Charlie Hounchell Art Stars Scholarship
Tampa Bay BCA annually awards six or more scholarships to Tampa Bay area high school students with exceptional talents in instrumental and vocal music, theater, dance, visual and literary arts. The program was founded in 2008 by the late Charlie Hounchell, a former president of Tampa Bay BCA. It was later renamed in his honor. Tampa Bay BCA has awarded over $280,000 in financial tuition assistance to more than 102 Tampa Bay area students, the majority from public high schools.
The 2026 CHASS Application Process will open shortly. Thank you for your patience. A draft copy is available below to prepare in advance of the application opening.
Meet Our Past Charlie Hounchell Art Stars
Instrumental Music
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Being a sibling to someone with unique challenges has fueled my passion for compassionate service. These experiences drive my MDPhD goal—serving as a physician, researcher, and philanthropist. I actively seek opportunities to grow and contribute, including founding a nonprofit for accessible music education: thehealingharmony.org. This scholarship will support my educational journey, expand my nonprofit’s impact across the U.S. and India, and further my commitment to inclusive, community-driven service. The Charlie Hounchell scholarship will play a significant role in amplifying my personal and professional growth.
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Item dPaul Wilborn is the Executive Director of the Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg College. Under his leadership, the Palladium has won numerous “Best of the Bay” awards and is recognized as the top venue for jazz, blues, choral music, chamber music, and dance in the bay area. Paul is a pianist, musician, and bandleader. His American Songbook Series presents intimate cabaret shows at American Stage Theater and other venues around Florida. As founder and leader of Paul Wilborn and the Pop Tarts, he played most major venues in the Tampa Bay area for 15 years. He is a founding member of the WMNF and Studio at 620 Radio Theater Project and contributes radio plays to the project. Paul Wilborn serves as an adjudicator in a number of music competitions. Previously, Wilborn worked for Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio as Manager of Creative Industries, including directing Arte 2007, Tampa Bay’s Festival of Latin American Arts. He was an award-winning reporter and columnist for the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Associated Press in Los Angeles, and a member of the St. Petersburg Times’ Editorial Board for two years. Paul Wilborn is a University of South Florida graduate and a Tampa native. His collection of short fiction, Cigar City: Tales From a 1980s Creative Ghetto, won the gold medal for fiction in the 2019 Florida Book Awards. His new novel, Florida Hustle, will be released in June.escription
Literary Arts
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After high school, I want to keep on telling stories to those around me. Whether it's writing a book, participating in a contemporary fashion show, joining the world of photojournalism, or even just writing a silly Tumblr blog, I want to be there on all steps of the way. I want to seize every opportunity I can and find places to bring narratives to life. My mind is an enigma. It's sealed away behind the locked cages of creativity. I want to go to a school and make art to express these inner workings.
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Shane Hinton is an Associate Teaching Professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa. Hinton’s work focuses on the absurd and the horrific in contemporary society. He often writes about Florida and is an active member of the local literary community. Hinton is the author of three books: Pinkies (2015), Radio Dark (2019) and Other Shane Hintons (forthcoming 2025), and is the editor of the anthology We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida (2017). His work has been published in literary magazines and exhibited at national and international conferences.
Dance
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I’m a New Artist with Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, having trained at Patel Conservatory since age 4. While I’ve always planned to attend college, I hope to continue dancing while developing business skills—possibly to design athletic wear. I’ve been accepted to strong Florida universities and top ballet programs out-of-state, but costs are high without major scholarships. Bright Futures makes staying in Florida likely. I’m also exploring second majors like graphic or interior design.
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Helen Hansen French received her BFA from The Juilliard School and her MFA from Hollins University. In 2001 she was invited to join Buglisi Dance Theatre (NYC), where she rose to principal dancer and served as rehearsal director. Tobi Tobias of the NYC Village Voice hailed her as “altogether luminous,” and Nancy Wozny of ArtsHouston says her “generous and radiant performance stands out.” She has toured nationally and internationally and has been instrumental in staging BDT’s works at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pieve International School in Italy, North Carolina Dance Theater, and numerous colleges and universities throughout the United States. She has also been a member of Karen Reedy Dance, performed with Nilas Martins’ Dance Company, participated in a residency at White Oak Dance working with choreographer Adam Hougland, and performed in the Guggenheim’s Works/Process program with Brian Reeder and Pam Tanowitz. As a choreographer and movement maker Mrs. French focuses on collaborations and exploring the relationship between dance and other art forms. She has been awarded a 2015, 2016, and 2017 Individual Artist Grant from the City of St. Petersburg and a 2016 and 2021 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Grant. In 2021 Helen was selected to be the Artist Laureate for Creative Pinellas. Her highly collaborative work has been shown in theaters, museums, galleries, and non-traditional performance spaces. Helen is an artist in residence at the Palladium Theater, where she co-produces Beacon: a performance series for St. Pete, now entering its eighth year. As an educator and arts advocate, she has served on numerous dance faculties, including George Mason University and The Juilliard School. Helen is on faculty at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School. She is a founding member of the St. Petersburg Dance Alliance and the Board Chair of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance.
