Senior art students celebrated at the first Fine Arts College Day

Senior Sydney Mattoon felt divided as she made her way through Harpeth Hall’s middle and upper school. She excelled in her math and science classes, but also loved her time on stage in Harpeth Hall’s dance company and exploring her creative side in arts classes.

“I often felt myself caught between the labels of a ‘STEM girl’ and a ‘humanities/arts girl,’” Sydney said. She was searching for a way to express her creativity, while capitalizing on her strengths in her STEM subjects.

Enter industrial design.

“Until my junior year, I never even knew industrial design was a subject I could major in, or how perfectly it combines my interests in both the arts and STEM,” Sydney said. “However, the day my mom showed me an article on industrial design was the day I fell in love with it.”

Throughout her junior and senior year, Sydney used two Winterim internships at the TOA Research Foundation and SeeMore Putter Company to learn more about the field and to build a portfolio that she would use to gain admittance into North Carolina State University’s top-rated industrial design program as just one of 20 incoming students.

On May 10, the Harpeth Hall community gathered at the first Fine Arts College Day to recognize nine seniors who are continuing to follow their arts passions after graduation. The ceremony honored senior performing and visual artists who are going on to pursue the arts at the collegiate level and have been admitted to their program of study by way of portfolio submission or audition process. For some students, like Sydney, the path to find their creative fit was a journey, for senior Luca Cyr, pursuing her art was a goal since childhood.

“I have known that I wanted to pursue fashion design since I was 5,” Luca said. As a child, she watched her mom mend a hole in one of their outdoor umbrellas and asked her to teach her how to sew, starting a lifelong love of design. This fall, Luca will head to New York City to make her dream a reality as she starts at Parsons School of Design.

“It is one of the top schools for fashion design in the world, plus it's where ‘Project Runway’ was filmed, so it was a huge goal of mine for a while. I actually only applied to three colleges, because I really had my heart set on Parsons,” Luca said.

Many of the students celebrated during Fine Arts College Day credited Winterim for helping them develop their craft, make valuable connections, and prepare them for college. Luca completed a fashion design independent study, Kate Maree Brewer ‘23 interned with the Nashville Children's Theatre, Levi Dillon ‘23 interned with Hatch Show Print and completed an arts independent study with Ava Willoughby ‘23, and Ruby Wolter ‘23 spent Winterim in New York City working with the Musical Theatre College Audition to prepare for her BFA auditions. Through the opportunities provided by Harpeth Hall, each of these students was able to gain real world experience that will help them to succeed in the future.

“Being fully immersed in the life of an actress in New York City was an eye-opening experience as I realized how difficult but worthwhile the career I want to pursue can be,” said Ruby, who will be joining the University of Utah’s musical theatre program in the fall. “I now know that there is no other way that I want to spend my life.”

From art to architecture, Harpeth Hall celebrates the talent, hard work, and dedication of the nine students who are pursuing the fine arts in college and beyond.

Kate Maree Brewer
BFA in Acting/Musical Theatre | Otterbein University

Adelaide Cook
Architecture | Northeastern University

Allie Cunningham
Studio Arts | Northeastern University

Luca Cyr
Fashion Design | The New School - Parsons School of Design

Levi Dillon
Fine Arts | Middle Tennessee State University

Sydney Mattoon
Industrial Design | North Carolina State University

Lailah Rucker
Graphic Design | University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Ava Willoughby
Music | Berklee College of Music

Ruby Wolter
BFA in Musical Theatre | University of Utah