Instructors

Alex Heide | Current APSU Dance Student | Teaches Expressions through Dance I and II

"I knew I wanted to be a dancer at a young age. I loved moving and just wanted to take any dance class I could get in."

Charles Seitzinger | BFA | Teaches Advanced Ceramics

"It is an odd thing, to have made art for most of my life and career but not to have considered taking the title of artist for myself until applying to the Arts program here at Austin Peay. It was then that I cast aside my post retirement wanderlust and focused on becoming an artist."

Dillon Ward | Professional Filmmaker | Teaches The Short Film

"I was first introduced to filmmaking the summer before 5th grade when I took a stop motion animation class. The camera we used took floppy disks, and I can still remember the stacks and stacks of floppy disks everyone had next to their computer while editing."

Karen Orozco | BFA | Teaches Digital Photography

"The hardest part of being an artist is learning how to accept mistakes you make and develop from them. Staying motivated and on task is also hard; especially with all the demands of deadlines, school, work, and family."

Mary Biggers | Knitting Extraordinaire | Teaches Beginning Knitting

"Knitting in a group has always been a joyful experience, people doing what I love and teaching each other different ways of doing or looking at projects."

Megan Cundiff | Current APSU Dance Student | Teaches Ballet, Jazz and Tap

"When I was two, I started ballet classes, and now I have studied abroad in Japan twice, along with other opportunities in NYC dancing at Alvin Ailey and Broadway Dance Center. I have performed at the University of Louisville, East Tennessee State University, Coker College, University of Mississippi, Middle Tennessee State University and of course my college Austin Peay State University."

Rachel Qualls | BFA | Teaches Art for Children and Art for Teens

"My mom always encouraged me and my brother to draw and make things, so I think I knew I was an artist from the time I was very young. Middle school is when I knew I wanted to be an art teacher."

Shana Thornton | Writer and Owner of Thorncraft Publishing | Teaches Creative Writing for Military and Families and Fiction Writing

"Both reading and writing have always been a big part of my life and my routines. Writing is a practice, and many parts of it become better with time and effort."

Tim Pafford | Professional Artist | Teaches Drawing and Mixed Media Painting

"I started drawing cartoons about age 5 and loved it. I especially love to work with mixed media. I specialize in watercolor, oils and pencil."

Tyler Spuzzillo | Current APSU Graduate Student | Teaches Beginning Guitar and Beginning Ukulele

"Music has been a love of mine for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I participated in choirs outside of school (instead of sports) and attended summer music camps. Shortly before I was a teenager, my parents gifted me a "guitar starter kit," which sparked my playing of instruments."

Community School of the Arts Instructors