2019 Curb Scholar Retreat
The three-day Curb Scholar Retreat began with an improv workshop where 1st year scholars participated in a series of icebreakers, warm ups, and movement games geared towards highlighting the benefits of practicing careful attention, tapping into empathy, and striving to understand the values and motivations of others. After navigating their way through a Nashville escape room, the scholars came together to hone their culinary technique and painterly skills set at Dabble Studio Nashville, by dishing up homemade pizza, and painting the Nashville Skyline.
On the second day of the retreat the scholars gathered on the historic grounds of the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens for a writing workshop, thinking through their relationship to place and how art, specifically creative writing, can be a means of expanding our frames of reference and exploring narratives and experiences that exist outside those frames. Following the workshop, the scholars enjoyed community building activities at the Adventure Park Nashville ropes course, and wound down the evening with fellowship and a group outing to the Live On the Green concert series.
On the third day of the retreat, the scholars learned more of the history behind one of Nashville’s most well established creative industries, the country music business by touring the Country Music Hall of Fame. They also learned about Hatch Show Print Shop’s influential role in shaping the promotional aesthetics of the early country music industry. And a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame wouldn’t have been complete without a foray into the realm of song writing. The scholars worked musician Anne Buckle to craft an original piece entitled “Days Look Different,” reflecting on the uncertainness of growing older. The retreat ended on a sweet note, at the Goo Goo Cluster Shop, where the scholars saw how America’s first combination candy bar, the Goo Goo Cluster came together out of ingenuity, grit, and the union of disparate parts.
Posted August 26, 2019
Written by Joshua Moore