Perspectives | Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022

PERSPECTIVES THE MAGAZINE OF ASHLEY HALL

—INSIDE—

ASHLEY HALL CELEBRATES

18 YEARS OF TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION

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BOARD O F TRUSTEES 2 02 1 –2022 O F F I CERS Anne Frances Bleecker ’76 | Chair

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ASHLE Y HALL

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Philip L. Horn, Jr. | Vice Chair Mark C. Fava | Secretary Hugh C. Lane, Jr. | Treasurer Artie I. Richards | Past Chair M E M B E R S-AT- L A R G E Jianzheng Cen Emmie Aichele Dawson ’70 Sara E. DeWolf Mark C. Fava Elizabeth B. Fort Mela Thompson Haklisch ’67 Kendra Y. Hamilton ’76 Laurie Arnold Host ’73 Lenna S. Kirchner Rhett Ramsay Outten ’82 Kurt H. Palmer Karen Jenkins Phillips ’79 Eric P. Strickland Rowan G. Taylor Dr. Ann Riopel White ’83 TRUSTEES EMERITI Mary Agnes Burnham Hood Martha Rivers Ingram ’53 Patricia T. Kirkland Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54 Heidi Ward Ravenel ’74 Dr. Jerry G. Reves J. Conrad Zimmerman, Jr. HEAD OF SCHOOL Jill Swisher Muti MARKETING & C O M M U N I CAT I O N S O F F I C E Paula Harrell | Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications Liz Regalia | Editor Kate Daughtry | Graphic Designer Meredith Frazier | Director of Digital Strategy Betsy Sidebottom | Data Manager Please forward any address changes to Ashley Hall Institutional Advancement Office, 172 Rutledge Avenue, Charleston, South Carolina 29403

Over the course of her 18-year tenure, Head of School Jill Muti not only brushed off centuryold traditions, but she cultivated new ones that are now ingrained into life at Ashley Hall.

In this issue of Perspectives, we are celebrating her many Lasting Legacies, beginning with our cover illustration which features the chorus of “A Dream Is All It Is – An Anthem for Ashley Hall.”

Muti commissioned the School’s anthem in 2018, and since its creation, the lyrics have become synonymous with the Ashley Hall spirit:

“A dream is all it is, the end of all desire; feed it with your hours as you would feed a fire, so that it burns more brightly every day and warms the world around you on your way.”

Hover over the code with your smartphone to watch Muti conduct the world premiere of “A Dream Is All It Is – An Anthem for Ashley Hall” MEET OUR NEW PERSPECTIVES EDITOR Liz Regalia is a lifestyle editor with 13+ years of digital media experience. She has held senior and executive level positions in both publishing and digital media at multiple national brands including, Real Simple, Parents, Patch, Nickelodeon, and Martha Stewart Weddings. Liz is excited to join the Marketing & Communications office and share the stories of Ashley Hall.

| SUMMER 2022

PERSPECTIVES

INSIDE THIS ISSUE On Campus

Regulars

04 | Around the Shell House: A Snapshot of Moments on Campus 12 |

Traditions: Madren Pool Then & Now

14 |

Ashley Hall Athletics: We’re All In

16 |

Arts: Shakespeare at the Bear Cave Returns with The Tempest

Community

Headlines

20 |

Off Campus

24

Subject Spotlight: Full STEAM Ahead

Parting Shot

50 |

Lives That Inspire: Who Are We After the Pandemic?

54 58 |

03 |

60 |

The Making of a Portrait: Drawing from Life to Legacy

Reunited at Last: Alumnae Weekend 2022

Commencement 2022

On the Cover: Artist Spotlight

Features

28 42 |

Transformative Leadership: Engines of Innovation

Celebrating A Year of Water

46 |

Muti House: A Home for the Performing Arts

| Artist and community photos by Kelly Grace Photography | Athletics photo by Al Samuels Photography

Our cover was illustrated by Upper School visual arts faculty member and artist Raúl Miyar. Born in Cuba and raised in the United States, Miyar has taught at Ashley Hall for two years. For two decades prior, he was a professor and chair of the Fine Arts & Illustration Department at the Chavón School of Design in the Dominican Republic, an affiliate of the Parsons School of Design in New York City.

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“

The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.

— JACQUES-YVES COUSTEAU

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| HEADLINES

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t’s a gorgeous day on campus as the Class of 2022 huddles around the Shell House excitedly entering their final weeks on campus, and I can’t help but think about

how the beautiful mission of our School is being realized today: to produce educated women who are independent, ethically responsible and prepared to meet the challenges of society with confidence.

When I joined the School 18 years ago, there was a palpable sense of promise, a desire to embrace new ideas and act boldly to realize the wonderful potential of Ashley Hall in the 21st century.

My favorite phrase that continues to lead every conversation is: “It’s all about the girls!” Every decision we have made has been guided by our mission as we authentically thought about what an all girls’ education needed to look like for its second century. From revitalizing the School’s classical curriculum to adding 95,000 square feet of new and re-purposed facilities, we have witnessed a transformation of demonstrative value and this year is no exception, which you will see in this issue of Perspectives.

Now, as I listen to peals of laughter on the lawn, I know that my work at Ashley Hall is coming to an end. In its second decade of its second century, the School is in a position to thrive as it embraces a new strategic initiative that wonderfully intertwines goals regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging which are essential to achieving educational and academic excellence.

Time has flown by so quickly, but the magic has really been in the collective will to create an authentic environment that honors our mission and Hallmarks and in turn, the success of each and every student. When I think of all that we have accomplished, the Board of Trustees, a seasoned administrative team, fabulous innovative faculty supported by loving parents, and committed alumnae, it has been breathtaking.

And it was all done together.

Possunt Quae Volunt,

Jill Muti Head of School

| Opposite: Madeleine Kopf ’29, Camille Marler ’29, and Ruby Ghatnekar ’29 on Colonial Lake testing the boat they built as a team.

Photo by Liz Regalia | Above: Photo by Laura Hunter 3

AROUND THE SHELL HOUSE Written by Liz Regalia

What’s the best way to study botany?

With your hands in the soil, of course. Just ask Honors Biology II students who turned a special place on campus into an outdoor classroom this year.

Native plants offer the most sustainable habitat for wildlife.

To teach her students about their importance, Upper School faculty member Allison Bowden gave them a hands-on assignment: transform the top of the historic Bear Cave into a native plant garden. Each girl studied a certain species to help create a collective plan. Once their preliminary research was complete, they dedicated every Friday during the spring to

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planting, as well as carefully cataloging each plant that went in the ground into a website called Plants Map, a tool used to document, tag, and map gardens.

On May 13, 2022, with soil caked under their nails, Bowden’s students finished planting the last of over 300 native plants along the exterior of the Bear Cave. But their outdoor classroom is far from closing! This summer, QR code plaques will be added next to each plant. Since students documented every one of the 172 different native plant species online, classes from every division will be able to visit the Bear Cave, scan the codes, and read information on the plants starting next year.

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Seeing Stars in Pardue Hall Constellations aren’t always easy to find in the vast night sky.

But lucky for Lower School students, they get to practice spotting them in Ashley Hall’s portable planetarium.

DID YOU KNOW In the late 1800s, a bear really did live in Ashley Hall’s Bear Cave.

Previous owner of McBee House, Charles Otto Witte, built the grotto as a hangout for his family’s pet bear and the Shell House as an aviary for his birds.

Known around campus as the StarLab, this special learning tool is inflated in the LoDome for two weeks every year to coincide with astronomy lessons in kindergarten through fourth grade. From the Big Dipper to Orion’s Belt, students learn about prominent constellations in the classroom, then they head into the StarLab to find each cluster of stars which are projected over their heads to mirror their exact placement in the sky outside.

Science teacher Beth McCarty has been leading StarLab adventures for Lower School students for over a decade.

While they love getting lost in the magical stories behind the constellations, she says, there’s one thing they love more: “Eating astronaut ice cream after a trip to space,” McCarty says with a smile. “We watch astronauts living on the International Space Station back in the room, and talk about how their food has to be dehydrated. Then I pull out a fancy freeze-dried Astronaut Neapolitan ice cream sandwich, and they each get to try a little piece.”

“The phlox are my favorite.

The purple is so PQV!” –RAEGAN PROPES ’22 | Opposite: All the new blooming foliage on the Bear Cave started as live plants except for wildflowers which were planted from seed to form a meadow behind the hilltop. | Top: What weeds? Seniors in Honors Biology II proudly pulled every weed from the Bear Cave during the process of planting their native plant garden. Photos by Liz Regalia

| Top: The portable StarLab planetarium inflated in the LoDome. Photo by Meredith Frazier | Bottom: Not ones to miss out on the fun, Early Education Center Atelierista Wendy Robbins snuck a few lucky primary classes into the StarLab this year to take turns exploring light through shadow puppets.

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Studying Morocco’s history and culture is a powerful reminder of how education can inspire urgent global attention and change.” –Natalie Richards ’22 SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEDULLOBLASTOMA “I am enhancing

my knowledge of medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain tumor, by volunteering on an ongoing research project at the Medical University of South Carolina under Dr. Jezebel Blanco. I hope this research will be beneficial for the Lowcountry patients, the community, and researchers.” –Lucy Ly ’22 GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS:

What do memory, Greek mythology, Morocco, pediatric medicine, and genetically modified organisms all have in common? They are the fascinating Senior Project passions of five recent Ashley Hall graduates.

remember songs from their childhood or hymns from church. I hope to find out how music memory stays intact while the rest of the brain declines.”

–Isabel Marshall ’22 GREEK MYTHS AND THEIR INFLUENCE

The Senior Project program is a yearlong elective in which twelfth grade students combine intense research, critical thinking, and targeted community outreach to delve deeper into a specific topic of interest. The course culminates with an assignment to take the stage and present their discoveries to their peers and teachers.

Since the class is entirely self-directed, the presentations are always as diverse as the students themselves, and this year was no exception. Here, students offer a snapshot of their amazing new areas of expertise.

MUSIC AND ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

“​​My project focuses specifically on how music affects the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. Many elderly patients who have lost their memory are still able to 6

ON CULTURE AND SOCIETY “Through reading retellings of the myths of Hades and Persephone, Icarus, the naming of Athens, Arachne, and Hippolyta, I hope to draw conclusions about how the shared themes of the myths are indications of the values of humanity.

Using the thematic and moral threads in these stories, I wrote and illustrated a book of my own retellings of these ancient myths.” –Chloe Ross ’22 THE IMPACT OF COLONIALISM ON MOROCCO “Inferences

drawn from research indicate that colonialism is fundamentally about power – the strategies one group uses to exclude the other from the domains of influence.

Twentieth-century colonialism may seem like history, but these colonial mentalities are ubiquitous today.

ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY, AND ETHICS

“Despite the controversial, complex, and multiple layers of this topic, it is crucial we understand how our current food is made, dissect the societal stigmas we consciously or unconsciously hold, and recognize the factors that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) affect outside of our health. With my research, my purpose is to enlighten my audience of their role as a consumer and show how their choices can directly impact the earth, the economy, and the livelihoods of those who produce and harvest our foods.” –Michelle Lam ’22

“

The advice I’d give to students doing Senior Projects next year is don’t be afraid to pursue new things that you find in your research because your project can be adapted to suit what you’re most interested in.

– CHLOE ROSS ’22

Good luck to next year’s Senior Project participants!

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The

POWER of Poetry

Whether it’s the chorus of a song or the Mona Lisa, art has the power to bring humans together in a way nothing else can. This spring, it was poetry that reunited Ashley Hall’s Big and Little Sisters for the first time in two years.