Instrumental Music
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I plan to major in music in college to study and learn more in-depth about music, especially the criteria of the violin. I strongly believe in the power of music to speak and express beyond words especially in times of conflict. My future plan is to become a professional artistic violinist and chamber musician who can teach and share, hopefully as a professor at a college of music, the excellence of violin and the wonder of music as I have been given.
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Paul Wilborn is the Executive Director of the Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg College. Under his leadership, the Palladium has won numerous “Best of the Bay” awards and is recognized as the top venue for jazz, blues, choral music, chamber music, and dance in the bay area. Paul is a pianist, musician, and bandleader. His American Songbook Series presents intimate cabaret shows at American Stage Theater and other venues around Florida. As founder and leader of Paul Wilborn and the Pop Tarts, he played most major venues in the Tampa Bay area for 15 years. He is a founding member of the WMNF and Studio at 620 Radio Theater Project and contributes radio plays to the project. Paul Wilborn serves as an adjudicator in a number of music competitions. Previously, Wilborn worked for Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio as Manager of Creative Industries, including directing Arte 2007, Tampa Bay’s Festival of Latin American Arts. He was an award-winning reporter and columnist for the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Associated Press in Los Angeles, and a member of the St. Petersburg Times’ Editorial Board for two years. Paul Wilborn is a University of South Florida graduate and a Tampa native. His collection of short fiction, Cigar City: Tales From a 1980s Creative Ghetto, won the gold medal for fiction in the 2019 Florida Book Awards. His new novel, Florida Hustle, will be released in June.
Visual Arts
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With aspirations in animation and cinematic arts, I plan to further my education at an art school. I've been accepted to RCAD, SAIC, SCAD, RISD, SVA, and DePaul University. I aim to use this scholarship to fund my creative growth. I believe success comes with action, and I plan to gain experience through internships, motion graphics study, and eventually create work representing Haiti, my heritage, and combat negative stigmas through purposeful storytelling and media representation.
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Joanna Robotham joined the Tampa Museum of Art staff as the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2016. Ms. Robotham was part of the inaugural 2017 curatorial team for Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration, a triennial of local artists working in the Tampa Bay area and mounted at museums across the region and in 2021, was one of five curators collaborating on the second presentation of Skyway. In June 2020, Ms. Robotham curated the Frank Stella: What You See the exhibition, an intimate survey of the artist’s printmaking oeuvre, and organized a series of exhibitions celebrating the Tampa Museum of Art’s 100th anniversary. She curated the Fall 2019 exhibition series Ordinary/Extraordinary: Assemblage in Three Acts: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Purvis Young, and Haitian Vodou Flags. Past original curatorial projects at the Tampa Museum of Art include Vapor and Vibration: The Art of Larry Bell and Jesús Rafael Soto (2018), as well as Mernet Larsen: Getting Measured, 1957-2017 (2017), a retrospective of Mernet Larsen’s paintings. Ms. Robotham previously held the Neubauer Family Foundation Assistant Curator position at the Jewish Museum in New York City, where she worked for over ten years. She received her M.A. in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. She earned a B.A. in Art History and Political Science from the University of Washington.
Vocal Music
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My major in college is going to be a choral music education. Teachers are pivotal to the development of our modern complex society. My journey with music, and wanting to become an educator, wouldn’t have been possible without my only sibling, Lillian, who passed away at the age of six from glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer. She showed me how music can have an indescribable effect on people. She dreamed of being a teacher, sharing her gift of song with everyone she met. I look back at the time my sister would sing with other kids battling cancer. Noticing the children light up, with some only having months to live, opened my eyes to how music can have a profound effect on others. She left this world leaving a lasting impact through music and bringing joy to others; she is my muse and inspiration to pursue my passion. There is a quote by Richard Feynman, an American theoretical physicist, in which he says, “If you want to master something, teach it.” I believe this phrase rings true for what I want to accomplish in life.
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Dawne Eubanks well-known as a teacher and performer in the Tampa Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her duties at Eckerd, she teaches voice at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts and taught for many years at Hillsborough Community College. Instructor Eubanks holds a BA Degree in Vocal Music from Florida State University, and currently teaches voice at Eckerd College, as well as the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School. Her solo career has led her to the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, the Mahaffey Theatre, Ruth Eckerd Hall, and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Other singing highlights include performances with the Florida Opera Co., Florida Opera West, Inc., The Florida Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Florida Orchestra Master Chorale, and the Turtle Creek Chorale, working with renowned conductors such as Robert Summer, Robert Shaw, Daniel Moe, Julius Rudel, Sir David Wilcox, and Timothy Seelig. Dawne has received outstanding reviews for her roles in local productions of Pirates of Penzance, Two By Two, and Little Mary Sunshine, to name some favorites. Recent performances include the soprano solos in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Creation, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, and Handel’s Messiah with members of The Florida Orchestra, as well as musical directing an Eckerd College student production of Into the Woods. Dawne is the assistant music director at the First Baptist Church of St. Pete, maintains a private vocalstudio, and is a sought after vocal coach and adjudicator for competitions and festivals in voice, choral music, musical theatre, and piano.
