• Douglas Anderson Exterior DA in the News
     

    The Resident Community News - July 3, 2022
    Spring 2022 is proving to be a very successful one for the jazz program at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts with success and recognition on the national stage. In May, the school’s SOTA Jazz Ensemble I earned an overall score of 97% and won the National Jazz Festival for high school jazz bands. Its Jazz Combo won the small group category of the festival and trumpeter Giovanni Martinez was named the “Superior Musician” with tenor saxist Ethan King recognized as an “Outstanding Musician”.  []
     
    Jacksonvillejazzfest.com - June 7, 2022
    Don Zentz is the Director of Jazz Studies and serves on the band faculty at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville. Previously he was the Director of Fine & Performing Arts at The Bolles School (Jacksonville), a post he served for twelve years. Now in his thirty-fifth year of teaching, Don has held music professorships at the University of North Florida, Valdosta State University, and Florida Community College at Jacksonville. Prior to college teaching, Don was a high school and middle school band director in Georgia and at Wolfson Senior High School in Jacksonville. His programs earned superior ratings and championship recognition in all areas of band media – concert, marching, and jazz.  []
     
    Broadwayworld.com - June 6, 2022
    On a night they'll never forget at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 400 musical theater students from 30 high schools and nine counties accepted awards at the 8th annual 2022 Applause Awards supported by AdventHealth and Chick-fil-A. At the conclusion of the showcase, two talented students, Samantha Nelson from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and Jackson Chase from Lake Nona High School were named this year's Female Lead Performer and Male Lead Performer respectively. The runners-up were Sirena Mia De La Rosa, also from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and Ethan Garrepy from Winter Park High School. Both Nelson and Chase will go on to participate in the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, known as The Jimmy Awards, in New York City on June 27, 2022. They will compete against 92 of the best musical theater students across the country and be dubbed as the next generation of Broadway stars. [] []
     
    The Resident Community News - June 2, 2022
    In its first year of participating in the Applause Awards, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (DA) received 17 Applause Award wins for its production of A Chorus Line. The awards recognize everyone from set and costume designers to lead actors and actresses. It is a true celebration of all facets of musical theater.  []
     
    Three Douglas Anderson Students Selected For Prestigious National Jazz Bands
    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Press Release - May 3, 2022
    Don Zentz, the Director of Jazz Studies and Ted Shistle, Band Director, at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, are proud to announce that their students have been selected for inclusion in two of the most distinctive high school honor jazz bands and orchestras in the nation: The National Youth Orchestra (Maurice Chakour), National Youth Orchestra (T.J. Shistle) and Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (Giovanni Martinez and Beckett Miles). [Read More]
     

    First Coast News / Firstcoastnews.com - May 3, 2022
    After conducting a national search, the Duval County School District has chosen Tina Wilson as the new permanent principal of Douglas Anderson.
    The district says that Wilson served as principal of the school while also being one of 16 candidates for the permanent role. Going through a rigorous evaluation process, the district says she emerged recently as one of four finalists. []
     
    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - February 21, 2022
    When the School Board decided to open a school for Black children on the Southside, Douglas Anderson and his friend Walter Thorpe worked together to find and acquire the land that would become home to School No. 107, or the South Jacksonville School.  He and others helped build the school (a red-brick section that still stands), and he became one of the original Parent Teacher Association members, serving for years as president. School No. 107 opened in 1922 and served segregated Black students until 1968. After a couple of other incarnations, it reopened in 1985, much renovated, as Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, now a renowned school with graduates active in stage, film, music, art, dance and writing.  []
     

    WJCT News4Jax.com - January 20, 2022
    Local art leaders held adjudication for the 2022 Northeast Florida Scholastic Art Awards on Saturday, Jan. 8, during which they reviewed more than 2,600 student art entries in 16 visual art categories. Douglas Anderson and Bolles Fine Arts were big winners.  []
     

    WJCT News4Jax.com - January 19, 2022
    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (DA) is hosting two nights of creativity, inspiration, and community. Black Art is a club dedicated to showcasing young Black artists at DA.  DA Black Art is hosting the school’s first black-tie affair complete with a jazz trio, catering, and beautiful ambiance on Jan. 20 and Jan 21. “We are kicking off Black History Month with a showcase of Black talent and a gala honoring 100 years of school existence,” DeWitt Cooper III, Director of the Black Art Organization, said.  []
     

    The Resident Community News - October 2, 2021
    Theatre students at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts workshopped for two days last month with guest artist Lenny Banovez. Seniors crafted their college audition pieces and auditioned for summer internships through Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Michigan and the off-Broadway Titan Theatre Company. Banovez serves as the artistic director of both stages.  []
     