On the sunny morning of March 15, 2022, Big Sisters in sixth through twelfth grade traveled across campus to pick up their Little Sisters in first through fifth grade. Then they made their way to Senior Lawn for a very special performance by Charleston’s Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker. “We knew this was an event that Big and Little Sisters alike could connect to,” says English faculty member Leslie Rowland-Yeh. “Just in different ways and on different levels.”

After reading a selection of poems featuring his award-winning alliteration and rhymes, Amaker turned the spotlight over to Ashley Hall students. Together, Big and Little Sisters wrote a poem about water, then inscribed a short verse inside a ceramic bowl. The bowls were then placed in the McBee reflection pond where they floated in the afternoon breeze ringing out like wind chimes.

then poetry saved me. poetry brought me back to my core. poetry blossomed the boy who didn’t know he had wings, poetry made me sing.

“My favorite part of the event was watching all students – no matter the age – become enthralled by Marcus’ poetry,” Rowland-Yeh says. “Even if the younger students didn’t understand every word, they understood his tone and intent. They heard meter, rhyme, and the ‘pulse’ of a poetry performance. They were engaged and rapt. They felt poetry.”

An excerpt of the poem “self portrait (in bloom)”

by Charleston’s Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker

| Top: Poet Marcus Amaker performs on the steps of the library for students scattered across Senior Lawn. | Middle: Students gathered around McBee reflection pond to listen to their poetry-covered dishes sing in the wind as they floated like chimes in the water.

Right: Big Sister Anna Strickland ’24 and Little Sister Gabby Hobal ’30 having fun writing their water poem.

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5 Things to Know About Dr. Weston Earlier this year, Assistant Head of School and Director of Upper School Dr. Anne Thornhill Weston ’73 was appointed incoming Head of School for the next two years. Here are five facts about Dr. Weston:

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Dr. Weston began her career at Ashley Hall teaching seventh and eighth grade math and science classes and went on to hold teaching and administrative positions at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, South Carolina before returning home in 2015.

2.

She played women’s college basketball for Duke University and was a member of the varsity sailing team.

3.

Her grandmother, Ama Van Noy Smith, was in the first class at Ashley Hall, a tradition continued by Dr. Weston, her sister Ama Thornhill Couch ’84, and her first cousin Jane Thornhill Schachte ’70.

4.

Whether it’s at sea on a tall ship with Offshore Leadership Program participants or rowing in the Charleston Dragon Boat Festival, Dr. Weston loves a good outdoor adventure with her students.

She was captain of the Purple team and was co-First Honor Graduate of the Class of 1973!

Lasting Leg acy

5.

Write On Established by Head of School Jill Muti, Ashley Hall’s Writers Series has hosted dozens of award-winning authors on campus since its creation over a decade ago. The series returned this year with acclaimed art critic for The New Republic Jed Perl, who was fittingly one of the very first guests of the original series in 2005. He pulled up a seat around the Harkness table to talk about his latest book, Authority and Freedom, with students, then dove deeper into the conversation with Upper School faculty member Dr. Nick Bozanic during an evening event open to the public.

Meet You at The SLICE The café located in the Student Life Center now has a name: The SLICE. In a contest open to ninth through twelfth grade, students submitted their best name ideas and voted on their favorite. Next year, The SLICE will be open before and after school, as well as during breaks. Upper School students will use their badges to swipe and pay for items like snacks, drinks, and coffee, a system modeled after college payment processes to help prepare them for life after Ashley Hall.

| Photo of Anne Weston by Kelly Grace Photography | Photo of Jed Perl by Liz Regalia 8

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8:30 a.m.

Strings Lesson

8:45 a.m.

French Fashion Lesson

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022

Daughters Lead Dad Through

A DAY IN THE LIFE Fathers, grandfathers, and friends took over campus the Friday before Spring Break for one of our favorite traditions, Fathers’ Morning. This event dates back to Ashley Hall’s boarding school days when students would eagerly await their fathers who had come to pick them up for the holiday.

9:00 a.m.

Art Class

9:30 a.m.

PE in the Gym

Now a century later, students in kindergarten through twelfth grade are invited to bring their dad or a special friend to school for a morning full of exciting events and programming.

We tagged along as they explored campus together, and it’s safe to say the girls successfully showed their dads what life at Ashley Hall is all about.

See more photos from Fathers’ Morning at ashleyhallschool.smugmug.com

10:00 a.m.

Dance

10:30 a.m.

Science in Jenkins Hall 10:15 a.m.

Book Fair Shopping | Photos by Liz Regalia and Betsy Sidebottom

11:45 a.m.

Team Sports on the Turf

11:05 a.m.

Robotics in the IP Building 9

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A YEARLONG

ASSEMBLAGE

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| A R O U N D T H E S H E L L H O US E

Last fall, the Visual Arts Department launched a collaborative yearlong project series to celebrate the end of social distancing. The Assemblage Project Series spanned all divisions and empowered faculty to explore new mediums and techniques with students.

“Choosing the term assemblage meant these projects could be anything that is a coming together of various things to become a whole,” explains Lower School art teacher and Visual Arts Department Chair Tina Hirsig.

Hirsig chose making a quilt as the Assemblage Project for kindergarten through fourth grade students. To learn about the art of quilting, the girls visited the Aiken-Rhett House Museum to meet with Cookie Washington, a celebrated professional quilter. Next, they got a hands-on lesson in indigo fabric dying with textile artist Arianne King Comer who visited campus in October.

With their newfound knowledge, each girl then illustrated a quilt square with a design inspired

by Ashley Hall’s Year of Water celebration dedicated to preservation and conservation.

Hirsig sewed much of the quilt together during class, and the final hand-stitched binding was done by skilled sewer and volunteer Frances Fill, grandparent of Finley Youmans ’34.

“

I think getting the kids together with professional artists was the most successful part of the project. When they are able to talk face-to-face with an artist and hear them explain what I’m asking them to do in the studio, which is to find their own voice, that’s very impressionable. | Opposite: Assemblage quilt created by Ashley Hall second grade students. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography | Above: Students dying fabric with Arianne King Comer. Photos by Meredith Frazier

– TINA HIRSIG 11

| TRADITIONS

Back in the Swim of Things At the start of the school year, all 65,000 gallons of water were emptied from Ashley Hall’s historic Madren Pool in order to install a new filter system. But thanks to Aquatics Director Missee Tuttle Fox ’73, empty never meant “closed.”

In true PQV fashion, Fox turned her empty swimming hole into a learning opportunity.

For young swimmers in the Early Education Center, it became an extra special area for dryswim lessons full of arm-flapping and floating practice. For Lower School students, it became a classroom for discovering new facts about the missing water, including how it stays clean, where it comes from, and what temperature it needs to be. Needless to say, there was no love lost for Madren Pool while everyone eagerly awaited its reopening in January. –Liz Regalia 12

| TRADITIONS

DID YOU KNOW

Built in 1918, Madren Pool was the first school pool built in the Southeast, and it boasts the same tile the Vanderbilt family used for their indoor pool at the Biltmore, America’s largest house located in Asheville, North Carolina.

then

&

| Opposite: Madren Pool in the 1950s. | Above left: Maddie Semo ’34 practicing her kicks during swim class. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography | Above right: Charlie McCarty ’37 having fun running through an empty Madren Pool! Photo by Liz Regalia

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| AT H L ET I C S

ASHLEY HALL ATHLETICS:

WE’RE ALL IN! Written by Paula Harrell

| Ashley Hall varsity volleyball teammates huddle up between sets. Photo by Al Samuels Photography A transformation is taking place within the Ashley Hall Athletics Program.

New coaching leadership, a national brand partnership, and a commitment to athlete success through facility enhancements all position our Panther teams for greatness. We’re all in Ashley Hall and ready to play!

“It’s such an exciting time for our program,” says Athletic Director Franny Slay ’80. “From grooming our youngest athletes through strong Bantam teams to adding seasoned coaches to lead our JV and Varsity programs, the future of Ashley Hall Athletics Program has never looked better.”

NEW COACHES MAKE THEIR MARK With the retirement of several longtime leaders, Ashley Hall Athletics welcomed new faces to the coaching roster this year injecting new energy to the program. Leading the way has been Assistant Athletic Director and 14

Soccer Coach Christian Alcantara who has worked closely with Slay on program enhancements and coaching recruitment. “Our goal is to build on the strength of the Ashley Hall Athletics reputation,” Alcantara says.

“We’ve been able to recruit strong coaches who are dedicated to building programs, all the while making impacts in their area now.”

ATHLETICS FACILITIES GET AN UPGRADE Over the past year, much work has been done to improve the look and functionality of the Ashley Hall athletic spaces. “Our coaches are building programs with a commitment to provide the best experience possible for our student athletes, and having modern facilities is part of that process,” Slay says. “These enhancements will give our girls the tools they need to become better leaders, teammates, and competitors.”

IMPROVEMENTS INCLUDE: New flooring, paint, and lifting and cardio equipment in the on-campus fitness room New live-streaming system in the gym for volleyball and basketball games Extensive Johns Island Athletics Complex field rehabilitation and facility improvements including the installation of a wood-fired pizza oven for fans New signage featuring an elevated refresh of the Panther Athletics brand

Stay tuned, much more is planned!

| AT H L ET I C S

A NEW LOOK FOR ASHLEY HALL ATHLETICS Coming this fall, Ashley Hall is pleased to announce the Panthers are teaming up with global sportswear brand, Nike. “We’re very excited to kick off next season with Nike,” shares Alcantara. “This collaboration will elevate our program by giving our student athletes a cohesive and clean look on and off the field.” We can’t wait to see our Panthers in their new gear.

| Varsity soccer players Iris Stiegman ’25 and Dia Timko ’25 work together to move the ball down the field. Photo by Al Samuels Photography

THREE SENIORS RECOGNIZED AT NATIONAL SIGNING DAY Three members of the Class of 2022 will continue their athletic journey at the collegiate level, and Ashley Hall is so very proud. PQV to Meggie Navarro ’22 who will play tennis for the University of Virginia; Raegan Propes ’22 who will play golf at the College of Charleston; and Vivian Miller ’22 who will play tennis for Brown University.

| Meggie Navarro ’22, Raegan Propes ’22, and Vivian Miller ’22 smile on National Signing Day. Photo by Meredith Frazier

VARSITY TENNIS CELEBRATES STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

The School’s Athletics Program has been growing for nearly two decades. Head of School Jill Muti added the following teams to the Panther line up: GOLF | 2008-2009 JV SOCCER | 2010-2011 JV LACROSSE | 2011-2012 (RETURNED IN 21-22) VARSITY LACROSSE | 2012-2013 (RETURNED IN 21-22) ARCHERY CLUB | 2013-2014 ARCHERY | 2015-2016

| Makayla Collins ’23 sprinting by Pinewood Prep opponents. Photo by Al Samuels Photography

Lasting Legacy

| Varsity tennis members after the big win

For the fourth straight fall, Panther Varsity Tennis took it all by securing the SCISA 3A Championship with a win over intown rival Porter Gaud. Not missing a beat, new Head Coach Charlotte Hartsock continues the team’s tradition of excellence. Adding to the program’s accomplishments, team member Vivian Miller ’22 was selected as All Lowcountry Girls Tennis Player of the Year. PQV!

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| T E M P E ST

SHAKESPEARE AT THE BEAR CAVE RETURNS WITH

The Tempest This year’s school-wide Shakespeare production honored a century-old tradition of performing theater outdoors while harnessing the magic of its very own moment in history.

