Metro Public Art Collection: Watermarks

Watermarks is a series of public artworks located in Nashville neighborhoods affected by the 2010 flood.

Through the Metro Arts public art process six artists were chosen to create artworks honoring the experiences of those touched by the flood. Each artist participated in community meeting and input sessions that informed their final designs.

Our hope is that through beauty these works will show our resilience and spirit in the face of crisis. Each piece will serve as a place for reflection, community interaction and renewal.

• Anchor in the Storm
• Bellevue Bench Mark
• Emergence
• Liquid 615
• Pier
• Tool Fire

Watermarks Classroom Guide

To accompany the Watermarks project, Metro Arts partnered with Metro Nashville Public Schools teacher Ted Edinger to create a classroom guide for kindergarten through fourth grade students. The guide includes lesson plans that provide writing opportunities and art making exercises. Each lesson plan can be customized to make cross curricular connections in science, math and social studies.

“The art created for the Watermarks project, at its core, is about identity. Who we were before the flood, who are we now that the flood has happened, and who will we choose to be in light of the devastation that has touched our lives. Not only do the communities impacted by this event have to ask such questions, but the individuals involved must ask that of themselves.

Identity is a major theme in the life of elementary students. They connect with the idea of finding who they are as it relates to them as an individual, a family, a community, and from a global perspective. Each work connected with the Watermarks project has a story to share with the elementary art student, as well as a story to inspire the student to pursue a deeper understand of themselves. The lessons connected with each work are designed to explore this theme of IDENTITY.”
- Ted Edinger, Elementary Art Teacher 

Watermarks Classroom Guide