    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - February 14, 2020
    Photography students at Jacksonville’s Douglas Anderson School of the Arts are recognizing the school’s African American legacy with an exhibit that opens this week. “Anderson 107 Legacy” consists of 25 large color portraits of people who graduated from the school in the 1950s and ’60s, when segregated schools were legal and Douglas Anderson served Jacksonville’s African American students population. The name of the exhibit is a nod to the earliest days of the school, when it was known as South Jacksonville School 107. Graduates were paired with students in Ingrid Damiani’s phototography class, who interviewed them about their memories and took studio portraits of their subjects. “It was an increible experience for these students to have the opportunity to sit in their high school and learn firsthand about the experiences of those who came before them,” Damiani said. []
     
    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - September 10, 2017
    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts will dedicate the new Augusta Savage Sculpture Garden on Thursday, honoring the sculptor who was born in Green Cove Springs in 1892.  The garden, which features 19 pedestals and six large concrete pads, will exhibit sculptures by current and former DA students alongside local professional artists including Dolf James and Jenny Hager.  []
     
    The Resident Community News - June 2, 2017
    With hoopla and much fanfare, the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Foundation honored Helen Lane’s three decades of giving to the school when it held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the Helen Murchison Lane Art Gallery at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts May 22. []
     
    Jacksonville Free Press - May 25, 2017
    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts was the location for the Young Women of Color Empowerment Conference held last week. The conference marked the ninth year whose mission has been to educate and to empower young women of color with the tools needed to become “change agents.” This year’s theme focused on the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.), with an emphasis on STEM innovation and leadership.
    The forty invited female participants began their day with a challenge by organizer Debbie Rouse.
    “This will be a day of work and engagement! We can’t sit by and expect success to be dropped in our laps. We must take charge, work hard and never give up!” she said. []
     
    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - April 23, 2017
    During a visit to his alma mater last Tuesday, actor Patrick Heusinger told a gathering of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts students they should be prepared for a couple of tough realities if they intend to pursue a professional career in theater, television and film. They should be prepared to leave home, he said. []
     
    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - April 14, 2017
    After 47 years in the Duval County Public Schools, the last 20 as principal of the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Jackie Cornelius was planning a low key approach to her upcoming retirement. But members of the faculty and school supporters, who think Cornelius has been a splendid leader of a school they consider a major asset to Jacksonville, weren’t about to let her go gentle into that good night.
     
    Broadwayworld.com - April 6, 2017
    A.R. Gurney's THE DINING ROOM, a play in two acts, presents the audience with a series of vignettes with nearly 60 characters, all played by only 7 actors. Covering decades of family life for North Eastern "WASPS"s (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants), this disappearing upper middle class is poked fun at in moments, revered in others, and delectably exposed in Douglas Anderson School of the Arts' production of this Pulitzer nominated piece.
    Directed by supernatural force Simone Aiden, you will quickly forget these are high school students - high school students that are fiercely and effectively delivering about 8 characters each in the course of two hours []
     
    The Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville.com - April 3, 2017
    When he was in kindergarten, Seth Gozar was given a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novella “The Little Prince,” which Gozar describes as “a search for a lost childhood.”
    “It made me think I wanted to write a story,” he said.
    And so he wrote a story. He doesn’t remember the first one, but he does remember writing a 30-page account of a trip he made at age 6 to the Philippines, the country from which both his parents had emigrated.
    He’s now a senior at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, where he has been studying creative writing under Liz Flaisig, chairwoman of the creative writing program, who teaches prose, and Tiffany Melanson, who teaches poetry. []
     
    WJXT News4Jax.com - December 6, 2016 
    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts’ top band, the Wind Symphony, gave a concert Tuesday night, previewing the program that the band will perform next week at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.
    Students have been practicing and raising money since this spring to attend the music conference, which is considered one of the nation’s most prestigious gathering of music educators. [] 
     
    Broadwayworld.com - November 14, 2016
    Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be a bad problem to have. During rehearsals for the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts' production of the Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry musical PARADE, director and Theatre Department Co-Chair David Loudermilk realized his student cast would need some hard lessons on embodying the intense negative feelings of prejudice. "I think it's an interesting balance," Loudermilk comments. "With this generation being so open and accepting and understanding of things - especially here at DA - it's hard for the kids to go to the 'other side' of it. They're struggling with getting angry. They just don't know how." []