Middle School Artists Collaborate with Rose Park Counterparts

by Mary Agee, middle school photography teacher

The Rose Park and USN middle school arts collaborative: weaving individuals into a collective community through the arts.
Next week's art opening features work from Rose Park and USN middle school students in the newly renovated Rose Park Magnet Middle School.* It also features musical and dance performances by USN students.

November 13, 2014 from 5:00 to 7:00pm
*Rose Park Magnet Middle School
1025 Ninth Ave South, Nashville, TN 37203

Our partnership with Rose Park Magnet Middle School continues to thrive, as this month we offer a first-ever collaborative art show between middle school students in both schools. Art teachers Lynn Driver (from Rose Park) and Peg Williams (from USN) have been encouraging their students to explore the art of doodling as a method of relaxing and focusing their minds within their classrooms. Our vision of asking how we might find a way for the students to meet and learn from each other became the seed of an idea to have a group show of student work.

Present a problem to the creative middle school students at Rose Park and you will get a dynamic and creative solution. Peg Williams visited Lynn Driver’s classroom to observe and interact with her students. When the two teachers asked the students how we might “weave” the work together and still acknowledge our individual differences, their solution was brilliant.

They suggested that we orient the Rose Park student work horizontally and orient the USN student work vertically. That way we can “weave” together a patchwork quilt as a living metaphor of our partnership and the connections we have been building.

The images are graphic and strong, and I know you will be delighted with the results. If that isn’t enough to entice you to come, we will have several USN high school arts groups performing at Rose Park, including:

  • USN Jazz Band
  • Middle school dance students performing work inspired by the students' drawings
  • USN Fiddlers and Pickers
Our sincere hope with this event is to expand connections we have been making among middle school students from Rose Park and USN into connecting the families from both schools. We hope you will join us for this unique and delightful event and get to know someone from our partner school at the other end of Edgehill Avenue.
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USN Mission: 
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.