The Tennessee Disability MegaConference will be begin on Thursday, May 31, and will continue through Friday, June 1, 2012 at the Nashville Airport Marriott, 600 Marriott Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214 with registration beginning at 7 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
http://www.tndisabilitymegaconference.org/
VSA Tennessee will present “VSA TN Careers in the Arts” at the Tennessee Disability MegaConference on Thursday, May 31 8:30 am – 9:15 am and continuing 10:30 am – 10:15 am in Salon A. This program is funded through a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Presenters:
Deanne Collins, Ed.D., choreographer, playwright, director and actress, a VSA TN artist, and current director of Kidz Kompany, a childrens’ theatre program. Deanne has a hearing impairment.
Angela Mosely, BS Music, performs with For His Call, is a regular at the Kentucky Opry, holds the Frederick Chopin Piano Award, won the KMTA Bluegrass Piano Competition, and held 1st place in the VSA TN Young Soloists Competition for numerous years. Angela has a visual impairment.
Bob Stagner has long been a recognized leader in Chattanooga in arts advocacy, co-founded the Shaking Ray Levis and the Shaking Ray Levi Society, a regional director of Rhythmic Arts Project, a VSA TN artist, and is an artist that is endorsed by Pearl Drums.
Presentation Description: Professional-performing artists will share their talents in a 45-minute performance followed by a panel discussion of why they elected a career in the arts and their strategies for being successful. Artists will talk about some of the challenges they have faced while pursuing their career, and how they overcome them. Participants will also enjoy a condensed performance of the historical drama SCATHE, A Civil War Incident in Middle Tennessee written by Deanne Collins and produced by the Tennessee Children’s Home in Cooperation with the Spring Hill Historic Commission with support from the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Arts Commission. Angela Mosley will enthrall participants by offering a sample of the musical ability that earned her a college scholarship and a spot on the Kentucky Opry. Bob Stagner will talk about the range of opportunities in the art of sound and share samples of his most recent works.
Information on the Presenters:
Deanne Collins, Director, Playwright, Teaching Artist. Formerly a Dancer who traveled throughout the United States as one of the original Dance Movement Specialists for the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist-in- Schools Program. Deanne was a presenter for and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and on the artist roster of the Tennessee Arts Commission in Dance and Theatre. She performed and choreographed for the Prime Movers, other Dance companies and University Dance Departments.
Deanne Collins’ education includes a B.F.A. from the University of Oklahoma, a M.Ed. and a Doctorate from Vanderbilt University. She enjoyed a ten year affiliation with Nashville Institute for the Arts in Tennessee and Wolf Trap in McLean Virginia. As Assistant Professor of Speech and Theatre at Lane College in Jackson TN, she developed the curriculum for a degree in Theatre.
Currently Deanne’s spends the major part of the year writing and directing the plays and music for the Spring Hill Library’s Kidz Kompany. Dr. Collins regularly contracts with VSA (Very Special Arts) to conduct residencies in Playwriting and Dance; she acts as a patient simulator at Vanderbilt Medical School and is active in summer art institutes. Publications include pamphlets and booklets relative to dance as an art and movement as a science… Recent Plays she has written and produced include The Nutcracker Story at Rippavilla, Ledbetter’s Family Reunion, and the historical drama with music SCATHE: A Civil War Incident in Middle, TN.
Angela Mosley is a 27 year old from Puryear, Tennessee who has been totally blind since birth. She started playing the piano when she was 4 years old. She is a 3003 graduate of the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville; holds the B.S. in Music from Murray State University, graduating cum laude in 2007; performs weekly at the Kentucky Opry; is pianist for the gospel group For His Call; and regularly performs solo at churches and events. She has won many awards including the PTA Reflections Contest for the state of North Carolina, the Frederick Chopin Piano Award, and the KMTA Bluegrass Piano Competition. You can hear more of Angela’s music at http://www.youtube.com/angelamosley
Bob Stagner is a professional percussionist, teacher and speaker and a recognized leader in Chattanooga arts advocacy for over 25 years. Bob co-founded the free improvisation duo, the Shaking Ray Levis, and the Shaking Ray Levi Society, an arts education organization that supports emerging artists in performance, art and film. Bob is also the Southeast director of the Rhythmic Arts Project that provides music workshops for people with physical and mental disabilities founded by well-known drummer Eddie Tuduri. In addition to an intensive local and national performance and speaking schedule, Bob has an active teaching practice and conducts numerous TRAP workshops through such local, regional and national organizations as Signal Centers, Chattanooga and Hamilton County school systems, Orange Grove, T.C. Thompson’s Children’s Hospital, GoFest, WhoFest and VSA Tennessee. Bob is an endorsed artist with Pearl Drums, and his work has been reviewed in national publications as The New York Times. He has performed and recorded with a number of critically acclaimed artists, including John Zorn, The Rev. Howard Finster, David Greenberger, Fred Drith, Min Tanaka, Amy Denio and Derek Bailey.
Learn more about the Rhythmic Arts Project at http://www.traponline.com/vid.html and find out about the Shaking Ray Levi Society http://www.shakingray.com/introduction.shtml .
CEU’s are being offered through the TN Disability MegaConference and can be found at http://www.tndisabilitymegaconference.org/html/Continuing-Education.html .