Written by Liz Regalia Photos by Kelly Grace Photography

| Top left: Inspired by The Tempest , this illustration by Elizabeth Perkins ’24

graced the program covers. | Main photo: Charlotte Webster ’28 as Ariel and Chloe Ross ’22 as Prospero take center stage at the Bear Cave.

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Ashley Hall staged its very first Shakespeare production at the end of the inaugural school year in 1910. The tradition, which has since spanned generations, returned to the Bear Cave on March 17 and 18 with two evening performances of The Tempest.

Thought to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote, The Tempest is the storied tale of a shipwreck and the adventure that ensues on a deserted island in the middle of the sea. “The idea for producing The Tempest came about in a conversation about plays that would be thematically related to the School’s Year of Water theme and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals,” says director Aimee Phelan-Deconinck.

“I felt it was just right, and never looked back.”

| Elizabeth McGinnis ’23 as Miranda

“

I think what I was most in awe of was the space coming alive and belonging, in some way, fully to the world of the play.

– AIMEE PHELAN-DECONINCK

As the incoming Performing Arts Department Chair, the task of bringing Ashley Hall’s Shakespeare tradition back after the pandemic was both energizing and intimidating, says Phelan-Deconinck. “The language was actually where I felt most comfortable,” she says. “Getting the students to inhabit it was where my attention was directed at first. My professor from Columbia University in New York, Kristin Linklater, gave me such a strong base to work from that I reached back to her exercises and words of wisdom to inspire and inform my students. She was a master teacher.”

Phelan-Deconinck also used her experience acting in Shakespearean plays to make informed directorial decisions and tackle obstacles that come with staging a production outdoors, beginning with acoustics.

“Our beautiful Bear Cave is not built for the sole purpose of performance, so the actors, musicians, and singers all required mics,” Phelan-Deconinck says. She enlisted the expertise of audio engineers from Fox AV to be sure the audience could hear every voice on stage, as well as those in the Red and Nautilus Choirs. “It was a really fun process with a lot of logistical challenges that yielded a satisfying harvest of ideas that may not have come to light if we had been inside.”

| Propsero’s Dancing Muses: Caitlin Bennett ’28 as Mneme (memory), Amelia Morton ’28 as Melete (contemplation), and Hazel Smith ’28 as Aoide (song)

Next was quite literally tackling the task of creating magic on the open-air stage. Featured roles in The Tempest include Prospero, a magician played by Chloe Ross ’22, and a slew of spirits and muses who help him perform his sorcery in efforts to tame the unknown. “A large part of the magic 17

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The first fateful storm scene of The Tempest featured nearly the entire cast, including guest artist Finney Martinez from Charleston Southern University as Ferdinand. “Theater thrives with diversity, and I thought that having artists coming from other environments would enrich our process, as well as the students’ overall experience of their work on the play,” says Phelan-Deconinck.

was brought about by our live musicians: the choirs, led

by Margaret Kelly Cook and Ricard Bordas; the orchestra, led by violinist Flora Nevarez; and the live music, played by pianist Anna Brock,” says Phelan-Deconinck. But neither the cast nor crew could have anticipated just how much the play’s theme of trying to tame the unknown with magic would come to life. Specifically, the weather.

Audience members who attended the first evening performance on Thursday enjoyed clear skies and a light breeze. But the forecast for Friday was not so cheery. As dark clouds looming in the distance slowly rolled in during the first act, so did the nerves of the cast and crew. But you never would have been able to tell–not even when the first raindrop fell.

“I froze for a second,” says Ross who was on stage the moment it started raining. “But when I realized that there was nothing that could be done and we just had to adapt, I relaxed.” She then brilliantly ad-libbed that she had perhaps

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done too well in calling forth her magic. “It was fun staying in character and throwing the, ‘It wouldn’t be a tempest if I didn’t actually cast a tempest!’ quip out to the audience.”

Behind-the-scenes, Phelan-Deconinck jumped straight into planning mode when the rain started to fall, first protecting the mics and then the instruments. Students Ella McCall ’26 and Vera Galvan ’28 rushed to the theater arts classroom and appeared with a small speaker just in time to get the dancers their music so they could perform despite the orchestra having to take cover. “Chloe and the other actors, dancers, and singers all carried the story forward for our intrepid audience,” Phelan-Deconinck dotes.

Despite its challenges, Phelan-Deconinck still would not have traded the play’s outdoor setting for a traditional theater. “I think what I was most in awe of was the space coming alive and belonging, in some way, fully to the world of the play in spite of the distance from its author’s time period.”

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Nor would the students because the atmosphere enabled them to do things they wouldn’t have been able to do indoors. “During the live performances, I loved walking through the audience and keeping them engaged,” says Joelle Kernen ’23. “Since I was the narrator, everyone was watching the show through my eyes so I got to freestyle a lot. I also loved quickly running back and forth from stage to choir and back again. It was stressful but so much fun.”

When asked their favorite part of being in this year’s production of The Tempest, however, students unanimously agreed it was the memories they made as a cast. “My favorite part of being in this cast and crew, other than performing, is the amazing friendships we made,” says Helen Kourtidis ’26 who played Caliban. “The whole cast and our incredible director were–and still are–so supportive of each other. I started missing rehearsals the moment our last show was done, and thanks to these amazing people, The Tempest will always have a place in my heart.”

Coming Full Circle Shakespeare at the Bear Cave holds a special place in the hearts of many Ashley Hall alumnae. When students made history with their latest production this March, they did so in front of a lively crowd that included none-other than members of the Class of 1976’s production of The Tempest. “Mrs. Keith took her Shakespeare very seriously and we presented a very authentic version of the play,” says Anne Frances Bleecker ’76 who played Prospero in the play over four decades ago. When rain began to fall near the curtain call, it felt more like a twist of fate than an inconvenience: “It rained during one of our shows as well,” Kendra Hamilton ’76 shared with students.

How fitting for this wonderful Ashley Hall tradition.

“We truly had each other’s backs throughout the whole process,” adds Ross. “I’m so proud of all of my fellow actors for how we overcame the rain and finished the play. The show must go on after all!”

| From Left: Elizabeth McGinnis ’22, Lisa Thomas ’76,

| Phelan-Deconinck giving behindthe-scenes stage direction during the second performance of The Tempest

g Legacy n i t s a L

Anne Frances Bleecker ’76, Chloe Ross ’22, Joelle Kernen ’23, and Kendra Hamilton ’76

Romeo and Juliet at the Bear Cave, 1920s

After decades of Shakespeare productions including Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and The Winter’s Tale, the tradition waned over time, virtually disappearing by the turn of the century. Two years after her arrival to Ashley Hall, Head of School Jill Muti revived the once-cherished rite when Upper School faculty member Chris Hughes directed a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the same play that launched the tradition in 1910.

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OFF CAMPUS Written by Liz Regalia

Under Head of School Jill Muti, Ashley Hall has formed partnerships with numerous Charleston area non-profit institutions, including the Gibbes Museum of Art, Lowcountry Maritime School, College of Charleston, Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina Aquarium, and many others.

The result has been the creation of signature educational experiences like the ones featured here.

Lastin g

Leg a

cy

“The place where we live has been a fertilizer for us to think about how we build curriculum,” Muti says. “Our urban campus has allowed us to naturally develop partnerships that other schools aren’t able to do. This is a sweet spot for Ashley Hall.”

The Art of Experience As a part of the Gibbes Museum of Art Junior Docent Program, Ashley Hall seventh graders transform from tourists into tour guides each spring. They start with a field trip to comb through two Gibbes’ galleries to find a specific work of art that catches their eye. Then they return to campus to get to work learning everything they can about their piece. After weeks of sleuthing through sources and documenting their discoveries, students return to the museum to lead their very own docent tour for friends and family members.

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On the Water At the start of every school year, Intermediate Program faculty member Kiki Sweigart meets with the Lowcountry Maritime School, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating kids in science, technology, engineering, art, and math using wooden boat construction. The goal of the meeting? To integrate a yearlong boat building schedule into Ashley Hall’s fifth-grade curriculum.

“Looking at their mission statement as a STEAM teacher makes you want to jump right in and get started,” says Sweigart of the partnership that launched in 2016. “It didn’t take us long to see the power of positive teamwork, amazing collaboration, a real-world connection to the math and science we teach, and the joy of learning skills that can last a lifetime.”

Sweigart’s STEAM students spend two semesters learning how to read scaled plans, use power tools, and ultimately transform wood into a fully functioning boat they’ll put in the water in the spring. After two years of testing their boats in a swimming pool due to the pandemic, this year’s May boat launch was extra special.

“This year’s boat building experience was very true to form with few interruptions and a glorious launch day back at Colonial Lake,” Sweigart says. “We were so happy to get back to a normal launch. We had an amazing turn out of parents and almost 100 percent student participation!”

DID YOU KNOW

In 1917, before Ashley Hall had a pool on campus, swimming and rowing classes took place on Colonial Lake.

| Opposite top: Nautilus faculty member

Nana Westbrook helping Lillie Jackson ’27 “read” a piece of artwork at the Gibbes Museum. | Opposite bottom: Rheagan Miller ’27 taking photos of the painting she chose to research last spring. | Right: Fifth graders hoist their handmade boat into Colonial Lake. Photos by Liz Regalia

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22 students.

6 cities in Italy.

1 triumphant return of Ashley Hall’s Amalthea Scholars program.

| Amalthea students pose in front of the Colosseum in Rome. They used a GoPro to document their journey through Italy and snap these photos on site!

On March 25, 2022, Upper School students boarded a plane to study abroad together for the first time in over two years. They were headed to Italy, and for most, it was their first time flying post-pandemic.

But despite how different this trip may have felt, one thing remained the same: As members of the Amalthea Scholars program, these students wouldn’t need a tour guide when they landed in Rome–just each other.

Amalthea is an Ashley Hall signature travel program for ninth and tenth grade students who are not just interested in reading about ancient classical civilizations, but experi-

encing them. Each girl accepted into the yearlong course begins by choosing a historic place, concept, or object from the Umbria region of Italy. Through independent artistic, scientific, and historic research, students become experts on their topic. Then in the spring, they get to explore their site in person.

Since the Amalthea program is completely student-led, every trip is unique. The girls’ chosen sites dictate their 7-day itinerary of cities they visit and the students, not hired guides, are responsible for educating their peers on what they’re seeing every stop along the way. Here’s a snapshot of where Ashley Hall’s 2022 Amalthea Scholars chose to visit, and what it felt like seeing their research come to life.

Learn more about the Amalthea Scholars program at ashleyhall.org/amalthea 22

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STOP 1: ROME “I studied the Temple of Asclepius, a healing temple in Rome.

It’s located in the Borghese gardens so it’s surrounded by so much nature. It’s something kind of different than everyone else did because I was interested in ancient medicine so I really tried to find something having to do with that. When I got to the temple, it was beyond what I imagined. It was a gorgeous day, and I’d seen pictures online, but it was so much better.”

–Emorie Stockton ’24

STOP 2: ASSISI “Walking through Assisi, I was becoming more anxious about my presentation, but the anxiety quickly faded when the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi came into view.

