The Tennessee Arts Academy is the nation’s premier professional development institute for arts education. A program of the Tennessee Department of Education, the Academy has been held annually since 1986 on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee! This page will serve as the starting point whenever there is a need to conduct virtual TAA programming. Information will be provided here on when and how to access the virtual site. Please feel free to contact the TAA office by email (taa@belmont.edu) or by phone (615-460-5451) if you desire further information.
Robert Morrison is founder and CEO of Quadrant Research, the nation’s leading arts education research organization, where he has created a deep body of research and policy work. Morrison is recognized as a pioneer in statewide arts education status and condition research. He served as the managing partner for the groundbreaking New Jersey Arts Education Census Project, completing the first statewide census for arts education in every school building. This work has been hailed as a model for statewide arts education research. Morrison also serves as the director of Arts Ed NJ, the statewide arts education advocacy organization that is responsible for the advancement of arts education for all students in New Jersey. He is also the founder of Music for All, where he remains chairman emeritus. He was the first CEO of the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, where he developed and scaled the program to impact thousands of schools and hundreds of thousands of students. He helped create the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, where he became recognized for his work to add the arts as a core subject in the nation’s education goals.
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 a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For eighteen years, she served as an art educator with Bartlett City Schools in Tennessee. 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 has 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’s Art Educator of the Year. She is a frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences.
Gary Hill is a professor of music and the director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University. He taught at Arizona State from 1999 to 2019 and is one of the most sought-after guest conductors and clinicians in the instrumental music education field. As a conductor, he has made appearances in more than a dozen countries and throughout the United States, including performances with myriad honor bands, numerous college and university wind bands and orchestras, and many professional ensembles. He has also been a conductor at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and at conferences of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. As a clinician, Hill has presented hundreds of workshops on conducting and rehearsal technique for music teachers of all levels and has worked with thousands of bands and orchestras and their teachers. Hill is currently a Conn-Selmer educational clinician.
Mark Rohwer is the director of choral activities at Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas. He holds degrees in music education from Northwestern University, the Eastman School of Music, and The Ohio State University. Under Rohwer’s direction, Flower Mound High School choirs have received consistent and numerous awards at concert and sight-reading contests in Texas. They have also received outstanding performance and best-in-class awards at festivals throughout the country. Choirs from Flower Mound High School have performed at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference and the American Choral Directors Association Southwestern Divisional and National conventions. Rohwer is an active member of the Texas Music Educators Association and currently serves as president of Region Two. He is also a member of the Texas Choral Directors Association and was the high school division vice president from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, he has served as a guest lecturer for part of the summer master’s degree program at the University of North Texas.
Natasha Thurmon teaches Kindergarten through fifth grade general music, choir, strings, recorder, and Orff ensemble at Boldt Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. She has degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. She completed her Orff certification training at Trinity University in San Antonio, where she now teaches recorder. Thurmon is past president of the Central Texas Orff chapter, has served on several subcommittees for the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA), and currently serves on the Recorder Teacher Apprenticeship Panel. She has presented numerous local and regional workshops, including for many Orff chapters. She has also presented at state conferences and the national AOSA conference. In addition to these many roles, Thurmon serves on the executive board and professional development committee for her local American Federation of Teachers association.
(Focus Area: Arts Integration, Creative Drama, Movement)
Rachel Hamilton holds degrees from Arizona State University and Texas Woman’s University. She currently works with Thinkery, a children’s museum in Austin, Texas, as vice president of guest experience. At Thinkery she creates welcoming, inclusive, and inquiry-based STEAM programs and museum experiences for learners from birth through age eleven. Before moving to Texas, she ran the theatre division at Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation and was associate director of education at Nashville Children’s Theatre. Hamilton is also a recipient of the National Arts Strategies’ Creative Communities Fellowship and a past member of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission’s Racial Equity in Arts Leadership cadre. Her work focuses on community building, storytelling, and facilitating opportunities for students to use their innate creativity to shape the world into a more vibrant and equitable place.
Rob Roznowski is an award-winning actor, author, director, educator, and playwright. He is a professor at Michigan State University, where he serves as the head of acting and directing in the Department of Theatre. His publications include the books The Introverted Actor, Roadblocks in Acting, Inner Monologue in Acting, and Collaboration in Theatre; numerous plays, and more. He worked as the national outreach and education coordinator for the Actors, Equity Association and has appeared extensively throughout the United States as an actor and director in New York and Los Angeles, and regionally, at Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was part of the original cast of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and can be heard on the show's recording. He has directed internationally in Colombia, Dubai, and Greece, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. Among his many awards are the Mid-Michigan Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Michigan Professor of the Year Award from the President's Council State Universities of Michigan.
