Their bicycle wheels sculpted in tandem with Friends with intellectual and developmental disabilities will be on display 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 at Main Street Gallery in East Nashville.
Earlier this fall, a class of seventh and eighth-grade multimedia art students began an artist collaboration with Friends Life Community, a day program for teenagers and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Friends and 20 USN students started a bicycle wheel design based on the tandem bike logo of Friends Life. Students sculpted using found objects, wires, and basket weaving materials from around USN’s midtown campus to sculpt life-size bicycle wheels and Friends did the same.
After three weeks, the wheels were exchanged and the partnership began. USN Middle School students learned a lot about collaboration and how to add to another’s work without losing the spirit of the original piece.
On Nov. 16, the class went on a field trip to meet the Friends and visit their art studio. During the studio visit, the Friends welcomed us with a round of introductions and our students did the same. Everyone was able to show the wheel they started and which one they enhanced. The excitement and joy of viewing each other’s work was inspirational and heartwarming.
All the wheels and more art work from the Friends will be on display for a one-night reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 at Main Street Gallery, located at 625 Main Street. Please join us for an evening of art, live music, and light refreshments. The event is free and open to the public. Artwork and handcrafted merchandise will be available to purchase with proceeds benefiting the individual artists and Friends Life Community. All proceeds benefit Friends Life Community.
Students in grades 5-8 and their families can take USN Evening Class 702: Mah and Pah Jong and Me to learn to play a board game together while benefiting USN's need-based scholarship endowment.
The Helen Meador Summer International Fellowship funded a summer of professional development in South America for Lower School Naturalist Carrie Riley. Through this profound experience, she said she plans to bring these lessons into her teaching, grounding her voice in wonder, joy, and a commitment to protecting the natural world, which she loves.
The impact of USN’s Art Department is not confined to art studios in the Christine Slayden Tibbott Center. Students often engage with art in ways that transcend traditional classroom learning, such as at the opening reception for artist Yanira Vissepó's “Fantastical Views.”
Tiger golfers have officially qualified for the region tournament, and our other teams are not far behind. Volleyball sits near the top of the district, finishing up regular season play next week with Senior Night. Girls soccer continues to hold first place in the district after another 9-0 win, and our cross country runners are chasing after some school records. To round it all out, our mountain bike team traveled to Oakfield to continue to improve on their times for the season. There’s plenty more where that came from- so be sure to come out to the River Campus, Sperling Gym, or out on the road to cheer on our Tigers before their seasons end.
Middle School volleyball and tennis teams are nearing the final games of their seasons, with the competition heating up while the Tigers play to determine their HVAC rankings. Cross country was finally able to race at the River Campus despite the heat, and our mountain biking team traveled to Oakfield, Tennessee, for a high-temperature race weekend.
The MTB team returned to the the twisty trails of tranquil Oakfield, TN on Sept 13th to take part in the second race of the season, as part of the 5-race series hosted by the NICA/TICL League.
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.