It astounded me because of its size and beauty, and I was so excited to be able to share my research with my peers and tour it!” –Anna Strickland ’24

STOP 3: SIENA “Being surrounded by intricate Italian architecture created a layer of suspense as I approached the Duomo di Siena. The moment I set eyes upon the grand black and white striped cathedral, my mouth hung open and I stood in awe. It was unlike any structure I had seen before.” –Martha Rivers ’24

STOP 4: SPOLETO “I didn’t choose an object to study, but an overall theme. I wanted to talk about something I was interested in normally which is acting, theater, or the arts, so I decided to choose the evolution of Roman Classics and how they have changed and developed over time, especially in the theater arts. I got to go inside the Teatro Caio Melisso to present, and it just felt so much more natural and comfortable than the giant theaters you’re used to. Also, in a theater, usually you’d just focus on actors, but I loved seeing every little ornate detail. When you really take the time to look around, you notice so much you probably would have missed.” –Dagny Mauro ’25

STOP 5: GENGA “When I was younger, I really loved caves because I wanted to be a geologist. It was always one of my goals to go into a cave, so when I saw Grotte di Frasassi on the list of locations in this area, I thought, ‘Here we go!’ When I got there, it was better than I thought it was going to be. First of all, I wasn’t expecting it to be that big. The rocks were really big and the main cavern was huge. There were also lots of little water pools where things like crayfish and cave salamanders live, and it was very interesting to see how shiny the rocks actually were.” – Emma Kosarko ’24

STOP 6: ORVIETO “I chose Pozzo di San Patrizio because it was the biggest well in all of Orvieto. After seeing it in person, you could tell it was very worn down, but it was very beautiful.

When I would look up or down in the well, it really was amazing how many windows there were. There was very little water left in the well, but overall I just thought it was amazing how it was built.” –Audrey Fennelly ’24

| Top: Dagny Mauro ’25 in the Teatro Caio Melisso in Spoleto, Italy | Bottom: Mackenzie Kohn ’25 standing in front of the Orvieto Underground

Where We’re Headed Next Ashley Hall Travel Programs are proposed annually in a manner similar to an academic course. Here are some of our planned trips for the 2022-23 school year:

FALL 2022 BUILDING BRIDGES NOT WALLS New York City, NY, Grades 11-12 OFFSHORE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM Eastern seaboard, Grades 10-12 MODEL U.N. Virginia, Grades 9-12

SPRING 2023 LOUISIANA BAYOUS AND BYWAYS New Orleans, Grade 12

SUMMER 2023 SPANISH LANGUAGE IMMERSION Spain, Grades 6-8 + Grades 9-12 ITALIAN HISTORY AND CULTURAL IMMERSION Italy, Grades 5-6

Interested in signing up ?

Contact Global Education Coordinator Jonathan Perkins at perkinsj@ashleyhall.org 23

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FULL

STEAM

AHEAD

| Kimmy Champaigne ’30 leads a math lesson at the electronic white board for her classmates Kikan Duner-Fenter ’30, Kori Anderson ’30, Eva Ettinger ’30, and teacher Allison Jordan.

Written by Liz Regalia Photos by Betsy Sidebottom

In 2018, the Lower School math department began a journey of transformation.

With the arrival of new faculty came new ideas that would allow one-size-fits-all programming to be replaced with databacked individualized learning techniques. Now, teachers have the hard facts that the changes they’ve made are working.

Test scores are improving, students are more engaged, and you can find an energy and confidence around math in Pardue Hall that has never been stronger.

We sat down with Lower School Director Polly Kronsberg, incoming Lower School Math Specialist Allison Jordan, and Director of Innovation, Information, and Auxiliary Services

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Ed Dougherty to learn more about what’s been happening over the last four years as well as what the future holds, including details on the School’s new 2,100-square-foot STEAM Center opening in August 2022.

What sparked the initiative to holistically enhance our math curriculum and instruction in the Lower School four years ago?

PK: Students are more engaged in a subject if they are more independent and working at their level, which we’d seen in our reading and writing workshops. They were 100 percent individualized, and language arts teachers were already seeing benefits, so it did just make sense to start with math.

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AJ: One thing we were also struggling with was being crunched for time.

Teaching more individually, even though it is time consuming, actually saves a lot of time. No, you can’t teach so much at once, but you’re teaching the girls to master something during that time.

So you’re not having to backtrack ever because they have it by the end. You’re really focused on that individual need, making sure they can move on, and they therefore progress a lot better.

PK: Ultimately, we knew that our test scores would improve and our kids would be more engaged if we could make math time more individualized.

How did the math department implement a shift to individualized learning?

PK: That’s where Ed and the Innovator Cohort came in. We wanted to use technology to help take us to the next level.

ED: The Innovator Cohort was designed to think differently about instruction and to leverage technology to provide more opportunities to enhance curriculum and provide student assessment data in any area on campus. With that data, we can leverage small groups to deliver instruction that is self-paced and choice driven so that students can move forward, but also teachers can be empowered to be a better supporter of the curriculum. It really allows them to be, in my eyes, more impactful, more meaningful, because it requires a lot more work to be more focused on meeting individual needs versus just giving a single message.

What data in particular were teachers given access to?

ED: One thing we now have is the Master Tracker which helps us with vertical alignment. It’s basically a snapshot of every student’s mastery of a new skill at any given time.

AJ: The Master Tracker has all of our standards we cover each quarter broken down for every single student.

For example, one standard may be generating and analyzing patterns, so I’ll look at a formative assessment and then my daily observations of a student and I will decide how to track that student’s progression. This way, we can monitor. I do it every week.

PK: We use these trackers, and we also use hard data from the ERB Testing milestones. The milestone tests are only for third through sixth graders. It’s an assessment given twice a year (one in reading and one in math) that gives you a screenshot of the objectives for that grade level and where the students fall. So you get a benchmark. We use all this reporting and data together each quarter to really know who’s where, and it follows them as they move up in grade level.

Can you give an example of new technology that was introduced to the students?

AJ: DreamBox uses real world content.

So they’re dealing with money and time.

It’s not just a word problem that has nothing to do with them. They’re actually using the skills they would use every day, which is awesome. Measuring, which is missed in a lot of math programs, is one example of something it offers.

ED: What we’ve found was by launching one technological product, a firestorm started where teachers could each build out their own toolbox of instructional tools that enhance their curriculum and ability to work with students. We can never replicate what a technological tool can do as far as pacing, so the tools are leveraged to better support the teachers in the classroom versus replacing them.

With a program like DreamBox, it’s very adaptive and provides millions of different learning paths that we didn’t have access to until recently.

PK: It’s about presenting the same concept, but in a different way or mode.

So a teacher may teach multiplication one way, then a student can go into DreamBox, and they’re going to have to apply that skill in a different way. It’s a different strategy.

AJ: It provides so much data for us, too.

It’s like another Master Tracker for us.

We can go on and see weaknesses and strengths in a second.

So, what’s a typical day look like in PK: We found amazing programs like a Lower School math classroom?

DreamBox, which is a self-paced digital content math practice program. They can use it on their iPad or Chromebook.

[Students in kindergarten and first grade are provided with iPads at school; second through sixth each have a Chromebook.]

ED: In a world that requires more problem solving, more data analysis, more communicating what we see on paper, we actually realized that one program or technology that you could

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purchase off the shelf just wasn’t the right fit for how girls learn best. We needed to select the best parts of various programs and design our own to really deliver the most beneficial individualized experiences for our students.

AJ: We use what’s called a blended learning technique.

So in my classroom, I teach small groups. I’ll have seven to eight girls with me at the most. Then the other girls have a “playlist” to work on which is a list of things to do. These lists start out like a skeleton of standards they need to focus on.

For example, a few girls may need extra geometry practice so I’ll go in and put extra geometry in their list so everybody’s working on something different based on their needs. I get those needs from our Mastery Tracker, from DreamBox, from assessments, and from my observations.

PK: Then there is also the role of Lower School Math Specialist.

Suzanne Saunders has worked with each grade level to help provide some of these new activities. For every grade level, she’s an extra resource once or twice a week to come in and help lead a small group to really make our individualized strategy stronger. She also helps with planning and support as needed.

AJ: The strategy is actually extremely structured, but in a way that’s appropriate for students. We are not saying, you sit down and do that page and when you’re done, turn it in. It’s more like this is your list of things to do and you can work at your own pace. There is a clear path that you need to follow, but everybody’s path is different.

PK: Obviously in the younger years, there are foundational skills everybody has to learn at the same time. But each year, the individualized instruction is stronger. That’s also why math programming looks different right now at every grade level.

But where we are going is to get everyone on the same page.

For example, with the new Lower School STEAM Center, even if things look different in kindergarten, they will still have independent learning time in that new space.

| Kori Anderson ’30, Ella Sidebottom ’30, and Eva Ettinger ’30 combine their math skills in the LoDome.

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Can you share details on the need for the new STEAM Center?

PK: The Lower School is growing. We’re adding sections and we’re running out of physical space. So when we were thinking what this space could be, it made complete sense for it to be a STEAM Center because of how that program has grown, how our math has grown, and how our science department has grown.

AJ: We will also be able to have all our modern tools in one spot. Currently, we’re walking up and down the stairs probably 30 times a day just because we need to teach science upstairs, but STEAM is currently in the LoDome.

PK: Also, it will allow us to really merge two new amazing people coming in–Meghan Ward as new Lower School Science Specialist and Allison coming in as our Math Specialist.

Having a joint place is what it’s all about. Collaboration and more integrated projects where you’ve got more than one subject in one space is where we’re going. That’s the future.

ED: Ultimately, we just want our girls to be super excited about science, engineering, and math, and have a fun place to do it.

The world is moving towards STEAM-based education and problem-solving, and we know girls in general are struggling to get into it professionally. This is a space designed just for this type of learning. We are doubling down on our efforts to provide a space and a passion for girls to develop their skills around STEAM.

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| Above: Incoming Lower School Math Specialist Allison Jordan in action in her fourth grade classroom. | Below: Leah Dolan ’29 and Pippa Taylor ’29 team up to tackle a cardboard challenge. | Bottom: Sophia Dunn ’29 working with Intermediate Program STEAM teacher Kiki Sweigart.

Sneak Peek | Inside the New Lower School STEAM Center

WHAT’S A CARDBOARD CHALLENGE? Cardboard challenges are any STEAM project that uses the design thinking process to build something out of cardboard. The steps are: Discover, Empathize, Experiment, and Produce. For example, in the project shown here, fifth grade students were tasked with designing flood barriers using cardboard.

Located in the former space used for Extended Day programming, the new STEAM Center will offer 2,100 square feet of new learning space and state-of-the-art educational tools. Every Lower School grade will utilize it for weekly STEAM classes, weekly science labs, and regular math explorations. Students and teachers will also be able to use the center as needed for classroom projects.

“We designed this space to ultimately come to life through student imagination, ideas, and problem-solving,” says Dougherty. “We want our girls to enjoy learning and have access to the best materials. I can’t wait to see how the space transforms as they begin to use it.”

Here’s a snapshot of what will be inside: • • • • • •

Power tools for building and cardboard challenges Glassed-in room for small group instruction, collaboration, and green screen recording.

Presentation area to share mastery and ideas Group collaboration area for students to work together around tables on projects.

An open floor plan area designed for robotics, design thinking, and prototyping solutions A greenhouse for growing plants

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TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP:

ENGINES OF INNOVATION For the last 18 years, Head of School Jill Muti has been meticulously weaving together tradition and innovation to orchestrate transformation at Ashley Hall that reflects the School’s original mission wholeheartedly.

Every change has been intentional. Every leap forward has been from a solid foundation.

And none of it was done alone.

Written by Liz Regalia

| Aerial photo of Ashley Hall campus provided by Thesis Content 28

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During her first week at Ashley Hall in August 2004, Head of School Jill Muti’s top priority was to meet every one of her new 485 first through twelfth grade students. She hosted small grade-level gatherings and visited classrooms to not only learn the girls’ names, but also their individual passions, whether it be equestrian, teaching, or painting.

