The Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts (GSFTA) is a four-week residency summer program for high school students gifted in music, visual art, theatre, dance, and filmmaking. Governor Lamar Alexander founded the School for the Arts in 1984, assembling a team of professionals to develop a program for Tennessee that would rival the best summer arts schools in the nation.

Each January more than 1400 students from across Tennessee compete for the 230 available spots at GSFTA. Students in visual arts, film making, and technical theater are accepted after an intense portfolio review, while instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and actors are accepted by audition only. Stewarts Creek High School is sending 13 students, a school record. This represents the second-largest number of students from one school statewide; only one other school in the state, Houston High School in Germantown, is sending more students.

"I cannot wait to attend the Governor's School for the Arts this summer," says Lauren Thomas, Stewarts Creek sophomore who is attending GSFTA for vocal music. "The years of choir classes and voice lessons are paying off and I look forward to improving by surrounding myself with this renowned faculty and talented students."

Students will spend four weeks on the campus of MTSU from June 4 through June 29 with nightly performances and daily rehearsals and workshops. More information can be found at www.gsfta.com.