Community Education Program Instructors

Gloria Ballard
B.A., The University of Tennessee
Gloria Ballard is a native of Nashville, where she enjoyed a 32-year career in journalism as a feature writer and editor at The Tennessean before leaving the newspaper business to become a freelance writer. During her career, she covered fashion, home design, gardening, travel and other features, and was travel editor at The Tennessean from 1998 until 2006. Currently, Gloria writes a weekly garden column for The Tennessean, garden and travel features, stories and essays, maintains a blog, and leads creative writing workshops. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee. Gloria also writes fiction, and was a 2004 participant at Sewanee Writers Conference. She is currently working on a variety of projects, is a member and past board member of the Tennessee Writers Alliance, and serves on the Wilson County Black History Committee in Lebanon, Tenn.

Bob Giordano
Screenwriter/Director
Bob Giordano has had an active role in the Tennessee Screenwriters Association (TSA), serving as the President in 1998 and co-creating the Script Development Program which assists writers in developing their screenplays from concept to completion.  In 1997 Mr. Giordano received an honorable mention at the Nashville Independent Film Festival for writing, directing and producing his short film Blind Spot.  In 2002, he won the Hollywood Symposium Contest for his feature-length script Grendel and in 2001 was the winner of the Writer’s Network Screenplay competition for the feature-length script Resistance. 

Brady Haston
B.F.A., Middle Tennessee State University
M.F.A., Montana State University- Bozeman
Brady Haston is a Tennessee native who received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking and Painting from Montana State University. He recently left a teaching position at Columbia College in Chicago, to come back to Tennessee and teach Printmaking courses at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film. Mr. Haston has shown his work at venues such as the Temporary/Contemporary gallery at the Cheekwood Museum of Art, Zeitgeist Gallery, Vanderbilt, and the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago.

Sarah-Jane Hill
B.F.A., Whitman College
M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts
Sarah-Jane Hill started her career in Los Angeles, California working as a private acting coach and studio teacher. While in LA Sarah-Jane was able to work with famous actors Josh Hartnett, Patrick Fluegar, and Amy Adams just to name a few. Before going out on her own Sarah-Jane worked as a manager at Nancy Kremer Management while attending graduate school at CalArts. Sarah-Jane Hill was an agent at the Eleanor Moore Agency and worked as a casting director at Lynn Blumenthal Casting. Lynn Blumenthal and Sarah-Jane worked searches for hundreds of projects for Disney, ABC, and Fox.

Rob McClurg
B.F.A., East Texas State University
M.F.A., Texas A&M University
Rob McClurg received his M.F.A in Ceramics from Texas A&M University. He began teaching in 1986 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago spending many years teaching various ceramics, firing and kiln building techniques. Mr. McClurg later began teaching at Oxbow School of Painting in Michigan, where he also the coordinated the ceramics program.  He is currently an adjunct instructor at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film teaching both ceramics and 3D design. In addition to teaching Mr. McClurg shows his fine ceramics at galleries such as Sarratt and Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center.

Steve Reed
B.A., Western Kentucky University
M.Div., Lexington Theological Seminary
currently Ed.D. Doctoral program, Vanderbilt University
Steve Reed has been an instructor with Watkins College of Art, Design & Film for over fifteen years.  His experience as a photographer and as an instructor brings a high level of professionalism to the classroom.  Mr. Reed has been a freelance photographer for many years and currently serves as the registrar at Belmont University.

Elizabeth Sanford
B.A., University of Virginia
M.F.A., East Carolina University
Elizabeth Sanford is a nationally known artist whose unusually fluid approach to watercolor has won wide recognition. Her work is inspired by the mystery and drama of the natural world and by the nature of watercolor itself-the interaction of water and color and white paper. Ms. Sanford has participated in numerous juried competitions and has won a number of awards, including First Place in both the Tennessee and Kentucky Watercolor Society Exhibitions. Her paintings are included in many public and private collections, including the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Parthenon Collection. Her work has also been featured in Maxine Masterfield’s Painting the Spirit of Nature. In addition to her art making practice, Ms. Sanford has been teaching art for more than twenty years.

Sara Wilhelm
B.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University-Richmond VA
M.A., California State University of Dominguez Hills
Sara Wilhelm has been teaching art at Stratton Elementary, a Nashville Public School, since she relocated here from Richmond, VA in 1998. While in college she had the opportunity to study abroad in London and
learn about Contemporary Art and Photography through the American College of London. Sara’s paintings and photographs have been shown at the Anderson Gallery of Richmond, VA, as well as the Ultimate Art
Gallery in Nashville, TN.  In 2006, Sara completed her Master’s degree in Art History through the California State University of Dominguez Hills. Her aspiration is to teach Art History at the collegiate level.