But what many may not know, however, is that for as much time as Muti spent getting to know her new students, she spent equally as much time–if not more–getting to know Ashley Hall’s founder, Mary Vardrine McBee. “I scoured through every page of the School’s archive,” says Muti. “My desire was to learn how Ashley Hall was structured from the start and how it has always been a college preparatory school. What McBee wanted for women was that they could go directly from a school like Ashley Hall and be placed at the best schools in the country. So she built a curriculum based on classical education.”

Like Muti a century later, McBee had no mandate when she first stepped behind the gates of 172 Rutledge Avenue, just a mission: to produce educated women who are independent, ethically responsible, and prepared to meet the challenges of society with confidence. In 2004, McBee’s mission did not need to change. In fact, Muti felt it was more relevant than ever. However, the School had yet to address what had changed. The challenges of society students faced were no doubt changed drastically.

So how do you uphold tradition while evolving to educate a new generation of women? “Behind every innovation had to be intention,” Muti says. “I knew the mission had to be the focus and programming had to come first. Our destination was academic excellence. A single-gender school was just our vehicle.”

And so the journey began, powered by three engines of innovation that would fuel Ashley Hall with endless new ways to meet its original mission.

The first would change the way teachers think. The second would change how students learn. And the third would change how they both live in community together.

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CALL FOR

EXPLORATION

| Roscoe Davis on the dock in Norfolk, Virginia, ready to set sail with 2019 Offshore Leadership students aboard Liberty Clipper , the schooner that can be seen in the background. Photo by Allison Bowden Learn more about this signature Ashley Hall program at ashleyhall.org/offshoreleadership 30

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“If we were going to be asking our students to explore their passions, how could we be telling our teachers you can’t?”

– UPPER SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBER DR. NICK BOZANIC Prior to Muti’s arrival, Ashley Hall’s professional development program mirrored those in other schools. Its purpose was to give teachers new tools to use in the classroom and it consisted of a formulaic checklist, recalls Upper School faculty member Dr. Roscoe Davis, who began teaching at Ashley Hall in 2003.

It was full of conferences to attend and tasks to complete during each school year, but it was flawed.

“If I tell you what to do, I already know what’s going to happen,” says Dr. Nick Bozanic who served as Dean of Faculty and Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs from 2005 to 2018. “Without a ‘let’s see what happens’ approach when it comes to professional development, you’re foreclosing on the discovery process.” So with Muti, Bozanic changed the School’s approach.

He formed a diverse committee of faculty and challenged them to brainstorm a better way to not only evaluate, but inspire Ashley Hall teachers. Over the course of two years, a completely unique professional development program evolved: “It stipulated that each individual teacher would choose what they were going to do for professional development for that given year,” Bozanic explains. “They would then present their idea to their department chair, explaining how it would benefit them and, in turn, how it would benefit students.” Whether it was studying a new teaching method or pursuing a goal of becoming an offshore mariner, we kept it as open as possible, Bozanic notes. “I really wanted teachers to feel that they were free to make some decisions about their own career.”

An in-depth reflection of these individualized projects then governed the assessment of each teacher’s annual performance. “The idea is that professional development drives you to be a curious, inquisitive, humble learner,” explains current Assistant Head for Academic Affairs Carolyn Newton. “When you develop those traits as a teacher, you

then design your lessons in a different way; you interact with your students in a different way; and you pick and choose what you’re going to feature in your class in a different way.”

While the goal of professional development at Ashley Hall is to aid an internal transformation within teachers, according to Newton, many projects they’ve chosen to pursue over the years have transformed our institution. For example, Davis’ professional development projects led to the creation of new signature programs at Ashley Hall.

“The subject of my yearlong banding project was navigation.

It was two-pronged: one was I actually navigated the

Spirit of South Carolina back from the Chesapeake Bay to Charleston using traditional navigational techniques,” says Davis. “The other was navigating my own self-reflective process that occurred on that ship. Afterward, I wrote a 110 page reflection on my philosophical journey which led me to teach my Philosophy and Myth class at Ashley Hall.”

This class, which is cross-listed as a senior English elective, is now a signature offering in the Classics department. “In the opening pages of that reflection, I talked about curiosity and the sense of wonder, and how that can die if you don’t nurture it,” Davis says. “If you just live by these formulaic rules, by that formulaic approach, which is what professional development used to be, it is stifling. You have to keep that curiosity and that flame alive–foremost for our students.”

Once faculty were encouraged and empowered to embrace their personal passions, the opportunities for forwardlooking innovation inside Ashley Hall classrooms became endless. “Curiosity coming from the staff set the course for everything we were doing,” says Muti. “Yes, I’ve been the torchbearer, but the change has come from within. The fire has been deep inside this place all along.”

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“Ultimately our girls need to understand that it’s important to learn how to think, not what to think.”

– HEAD OF SCHOOL JILL MUTI Ashley Hall is not a place where girls come and go. It’s most often a place where girls stay. Many students enter at two years old and leave upon graduation at 18. They travel from one grade to the next with the same peers, yet in 2004, there was no consistency when it came to how they were learning.

For example, in the Lower School, teachers were using one math program in grades K-2, another in grades 3-4, and yet another in grades 5-6. “The first thing I thought when I got here was we have to stop this,” says Bozanic, who was charged

by Muti to evaluate the school’s curriculum in 2005. “For the sake of the students, there has to be some kind of continuity.”

With the goal set, the question became where to begin. The answer? Right alongside our students. After years of facultyled research, Ashley Hall implemented the Reggio-Emilia teaching method in the Early Childhood Center in 2010, a student-centered teaching approach that plays off childrens’ naturally inquisitive nature.

“As educators, we know kids’ brains grow the most when they’re the youngest,” says Early Education Center Atelierista Wendy Robbins who began teaching at Ashley Hall soon after the Reggio-Emilia teaching method was implemented.

“So if you can wire their brains to think creatively from the very beginning, then you’re not going to have a problem as they grow up. They’re already going to know how to think.”

During her second year, Robbins became the preschool’s atelierista to help design a Reggio-inspired program centered around what is unique to Ashley Hall. “Some schools might think children are coming to us as an empty vessel and it’s our job to fill the vessel. Whereas we think kids are coming in with so many different experiences and so much knowledge already that it’s our job to draw that out and figure out where they can go next.”

From there, the course for academic transformation was set. Every division adopted a new individualized teaching

method. The Lower School adopted Responsive Classroom, a teaching approach based on the principle that children learn best when independence is fostered. The Upper School adopted the Harkness Method, a discussion-based teaching method. The result of each innovation was a cohesive experience for students that was not only uninterrupted, but that built on what they’d learned the year before. Thus the metaphor of Ashley Hall’s Learning Spiral was born.

As the School’s teaching philosophy changed, its curriculum followed suit simultaneously. For example, teachers in the foreign language department created an entirely new program. “This is our fifteenth year not using textbooks,” says Upper School French teacher Sarah Margaret Decker.

Instead of looking at giant glossy stock photos, Decker’s students now read French novels, study French magazine articles, and even listen to French pop music to learn the language. “If you make language learning about connecting on a real level in real time with real people, it really changes the way they feel about learning it.”

In 2011, they made another huge shift away from standardized methods by replacing the AP exam with the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), a language assessment tool based on student-teacher conversations to demonstrate skill level. “We realized the AP exam didn’t fit at all with our commitment to having authentic resources, spontaneous language production, and personalized learning,” Decker says. “When we used AP, our method was purely teaching to the test. Now we teach to the students.”

While the concept of the Learning Spiral and individualized teaching methods may seem abstract, the effects are anything but. For example, since the implementation of the OPI, more girls than ever have gone on to minor or major in French or Spanish in college. “The AP test overshadowed everything,” says Decker. “It was this looming stress – so the OPI was a game changer. If there’s joy in the classroom, you’re going to want to be a lifelong learner. Simple as that.”

| Opposite: Primary students lead a Reggio-inspired lesson in nature observation as they explore Ashley Hall’s John’s Island Nature Retreat.

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THE SPARK OF STUDENT

CURIOSITY 33

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A PLACE TO LIVE IN

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“Jill brought a vision of what could be and what needed to be.

She brought possibilities.”

– DEAN OF STUDENTS KELLY SUMNER If you walked across campus in 2004, you would have seen groups of girls sequestered in every corner. They were reading around the Shell House, finishing homework on picnic tables, and socializing at the Bear Cave–unless it was raining.

their solutions, higher quality work produced in less time, and improved performance on exams when they work together.

As a result, the top floor of the library would feature a new science center designed to not only feature ultramodern labs, but open spaces that encouraged collaboration.

“That’s when you’d find them inside all over the floor,” says Dean of Students Kelly Sumner who joined Ashley Hall in 2001 as a school counselor. Girls would set up shop under their lockers, congregate in the hallways, and hideout in empty stairwells. “They really had nowhere else to go.”

Additionally, studies show that girls feel more comfortable in bright, well-lit areas. For that reason, the connecting link between the new library and existing Jenkins Hall was designed as an atrium that is nearly all glass.

In the fall of 2006, Ashley Hall unveiled a campus initiative entitled The Master Plan. It was the result of years’ worth of research by the Board of Trustees, administrative leaders, faculty, staff, and expert consultants. The goal was to renovate existing spaces and expand into new buildings in order to accommodate elevated programming and more students. It was no coincidence that the first new building detailed in The Master Plan was a new library and science center.

At the time, Ashley Hall’s library was nestled into a 2,000-square-foot space on the first floor of Lane Hall. “It was dark,” Sumner says. “Cozy, but very dark. Even still, it was always a busy place.” It also served as an ad-hoc homeroom, Extended Day facility, and technology center. Needless to say, students were used to having to vie for a spot to sit.

The School enlisted the help of national architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch in January 2006 to begin the design process of a new library that would be four times the size of the current one. The company created a vision for a new three-floor building driven by in-depth research around how girls learn best.

“We talked a lot about how girls like to collaborate,” says Director of Intermediate Program and Nautilus Program Mary Schweers. According to the Center for Research on Girls, girls learning STEM subjects have more confidence in

When the new Rivers Library and Hoshall Science Center opened on August 20, 2009, life on Ashley Hall’s campus would never be the same. “The culture changed,” Schweers says. “If you walk in the library at any given time right now, there will be EEC or Lower School students in the story well listening to the librarian, but there will also be Upper School students scattered around upstairs and in the study rooms.

The windows, the stairwells, the light, the space–it was like a formula that worked perfectly because now you can see the girls on a regular basis in the areas, using them just as they were meant to be used.”

And it was just the beginning. “The library was the first piece that was done,” Schweers says. “After that, things kind of spread out in conjunction with our new spiraling curriculum.”

For example, in 2019, Muti opened a new building dedicated to the Intermediate Program, Ashley Hall’s signature program for fifth and sixth graders. The new space featured upgraded classrooms and a 1,000-square feet STEAM Center to further teachers’ ability to serve this age group.

Since the launch of The Master Plan, Muti has added an astounding 95,000 square feet of teaching space to Ashley Hall’s campus. Perhaps more impressive, however, is that within every foot is a strategic intention to serve students just like the ones nestled in the Library and Science Center.

As a result, Muti has not just changed the School’s campus– she’s changed the lives of its girls.

| Opposite: Fifth and sixth grade students head into the Intermediate Program building, their customized and personal space to learn, connect, and grow. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography

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CELEBRATING 18 Years Though impossible to detail every innovation that has occurred, this timeline gives a visual overview of the impact Head of School Jill Muti has had on Ashley Hall during her tenure.

