Jerome Reed and Kate Goodwin: Gearing up for Governor’s School
This weekend, about 300 rising Tennessee high school juniors and seniors will be heading to Middle Tennessee State University to attend the 2026 Governor’s School for the Arts. Governor Lamar Alexander founded the Governor’s School for the Arts in 1984. His goal was to provide intensive summer training to gifted high school students in music, visual art, theater, dance and film. In this episode of MACC Talk, Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts Director Kate Goodwin and Music Chair Jerome Reed join host John Pitcher to discuss this crown jewel of Tennessee arts programming. The episode is sponsored by Nōssi College of Art & Design in Nashville.
Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts dance students are encouraged to perceive, evaluate and understand dance as a conveyor of culture.
Visual art students at the Governor’s School learn to communicate ideas, feelings and beliefs through painting, sculpture and other visual mediums.
Music students at the Governor’s School take classes in theory, conducting, improvisation, and world music, participating in chamber music as well. They also rehearse within their groups and present several concerts. Vocal music students present concerts as a chorale and a fully staged opera.
Governor’s School film students fulfill crucial crew positions on the set using the same protocol as is conducted in Hollywood studios.
Theater students at the Governor’s School engage in intensive study of performance techniques. The program also includes coursework for students interested in set design.
Robin Willis is the MACC’s Healing Arts Coordinator. She also works as the Exhibition and Events Manager and Director of Outreach. Robin has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She is a multi-discipline artist with emphasis in writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition to her art practices, she holds several healing modalities certificates, such as extensive kundalini yoga teacher training and education, Reiki master, systemic family constellation facilitator, and depth psychology-based therapy trainings. As an avid learner, she explores and encourages others in their exploration in art, psyche, and our relationship to the micro and macro worlds within and around us. Influenced by John Muir’s quote, When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe, she fuses art, healing, and organization throughout her work and personal life as a creative-scientist minded person.
Kaylin Warden
Creative Design and Operations Manager
Kaylin Warden serves as the MACC’s Creative Design and Operations Manager. In this post, she oversees the organization’s graphic design work for exhibitions, events and special projects. She also coordinates the MACC’s arts outreach activities and assists with bookkeeping, among other duties. Kaylin, above all, is passionate about the arts. It comes as no surprise, then, that she is now pursuing a master’s degree in art history. When she’s not at the MACC, you can find her reading her favorite books (especially ones dealing with maritime mysteries), cooking, gardening, playing with her cat and two dogs, and cheering for the Nashville Predators.
Ruth Chase
Regional Arts Director
Ruth Chase is the Regional Arts Director of Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center, joining the team in 2023. For Ruth, the job is all about community, bringing people together to uplift and educate artists and art lovers alike. Her role at Monthaven is to strengthen the local artist community and build connections that will enrich Hendersonville and our surrounding communities through art exhibitions, art education, and opportunities for regional artists.
Prior to joining Monthaven, Ruth worked in the arts for over 30 years and is a multimedia artist and graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artistic practice is inquiry-based and engages in community bridge-building. She was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles, curated and juried exhibitions, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum.
Ruth was awarded an Artist-in-Residence for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for three consecutive years. Her film Belonging screened at both the 18th Annual Nevada City Film Festival and Wild & Scenic Film Festival. She has received the Legendary Female Artist of Venice award, and she has exhibited in The Crocker Kingsley, the Museum of Northern California Art, and the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute. Ruth also continues her work as a Curatorial Consultant and Art director for the Californian Indigenous Research Project, where she has worked with the local tribe since 2018.
