and sharing.
Materials needed: Participants will need a sheet of copy paper, a pencil, scissors, and a glue stick. Everything else is up to your imagination!
Lauren Cochran is an art educator with more than a decade of experience serving both kindergarten through twelfth grade public and non-profit arts organizations. Cochran studied printmaking at Auburn University, completed her master’s degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and then earned a doctorate from Carson-Newman University. Presently she is teaching visual arts in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools as well as running her own side business, Crafternoon with Dr. Cochran, which offers art experiences for all ages.
This engaging and interactive workshop integrates Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) with the creation of self-portraits, inviting students in grades kindergarten through five to explore their identities, foster a sense of belonging, and express themselves through various materials and mediums. Through the use of literature, creative art supplies, and diverse approaches, students will engage in a multi-faceted journey of self-discovery and expression, all while cultivating emotional awareness, empathy, and community building.
Materials needed: Participants will need crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint and brushes, paper, fabric scraps, beads, and other mixed-media materials.
Born and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Garcia received a degree in art education with a concentration in printmaking from Fayetteville State University. She taught in public schools for six years and recently stepped out of the classroom to focus on her children and be a full time artist. Garcia plans to get her master’s degree and go back to teaching.
This session will present an easy and effective way for students to create a multipurpose sketchbook from paper bags or gift bags, reinforcing the teaching standards to recycle and reuse. The paper bags create pockets to store collage materials or reference images. They are also durable with almost any medium, and have a nice, toned background to enhance color and value. The presenter will share a few tutorials that can be used in the classroom, as well as the slideshow used for the interlude.
Materials needed: Large brown paper bag or gift bag with handles (at least 8 by 10 inches or larger). These materials should be something you can get for free at most grocery stores. You can also use a re-used gift bag from a previous holiday or event. Brown lunch paper bags work well too, and you can make about 8-10 sketchbooks from one purchased package. You will also need scissors, glue, and any writing or drawing instruments you wish to use.
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.
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