Reggio-Emilia teaching method is adopted in the Early Education Center

Full renovation of the gym and locker room begins

Ashley Hall’s new Strings Program offers violin lessons to kindergarten

September 9, 2005 July 1, 2004 Jill Swisher Muti assumes role of Ashley Hall Head of School

Ashley Hall celebrates Miss McBee’s birthday and opening of the renovated Lower School building, Pardue Hall

New Faculty Professional Development Program instituted

Muti conducts Brundibár, Ashley Hall’s first opera, in honor of Holocust Remembrance Day

Ashley Hall partners August 20, 2009 with the Sea Turtle Ashley Hall hosts a ribbonRescue Program at the South Carolina cutting ceremony for the new LEED-Certified Rivers Library Aquarium and Hoshall Science Center

Centennial Ashley Hall Horse Show features inaugural Emily Ravenel Farrow ’33 alumnae cup

Faculty establish the Ashley Hall Hallmarks: Intelligent, Creative, Compassionate, Discerning, Collaborative, Purposeful, and Worldly Jill and Lorenzo Muti establish the Meeting Street Academy Scholarship program

The Intermediate Program launches, Ashley Hall’s signature program for grades 5-6

Cello is introduced into kindergarten curriculum

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 First Upper School student trip to Italy with Spoleto Study Abroad, a summer enrichment course for high schoolers founded by Muti and her husband Lorenzo in 1996

Ashley Hall partners with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC)

February 14, 2008 Uniforms are introduced in the Lower School featuring Ashley Hall’s new signature McBee Plaid. This now sacred pattern that distinguishes an Ashley Hall girl was designed by Muti and inspired by founder Mary Vardrine McBee. The deep purple represents both the School’s commitment to its rich traditions and the respect for Ashley Hall students’ passion for learning.

Ashley Hall introduces The Learning Spiral, its new signature educational philosophy

Inaugural Mary Vardine McBee Philanthropy Award is presented to Hugh C. Lane, Jr.

First Upper School tall ship voyage through the Spirit of South Carolina Leadership Project Ashley Hall reinstates family-style dining. “Our new Dining Ashley Hall Commons serves as a shared space for the Ashley Hall opens its doors family to come together during meals. Our new facility, to international family-style dining practice, and slow food philosophy give boarding us yet another way that we are outstanding and unique.” students –Head of School Jill Muti, January 2011

2008 to 2017 | Having served on the Board of Trustees for a decade, Dr. Jerry Reves witnessed many transformations occur at Ashley Hall. Here, he reflects on the experience.

“I have been privileged to live and work in academia since completing my residency in 1972. In 50 years, I have observed a great number and wide variety of leaders. Often I have said, that among those many places, the George Washington University, Duke University, and the Medical University of South Carolina, I have not seen a leader who accomplished as much as Jill Muti at Ashley Hall. From introducing uniforms for the girls, to constructing buildings and transforming the entire curriculum, there is nothing in Ashley Hall’s recent history that has escaped the transformative power of Jill’s leadership.

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The majestic oak tree on campus is designated The Madeleine Oak in honor of Madeleine L’Engle, Class of 1937

Muti launches the Summer English Language Institute (SELI), a program that offers international students a chance to study English in Charleston

Student Life Center at Lane Hall opens offering 6,000 square feet of repurposed space to support the Personal New Intermediate Awareness Wellness Program Building and Series STEAM Center opens

Ashley Hall celebrates the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote

January 23, 2019 Signature STEAM-inspired boat building course kicks off in partnership with the Lowcountry Maritime Society

February 17, 2014 Alumna and former first lady Barbara Bush ‘43 visits Ashley Hall and speaks with students

Warren Street House opens, the School’s new Humanities Center at 89 Warren Street

The Christmas Play goes virtual for the first time in Ashley Hall history to keep the century-old tradition alive during the pandemic

Summer 2017

Pardue Hall gets 2,000 square feet of new multipurpose space when the LoDome, named after former Lower School Director Lois Ruggiero, is completed

Ashley Hall purchases Palazzo Leti, a new shared European campus in Spoleto, Italy

Ashley Hall’s new fitness room reopens with updated flooring, paint, audio/visual gear, and lifting and cardio equipment

May 3, 2022 Opening celebration and dedication of the Muti House Performing Arts Center at 159 Rutledge Avenue

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 School presents Ashley Hall Strategic Plan 2013 which focuses on The International Studies Program, Performing Arts, and Health and Wellness

Upper School French Department partners with Remember Niger Coalition

Student Ambassador Program launches with 50 students in grades 9-12

The Nautilus Program launches, Ashley Hall’s signature program grades 7-8 Ashley Hall Athletic Director Franny Rivers Slay ’80 is recognized by the South Carolina General Assembly for her extraordinary career

Summer 2018 September 5, 2014 Ashley Hall opens the Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54 House for Global Studies at 179 Rutledge Avenue

Ashley Hall is the first South Carolina school and second all-girls’ school in the nation to offer the award-winning tuitionfree Horizons Program

She led by clearly identifying the opportunity–usually presented as a problem with a solution. Once the problem was identified, a number of solutions were advanced.

But always there was a clearly stated, well-investigated preferred course of action. The Board of Trustees during my time was always poised to take the next responsible action. Questions about strategy were always entertained, and the clear consensus arrived upon is what enabled the School to act promptly and effectively.

Early Education Play Center opens

Anne Thornhill Weston ‘73 is announced as incoming Head of School for the 2022-23 school year Muti launches the Innovator Cohort led

by Ed Dougherty to investigate how to incorporate new technology to customize classrooms, activities, and teaching styles

To say that Jill Muti will be missed is correct, but the truth is her legacy will live on through the lives of the students who have benefited from the transformation she’s led and the faculty she’s empowered to continually develop their own novel ways of improving the School.”

–JERRY REVES, M.D., Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor the Medical College of South Carolina

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Shaped from

Within.

Beloved teacher and poet Dr. Nick Bozanic reflects on the purpose, pedagogies, and ultimately, the person responsible for nearly two decades of advancement at Ashley Hall.

Written by Nick Bozanic Illustrated by Jane Pelland

In 2004, while teaching for Spoleto Study Abroad under program co-director and Ashley Hall Head of School Jill Muti, I inevitably found my way to the Ponte delle Torri. This Roman aqueduct spans the deep ravine that separates La Rocca Albornoziana, a medieval fortress situated at the highest point of the city of Spoleto and the Fortilizio dei Mulini on the slopes of the facing Monteluco. This marvel of ancient engineering is supported by nine arches atop brick pillars, some reaching nearly three hundred feet down into the narrow river valley below. From its pedestrian walkway, you can look out over spectacular vistas of the surrounding landscape.

In October of 1786, just over 200 years before I showed up, the great German poet and polymath Goethe visited Spoleto and stopped to admire the aqueduct. He wrote: “The ten brickwork arches which span the valley have been quietly standing there through all the centuries, and the water still gushes in all quarters of Spoleto. This is the third work of antiquity which I have seen, and it embodies the same noble spirit. A sense of the civic good...was second nature to the ancients. Hence the amphitheater, the temple, the aqueduct. For the first time I understand why I always

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detested arbitrary constructions…. Such things are stillborn, for anything that does not have a true raison d’être is lifeless and cannot be great or ever become so.” (trans. W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer) A bronze plaque bearing this text from Goethe’s journal is affixed to the rock face at the base of La Rocca where the bridge to Monteluca begins. This is a fact of which Ashley Hall’s fifth Head of School is naturally well aware, her long and intimate associations with the city of Spoleto – both personal and professional – having contributed richly to the shaping of her sensibility and her sense of pedagogical purpose.

For example: I suggest that what Goethe perceived in the Ponte delle Torri – its steadfastness, its concrete embodiment of civic responsibility, its purposefulness, its arising out of an inherent necessity, rather than mere whim or modishness – may be said of Jill’s tenure as Head of School at Ashley Hall.

The evidence is everywhere and abundant, most saliently perhaps in the physical transformations to the campus that have been accomplished under her leadership. These transformations have made Ashley Hall a more spacious,

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“These transformations have made Ashley Hall a more spacious, more gracious, and a more humane habitation for the young women who live many of their most formative years here.”

| Jane Pelland, illustrator of Shaped from Within, is a natural science illustrator. Through the medium of transparent watercolor, she strives to reveal the intricate and often overlooked splendor of the natural world. She is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, The American Society of Botanical Artists, and The Society of Illustrators (New York). Jane has served Ashley Hall as a language arts teacher and writing coordinator from 1998-2020 and now loves returning to campus as a substitute teacher.

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more gracious, and a more humane habitation for the young women who live many of their most formative years here. More subtly (and more importantly) these transformations can be discerned in the attitudes and actions of those students whose minds and hearts have been informed – shaped from within – by their engagement with innovative curricula purposefully designed to draw forth from them their own most vital qualities of character – a drawing forth that is the root meaning of ‘education’.

Although that summer in Spoleto was my first opportunity to work directly with Jill, our paths had crossed, albeit tangentially, a good many years before at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she was a student in the internationally renowned music program and I was an instructor in the then nascent creative writing program. It is this shared experience of and appreciation for the specific demands and expectations of an arts education that led Jill to invite me to join her at Ashley Hall to serve in the newly created position of Dean of Faculty.

disciplining of her full powers of attention, both mental and physical. Practice engages the whole person, her complete presence. Moreover, such earnest practice serves as an antidote to the muddle-mindedness occasioned by the increasingly prevalent agents of distraction and trivialization that dilute so insidiously our consciousness.

This understanding of practice applies with equal force to any endeavor of the mind and body, for every academic discipline, done well, demands a like devotion.

The understanding we shared, the understanding that has informed our collaboration is that any musician – any artist – must devote herself to daily, purposeful practice, to the purposeful 40

But, as Jill knows from personal experience, practice is only preliminary to performance. It is important to note that a performance is not a test of the artist’s knowledge

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but of her ability, the extent to which she has internalized or assimilated certain understandings. In performance one reveals – even revels in – the enjoyment of one’s achieved mastery. And as a highly trained, professional musician, Jill knows intimately how ensemble performance requires of each participant what the philosopher Stanley Cavell called “an acquired seriousness and playfulness,” as well as a “continuous mutuality.” This is an intimate collaboration that honors the technical and intellectual expectations of the musical tradition while rejoicing in the possibilities of fresh discoveries – a dialogue, if you will, between the strictures of the classical tradition and the liberating invitations of improvisation, Bach in conversation with Count Basie. In her position as Head of School, Jill has attempted throughout her years at Ashley Hall to promote this practice-to-performance approach to learning by honoring what she refers to as a classical education even as she unhesitatingly encourages innovation and experimentation through the “continuous mutuality” of free and open discourse.

As an advocate of a classical education, Jill knows well that fundamental tenet of the Western humanist tradition expressed

most memorably by the Roman comic playwright Terence: “I am a human being; I consider nothing human alien to me.”

That is to say, however distinctively different or diverse we may appear to be with respect to our peculiarly personal attributes and attitudes, predilections and prejudices, we are all – always and everywhere–members of the same species and therefore share common capabilities for good or ill. Therefore, what we see others aspire to achieve can awaken in us a willingness to aspire as well.

As Maya Angelou glosses Terence’s motto, “If a human being dreams a great dream, dares to love somebody, if a human being dares to be Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, or Malcolm X, if a human being dares to be bigger than the condition into which he or she was born, it means so can you.”

