Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Birdhouse Thing III


Decorated by Taylor Swift, the birdhouse above is shaped a little differently than most of the others. Artists have the perogative to change the birdhouses however they like by pulling them apart, adding bases or legs or knobs, changing shapes and putting them back together. Both of the other two birdhouses retained their original shape while adding a bit to the base.

The birdhouse to the right, donated by Brad Paisley, sits on a post and resembles a rural mailbox. The red birdhouse (below left), donated by the country duo Sugarland, sports red feathers and glitz.

As I wrote in my two previous posts, the W.O. Smith School offers private and group music lessons to children of low-income families. The classes, taught entirely by a volunteer faculty, cost 50 cents per child per lesson. The school, through donations from the public and other means, is able to loan over 150 instruments annually to children who cannot otherwise afford them. The students do not pay extra for the instruments, music or instructional materials. NBC weatherman Al Roker, donated a truckload of instruments to the school last year through his "Al Lends a Hand" segment of the Today Show.

Over 350 children attend the more than 500 classes at the school. Unfortunately, the school has to turn away students due to space limitations. For years, two old houses have served as the school, and they offer only a total of about 2000 square feet of space. Fortunately, they have been able to start construction on a larger site. School administrators expect to be in the building later this year.
If you would like to watch a brief video on the school, click here to go to the school's website. At the bottom of the home page, click on the television.

Tomorrow is a special day for Nashville Daily Photo. Stay tuned!

8 comments:

Marcel said...

Thanks for this great post and thanks for the link to the W.O. Smith School video. What a heartwarming way to start my day by watching the video. Superb!

Good luck getting to visit Alaska next summer. (I saw your post on Juneau Daily Photo.)

Ming the Merciless said...

Chris, we should plan on meeting up for lunch or coffee when you are in NYC.

Olivier said...

La maison avec le cœur est très belle, c'est la maison des oiseaux pour leur nuit de noce. très poétique.
The home with the heart is very nice, it is the home of birds for their night of wedding. very poetic.

Marcel said...

Hi Chris,

I do hope that your travel plans come together for you and that you do get to Sitka next summer. Also I answer your questtions on my blog just past your post.

Cheers,

Jim Klenke said...

More neat looking birdhouses. Cant wait to see what tomorrow brings.....well thats true for everyday.

Southern Heart said...

Very neat...and my sons have declared Taylor to be "hot", so I know that they would agree! :)

Clueless in Boston said...

I like the bird house by Taylor Swift very much. It is soooo colorful and pretty. Nice series on the birdhouses. Such a great program since schools generally cut the arts when there is any budget shortfall.

quintarantino said...

Just loved the first one.
Hope your travel plans work out well.