Rob Roznowski is an award-winning actor, author, director, educator, and playwright. He is a professor at Michigan State University, where he serves as the head of acting and directing in the Department of Theatre. His publications include the books The Introverted Actor, Roadblocks in Acting, Inner Monologue in Acting, and Collaboration in Theatre; numerous plays, and more. He worked as the national outreach and education coordinator for the Actors, Equity Association and has appeared extensively throughout the United States as an actor and director in New York and Los Angeles, and regionally, at Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was part of the original cast of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and can be heard on the show's recording. He has directed internationally in Colombia, Dubai, and Greece, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. Among his many awards are the Mid-Michigan Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Michigan Professor of the Year Award from the President's Council State Universities of Michigan.
Gary Chapman is an artist and professor of painting and drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Chapman has had more than seventy solo exhibitions with institutions including the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the Arts Center of St. Petersburg in Florida, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Georgia, and the Indianapolis Art Center. He has also participated in numerous group and invitational exhibitions with regional, national, and international venues. Chapman was awarded and named a Joan Mitchell CALL Legacy Artist in 2013 and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a 1996 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting from the Southern Arts Federation. His work has been reviewed extensively and is published in more than twenty catalogs and books, including the four editions of <em>New American Paintings.
Matthew Reinhart is a world-renowned children’s book author, illustrator, and paper engineer who’s best-known for designing the seemingly impossible in his acclaimed pop-up books. He created The New York Times bestselling Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to The Galaxy, Cinderella: A Pop-up Fairy Tale, Dc SuperHeroes: The Ultimate Pop-up Book, and Mommy? with the legendary Maurice Sendak. His series of non-fiction titles, the Encyclopedia Prehistorica trilogy and the Encyclopedia Mythologica trilogy, have been translated into several languages and enjoyed by readers all over the world. His most recent book releases include Nightmare Before Christmas: A Petrifying Pop-up for the Holidays, Harry Potter: A Pop-up Guide to Hogwarts, and Star Wars: The Ultimate Pop-up Galaxy.
Brad Foust is the Bartlett City Schools District Fine Arts Specialist and serves as chair of the Tennessee Council of Visual and Performing Arts Supervisors.
Creative Director Otto Gross has performed with various artists including multi-Grammy Award winners Bobby McFerrin and David Sanborn. Otto has toured the U.S. and other countries, leading musicians in performances of all sorts with his animated and engaging style.
Kimberly VanWeelden, professor of music education at Florida State University, is a choral and general music specialist. She currently serves as the international chair of the Special Music Education and Music Therapy Commission of the International Society for Music Education. She is also past national chair of the Children with Exceptionalities Special Research Interest Group of the National Association for Music Education.
Andrew McMasters is an actor, director and entrepreneur with more than thirty years of experience in the arts. He is the lead training designer and facilitator for ImprovMindset, which provides presentation support and messaging, as well as team building and communication training, all over the world. He has worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies including Amazon, Microsoft, GE, Hasbro, Google, Valve, Nike, and Apple. McMasters is a founder of a non-profit theatre that he managed for twenty-five years. He is dedicated to experiential learning, providing opportunities for self-discovery and driving innovation in our everyday lives. Visit his website at www.ImprovMindset.com.
Leah Towle is a teaching artist focused on fostering student autonomy and activating students' artistry. She teaches youth and adult in creative drama, improv, stage combat, and STEAM at the Lawrence Arts Center, and theater, music, and art at First Five Years Preschool. She has trained through the Lincoln Center Education Teaching Artist Learning Lab, participated in the Kennedy Center Teaching Artist Development Series, holds stage combat actor certifications through Dueling Arts International and the Society of American Fight Directors, and has a degree in elementary education from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas.
Gary Chapman is an artist and professor of painting and drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Chapman has had more than seventy solo exhibitions with institutions including the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the Arts Center of St. Petersburg in Florida, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Georgia, and the Indianapolis Art Center. He has also participated in numerous group and invitational exhibitions with regional, national, and international venues. Chapman was awarded and named a Joan Mitchell CALL Legacy Artist in 2013 and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a 1996 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting from the Southern Arts Federation. His work has been reviewed extensively and is published in more than twenty catalogs and books, including the four editions of <em>New American Paintings.
Matthew Reinhart is a world-renowned children’s book author, illustrator, and paper engineer who’s best-known for designing the seemingly impossible in his acclaimed pop-up books. He created The New York Times bestselling Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to The Galaxy, Cinderella: A Pop-up Fairy Tale, Dc SuperHeroes: The Ultimate Pop-up Book, and Mommy? with the legendary Maurice Sendak. His series of non-fiction titles, the Encyclopedia Prehistorica trilogy and the Encyclopedia Mythologica trilogy, have been translated into several languages and enjoyed by readers all over the world. His most recent book releases include Nightmare Before Christmas: A Petrifying Pop-up for the Holidays, Harry Potter: A Pop-up Guide to Hogwarts, and Star Wars: The Ultimate Pop-up Galaxy.