Or as we say at Ashley Hall – as Jill Muti has taught us all to embrace as an article of faith, as she has demonstrated again and again in her years as Head of this School, as we have all been witness to her talent for turning seemingly impossible dreams into everyday realities: Possunt Quae Volunt.

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Celebrates a Year of Water SUSTAINABILITY

CREATIVITY

PHILANTHROPY

COMMUNITY

From saving sea turtles in Nicaragua to providing clean drinking water in local communities, here’s how Ashley Hall students united as global citizens this year in the name of water.

Written by Jonathan Perkins and Paula Harrell

At the start of the year, Ashley Hall launched a new schoolwide program aimed to integrate important challenges faced throughout the world into its curriculum. Inspired by two global initiatives related to water conservation and preservation set by the United Nations, A Year of Water purposefully created endless new opportunities for students to not only learn, but to make an impact. Here’s how: ADOPTING THE U.N. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed in 2012 with the purpose of creating a set of global initiatives related to the environmental, political, and economic challenges that we all face throughout the world.

A list of seventeen goals was crafted to serve as a blueprint for a better world and includes focus on ending poverty, hunger, inequity, and climate change to name a few. The SDGs are ambitious, yet the U.N. intends to have them met in 2030.

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In light of the School’s dedication to preparing young women to meet the challenges of society with confidence, it was a natural curricular enhancement to weave in the SDG’s, shared Head of School Jill Muti. “At Ashley Hall, when we look at the context of global citizenship, we see the interconnectedness of, ‘her world, our world, and the world,’” Muti says. “The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals offer our program a powerful framework in which to realize this important work.”

Overseeing this initiative is Global Education Director Jonathan Perkins, who says that a crucial part of the effort is encouraging the girls to think about what they can do to make a difference, including at the local level. “The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals can seem abstract and daunting,” Perkins says. “But by addressing how our community is impacted and how we can take action locally and globally, we hope to instill the girls with a greater sense of empowerment and optimism about the future.”

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| First graders put themselves in the shoes of girls in less developed countries who are forced to walk miles carrying heavy buckets to secure water for drinking and washing. From left: Zarya Kerwin ’33, Alice Palmer ’33, Elly Middleton ’33, Jenna Kuenzel ’33, and Karrie Scott ’33. Photo by Meredith Frazier families. The girls took turns carrying heavy water buckets in order for them to fully experience the challenge of this undertaking.

With heightened attention to global water challenges, and with the School’s campus being located in a flood-prone area, during its inaugural year Ashley Hall chose to pay special attention to water-related SDGs: clean water and sanitation (Goal 6); and life below water (Goal 14). The school-wide curricular program was thoughtfully curated to consist of classroom instruction, hands-on activities, and opportunities to engage with visiting speakers. The overall goal of this yearlong program was to engender student appreciation for clean water sustainability and conservation.

Here is a snapshot of Ashley Hall’s Year of Water related activities and projects:

OCTOBER | LOWER SCHOOL WATER WEEK Lower School students took a deep dive into global water issues with a week filled with water-themed activities, beginning with a Water Walk. Kindergarten through fourth grade stepped into the shoes of global neighbors who walk more than three miles daily to find clean water for their

Later in the week, students welcomed Ashley Hall parent Wes Carter to campus in order to learn about marine plastics and his packaging company’s innovations to eliminate plastic packaging to help clean up our oceans.

NOVEMBER | ASHLEY HALL WELCOMES AQUANAUT FABIEN COUSTEAU Last fall, Ashley Hall welcomed aquanaut, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker Fabien Cousteau, grandson of legendary explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. During his visit, Cousteau spoke to various grade levels about the work of his Ocean Learning Center Programs including Sea Turtle Restoration that supports female empowerment in coastal communities in Nicaragua.

In honor of Cousteau’s work, Ashley Hall fourth graders demonstrated their creativity with a philanthropic thrust and designed a special “turtle t-shirt” raising enough money to adopt eight sea turtle nests in Nicaragua through his Ocean Learning Center. Over 450 turtle hatchlings safely made it to the water out of those eight nests!

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FEBRUARY | SERVICE ACTION PROJECT: WATER WELLNESS MISSION The Ashley Hall Investment Group has two goals: give students hands-on experience investing money in the stock market and give back to the community. After impressively turning $10,000 into $17,000 over a two-year period, the Investment Group teamed up with members of the student council and philanthropy board to donate their earnings to the Water Wellness Mission, a charity that builds wells for residents in need on the Sea Islands.

Money raised by the Investment Group went directly toward installing a new water filtration system at a home that previously had no access to drinking water, and the girls got to watch the process from start to finish.

APRIL & MAY | UPPER SCHOOL BIOMIMICRY DESIGN PROJECT After learning about nature-inspired design solutions from the College of Charleston’s Deb Bidwell throughout the school year, students in grades nine through eleven participated in a competition to create their own designs aimed at mitigating flooding problems in the Lowcountry. Creative solutions ranged from a flood-resistant floating wooden walkway inspired by cypress trees and saltwater periwinkles to living wall art inspired by manta rays and palm trees.

A Student Perspective: Ellerbe Mendez ’23 Q. How has Ashley Hall’s Year of Water helped your understanding of the U.N. water-related sustainable development goals?

A. It helped me understand how these goals can impact urban planning and technological advances. An example is the real-life applications of the area of biomimicry. This is most impactful as we live on the water, so we get to witness sustainable changes in our city used to prevent flooding in the face of climate change.

Q. How has this program helped you think through how to take action at the local and global level to help advance sustainable development?

A. It has actually helped me consider sustainable development during my service on the Mayor’s Youth Commission. When talking to Mayor Tecklenburg or to members of the Commission, I take sustainable development actions into account when advocating for local change.

Q. Have there been any other activities or events that have helped you think more globally over the past year at Ashley Hall?

| Top: Ellerbe Mendez ’23 holding Ashley Hall’s donation to the Water Wellness Mission. Photo by Liz Regalia | Bottom: Fourth graders on a trash walk in Brittlebank Park where they installed a monofilament recycling bin on the fishing dock to help prevent pollution that can harm wildlife. Photo by Beth McCarty

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A. Yes. I had the honor of joining one of the Ashley Hall teams that participated in the World Affairs Council’s Academic WorldQuest competition. Preparing for the competition helped me learn more about international news and politics and, most importantly, increased my understanding of the United States’ impact on the world, as well as the impact the individual has on the world.

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COMING 2022-2023: A YEAR DEDICATED TO “GIRLS WITH THE WILL” Continuing to embrace Ashley Hall’s commitment to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the rising senior class has chosen to focus on Goal #5, gender equality. With the theme of equality baked into the DNA of Ashley Hall, next year’s theme will appropriately be “Girls with the Will.” Providing the perfect backdrop for this theme, 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which has transformed girls’ and women’s educational opportunities, especially participation in the athletic arena.

“We hope the theme, and our year long celebration of the accomplishments of girls and women in all fields, will inspire students to further embrace their Ashley Hall PQV spirit,” Perkins says.

MEET Global Education Coordinator

Jonathan Perkins

As the Global Education Coordinator at Ashley Hall, Jonathan works with the administration and faculty to support curricular, extracurricular, and travel programs that reinforce the power of having a global perspective. He is an experienced foreign service officer and analyst specializing in East Asia, and served as a Course Director and Lead Instructor at the Sherman Kent School, CIA University.

He earned his M.A. degree in International Studies from the University of Washington and his B.A. in Comparative Politics and History from Bowdoin College.

| Lower School students crawl through a TED, turtle excluder device, to learn how fishermen use it on their boats to prevent sea turtles from getting caught in their net. Clockwise from left: Harper Riley ’30, Noelle Nakamura ’30, Adelaide McKenna ’30, and LuLu Woodlee ’30. Photo by Beth McCarty

Jonathan is new to Ashley Hall this year, but hardly new to the School. He’s a part of a proud Ashley Hall family: his wife is alumna Caroline Perkins ’91 and he has two daughters, Elizabeth ’24 and Catherine ’27.

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Muti House

A Home for the Performing Arts This spring, Ashley Hall’s urban campus grew by 5,500 square feet with the opening of Muti House, Ashley Hall’s new performing arts building at 159 Rutledge Avenue. Here’s how this historic building will be used and what having a space dedicated to instrumental, choral, dance, and theater instruction means for the School’s next generation of performing artists.

Written by Liz Regalia

In the 1920s, Ashley Hall’s music teacher lived on campus.

From her tiny studio apartment, Marie Baker, a tutor of violin and piano, held lessons for students. Her place within the Ashley Hall community was of vital importance to founder Mary Vardrine McBee, who strongly believed in the value of having a background in music. So strongly, in fact, that McBee also taught private music lessons to girls alongside Baker during her 40-year tenure as Headmistress.

Needless to say, the performing arts have always had a place on Ashley Hall’s campus. Yet for over a century, that physical place has been shared. Instrument, voice, and theater instruction have historically taken place in multi-purpose areas due primarily to a lack of building space.

Next year, however, that will no longer be the case.

On May 3, 2022, Ashley Hall announced the opening of the Muti House for Performing Arts at 159 Rutledge Avenue for the 2022-2023 school year. Dedicated to Head of School Jill Muti at the end of her 18-year tenure, the historic building will house rehearsal and performance space for the School’s seventh through twelfth grade strings, choral, piano, dance, and theater programs.

“It’s really beautiful to be able to have intentional space around rehearsal because that’s where artists learn to hear, it’s where they learn to see, it’s where they learn to perform,” says Muti who is a professional flutist. “It is such a wonderful thing for the School.”

Administrators looked at many different uses for 159 Rutledge Avenue when it first became available to purchase. Ultimately, they decided the space would be best suited for performing arts for a variety of reasons. “Acoustically, the space needs very little,” explains Muti who has taught instrumental and choral music to Lower, Middle, and Upper School divisions throughout her career. “It’s also a flexible enough space that the faculty will be able to use it with great intention,” she adds.

With their eyes set on the future, performing arts faculty members have been working closely with Muti since January on what that programming will look like. “Anytime there’s something new, it opens up possibilities,” says incoming Performing Arts Department Chair Aimee Phelan-Deconinck.

“Whenever there is change happening, it redirects the focus to what’s to come, and that’s very exciting, especially coming out of the pandemic when arts’ programs everywhere lost momentum.”

Muti House boasts three fully renovated floors highlighting

| Opposite: Top: The exterior view of Muti House from Rutledge Avenue. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography | Bottom: Interior view of the second floor which will be customized to serve the school’s strings program. Photo by Meredith Frazier 46

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To announce the opening of 159 Rutledge Avenue, students led a celebration and dedication ceremony to show Board of Trustee members, alumnae, faculty, and friends of Ashley Hall a preview of how it would be used. The event featured special performances by students across all divisions, including Lower School violinists and cellists, Intermediate Program dancers, Upper School actors, and Red Choir singers.

| Clockwise from left: Cast members of The Tempest flank Muti during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for 159 Rutledge Avenue. | Cellist Ellison Wooten ’33 ready to perform with her first-grade classmates. | Intermediate Program dancers focused at the barre on the bottom floor of Muti House. Photos by Liz Regalia its historic charm. As envisioned now, the ground floor will be used for dance and theater rehearsals, as well as yoga classes. The first floor, which is outfitted with a new Yamaha grand piano, will be used as a rehearsal and performance space for Nautilus and Upper School choirs.

Lastly, the second floor will be customized to serve the School’s strings program.

“Right now, that floor is one big room,” explains Ashley Hall’s strings coordinator Flora Nevarez. “But they are going to split it into two with soundproof walls that will actually be able to move around so we can open or close the space.” She sees many opportunities from being able to create multiple small areas. “For example, if there’s a group of students who wants to put together a string quartet, now they are going to be able to do it.”

