Iconic staircase mural expands

By Juanita I.C. Traughber, communications director

High School art students are touching up the Myles Maillie mural and painting a new section in the staircase.
Artist Myles Maillie, a longtime friend of USN, has returned to campus to complete a project he and students began more than three decades ago. This week he began working with High School students to paint portraits opposite the staircase wall that holds his iconic mural.

“I like to do it all, and this mural was just incomplete. Everyone likes this in here, so why not do it all and complete the whole room?” Myles said while working on the mural extension this week. In addition to painting a white wall, they are touching up older paint with more vibrant colors and repainting eyes on the older Myles Maillie characters. He hopes students will learn team effort in his art class.

The colorful staircase led to the photography lab and art classes before the Tibbot Center addition and now connects the first and second floors of the Middle School. The mural has become a USN icon, having been used on T-shirts, and recently an alumna created a limited edition jewelry collection inspired by the mural to benefit USN's Artclectic Endowment Fund for Innovative Teaching.

“When I came to USN for the first time, everyone was walking through this hallway, and I thought this mural was cool because it was something different to add to the school,” said sophomore Mia Pretorius. “I love the bright colors even though the faces are weird to look at. It’s cool to add to something I really admire.”

Small groups of students in High School Art Teacher Liz Mask's painting class will rotate touching up and expanding the mural with Myles throughout April. They are:

Maya Black '18
Louisa Friedman '17
Audrey Hamilton '18
William Inman '19
Puja Jagasia '17
Eleanor Koch '17
Jessica Kuchtey '19
Margaret Luffman '18
Daniel Lutes '18
Isabella Lutes '20
Colin Moore '18
Ava Neff '19
Nate Petty '19
Eden Powers '19
Mia Pretorius '19
Ella Stack '17
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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.