Nevarez, who runs the School’s violin and cello lesson program, also sees opportunities for Muti House to inspire growth. “With the private lesson program, we want to get back to our Suzuki-style group classes where we bring together students who are at a similar level or ability rather than grouping by age or grade,” explains Nevarez. “These new spaces are going to allow us to bring in more students from the community to join the program.”

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Beyond additional square footage, however, Muti House is a symbol of Ashley Hall’s continued dedication to the arts as an important part of a classical education. “When you have a performing arts space, you have a home,” says PhelanDeconinck. “It’s similar to how civilization was built. When you had constant migration, you couldn’t build stories. You had to think about survival. But once people could build their homes along the riverbanks, grow their own food, they started to have time to think. Students will now have an artistic home. They will have a whole new sense of what their work means to them.”

As for the building’s new name that will forever honor her long list of contributions to the arts at Ashley Hall, Muti emphasizes the collective work that led to the opening of 159 Rutledge Avenue.

“I’m obviously very flattered,” Muti says. “But it’s been 18 years of a lot of people working really hard together. That’s the magic. I’ve been so fortunate throughout my tenure here to have worked with a fabulous Board of Trustees. That’s what put us on the trajectory back in 2004. It was a group of very intentional, enthusiastic folks that wanted to see the School go in a very specific direction. Being able to partner with them is what allowed me to turn dreams into reality.”

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acy g e L g in t s La

In 2005, Muti established the Ashley Hall Faculty, Family & Friends Concert Series, a program of high-level classical music events created to enrich the cultural fabric of the school and the Charleston community.

The first year of recitals featured professional chamber musicians as well as some of the School’s own very accomplished music faculty, including Head of School Jill Muti.

Throughout her career, Muti has performed throughout Europe and the United States. At ease both in recital and as an orchestral musician, she has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in Durham, North Carolina since 1988 and has performed regularly with the North Carolina Symphony, the Opera Company of North Carolina, the North Carolina Theater Company, and the Chamber Arts Society of Raleigh. She has been active as a festival and master-class clinician and adjudicator.

“

It’s really beautiful to be able to have intentional space around rehearsal because that’s where artists learn to hear, it’s where they learn to see, it’s where they learn to perform.

– HEAD OF SCHOOL JILL MUTI

| Top: Muti performing during her final Ashley Hall Faculty, Family & Friends Concert which was held in the School’s performing arts building named in her honor. Bottom: Muti celebrating with her husband Lorenzo (left) and son Niccoló (right) outside 159 Rutledge Avenue on the day of the building’s dedication. Photos by Liz Regalia

As a musician, Muti has exemplified Ashley Hall’s overarching philosophy on the continued importance of the integration of arts in a classical curriculum. In a personal note that appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of Perspectives magazine, Muti credited much of both her personal and professional success to her participation and education in the arts:

“Growing up in a small farming community with a large Scandinavian and German enclave, it was customary and expected that every family member played an instrument or participated in the arts in some way.

My grandmother played the organ, my mother the clarinet, and I chose to study the flute. My journey with the flute offered opportunities for me to experience the wider world through my music. This ‘language of the gods’ has allowed me to experience the depth and breadth of human emotion in ways that the written word can not. It also has enhanced my reasoning skills, taught me self-discipline, collaboration and concentration, and developed my habits of mind. These are the experiences I want for every student at Ashley Hall.”

Since performing in the inaugural Ashley Hall Faculty, Family & Friends Concert nearly two decades ago, Muti has played the flute in dozens of classical programs for the School and local community. On the afternoon of Sunday, April 24, 2022, she took the stage for her final Ashley Hall performance in front of her own family and close friends.

The sold-out classical program, which included works by Chopin, Corigliano, Poulenc, and Quantz, fittingly took place in the new Muti House for Performing Arts.

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Inspire ASHLEY HALL ALUMNAE

LIVES THAT

Written by Liz Regalia Photos by Kelly Grace Photography

On Friday, March 16, 2020, Ashley Hall students went home, classes went virtual, and traditions went missing as COVID-19 spread through Charleston.

Two years later, life has returned to campus, and the removal of our face masks has revealed a lot about our community. Behind them, there were struggles. There were deep losses. But even though you couldn’t see them, our smiles never disappeared in the dark. Now they are brighter than ever. From their unique position as both alumnae and educators, we asked these Ashley Hall women to reflect on how the last two years have changed life on campus, starting with themselves.

WHO ARE WE AFTER THE PANDEMIC? Mary B. Webb ’76

Nautilus Program Faculty “The past two years have reaffirmed my commitment to Ashley Hall as a teacher and as a graduate. Although technology made it possible to interact with students during periods of distance learning, the more humane approach involves faceto-face interactions as a core part of learning at Ashley Hall. We are attuned to the nuances of our student’s behavior and, because of our caring faculty with a diversity of experience, each child finds a mentor within our ranks. Watching my fellow faculty members deal with all of the burdens the pandemic put on their families, while meeting the challenges of teaching and offering crucial comfort to individual students has been both exhausting and inspirational. I am proud of my colleagues, my students, and their families. We made it past every obstacle that landed in our paths and have high hopes for the future.”

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Betsy Cheek Howland ’74

Lower School Administrative Assistant “I have never been more appreciative of every person in our community–the flexibility of our teachers, the contributions of every family, but most of all, the students.

When the children returned to campus, I realized they are the ones that turn it into a place of joy.”

Elizabeth W. Johnson ’95

Early Education Center Primary Teacher “When we first closed the doors to school in March 2020 we didn’t know what to expect, but we knew that our youngest students were going to need a lot of love, care, and attention. On our end, we spent endless hours quickly learning how to create video lessons to share with the children and creating meaningful lesson plans with activities that the parents could do at home with their children.

We gave it 200 percent of our effort. We quickly learned how to use Zoom as a platform to host Morning Greeting Circles for our students, and we did our best to make them interactive. Also, we offered one-on-one individualized learning Zoom sessions for the youngest students; this was the tricky part! How do you engage young children through a screen? Thankfully, my associate and I each had houses full of teacher materials and were able to make the meetings meaningful and fun. Several students were hard to reach and engage through the screen and for those children we went over and beyond. For one child, we dressed up in our Halloween costumes and I ‘turned’ my associate into a frog at the end of the lesson as a reward for the child engaging with us. We learned that under pressure, you can do a lot more than you usually do.

Coming back to school in the fall of 2020 changed our ways of teaching in early childhood. We are a very hands-on, sensory-driven building full of emotions and expressions.

When we all came back to school wearing masks, the children could not read the expressions on our faces nor could we read theirs. One of the biggest parts of our curriculum is social-emotional development and learning to recognize feelings in others. Masks hindered that learning and definitely created some obstacles. In March

2022, when we were able to remove the masks for good, the children went crazy for a few days because they could see everyone’s faces! I think they were excited and also not quite sure what to make of it. For us, as teachers, removing the masks helps us, as well as the children, learn to read facial expressions and in turn learn how to use words to resolve conflict or other issues.

Since we were hindered with sensory experiences at school last year, we have gone over and beyond offering children those experiences this year and they love it. Some examples include making volcanoes, playdough, slime, scooping pasta or oatmeal in the sensory table, and washing animals with washcloths in a tub filled with ‘bubbles’ aka packing peanuts.

In general, I think that we are more sensitive to the many needs of the children who were babies at home during the lockdown. Those children were deprived of so many experiences and contact with other children and adults that it is taking a while to get them back to a place of normalcy.

More than ever, we focus on the social and emotional development of the very youngest students on campus. We are trying to help them build relationships with their peers as well as a variety of teachers.”

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Katie Perez-Phillips ’07 Intermediate Program Faculty and Coordinator “In the spring of March 2020, we scrambled to learn how to teach virtually and effectively while using new tools and keeping the young Intermediate Program girls engaged. Immediately, I realized that some days it was more important to touch base with them on a social-emotional level rather than solely focus on the Spanish lesson at hand. I’ve always known the importance of connecting with your students, but teaching and learning in isolation for three months put this concept into overdrive.

Two years and almost two months later, the pandemic certainly forced me to learn new skills and become more flexible, but the greatest lesson and reminder everyday has been that of community. Watching campus come alive and everyone choosing to return to be together to learn and teach despite mask and cohorting restrictions in August of 2020 and in August of 2021 is the perfect example of the importance of community both for Ashley Hall as an institution and for every single individual involved in our daily mission. As we slowly return to a new normal, I will always try to keep these past two years in my back pocket as reminders of our strength as a collective community and the necessity of connection to effectively educate and learn every day.”

Tiffin D. Lamoreaux ’01 Director of Health Services “The past two years have impacted me in many ways. At school, my working hours went from 40 hours per week to 60, sometimes 70. I lost the luxury of being able to unplug. But there were positives. I was finally able to hire a nurse to help in the Health Center. We implemented online registration forms, which has cut down on the amount of paper we use. I am one of the few people who truly enjoyed the lockdown. I loved being able to be home with my children. I was able to learn their strengths and weaknesses and focus on their academic achievements. We grew closer as a family, and I will always cherish that time I had with them.”

Franny Rivers Slay ’80 Ashley Hall Athletic Director “Before COVID-19, I think I took for granted how special it is to be with my students and athletes everyday. Especially in the subject area of physical education and coaching, it is very, very difficult to teach virtually. Now, everyday on my way to work I say out loud how grateful and thankful I am to be able to come to campus and be with my co-workers and students.”

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“

As we slowly return to a new normal, I will always try to keep these past two years in my back pocket as reminders of our strength as a collective community and the necessity of connection to effectively educate and learn every day.

– KATIE PEREZ-PHILLIPS ’07

Olivia Hipp ’10 Intermediate Program Faculty “The families I get to work with have been nothing short of amazing. The appreciation I have felt from the parents and students alike has been incredible. In a lot of ways, the students went through COVID more than most adults I know. While most adults were Zooming and learning to mask up for grocery stores, the children learned a whole slew of new tech tools and wore their masks all day, and they were just so grateful to be at school.

While we were quarantined, I got so many encouraging notes from my students and parents alike. Parents were able to engage in their children’s learning in a way they never had before, and I stretched myself to make my lessons part and parcel to my real life, including things like French recipe videos on how to make a crepe or a virtual field trip to Fort Sumter. One student even sent me a paper crane she made with a note that I still have on my desk. She wrote, ‘I hope you are doing well during this hard time.

I made this origami crane for you as it is a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times.’

This really sums up why I love my job. This is the kind of energy and care I get from my students everyday. They bring so much love to my life everyday, and they really are what motivated me to push through the past two years. I am constantly humbled by the sincerity of my students, and it leaves me always wanting to be the best possible educator for them.”

Ashley Hall Alumnae:

Lives That Inspire

Ashley Hall Alumnae. You know who they are. They are confident, passionate about what they do, and eager to make their mark on the world. They lead lives that inspire.

With this in mind, this year Ashley Hall launched a series that proudly showcases how alumnae continue to embody the School’s mission. Alumnae stories have been told through compelling video, interviews, and profile features. We invite you to read them at ashleyhall.org/livesthatinspire

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R E U N I T E D AT L A S T:

ALUMNAE WEEKEND

2022

Written by Liz Regalia Photos by Tumbleston After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 protocols, Ashley Hall women returned en masse to celebrate their alma mater and each other the weekend of April 22-24, 2022.

Nearly 60 classes were represented at festivities which included campus tours, special educational experiences, a Jubilee Society luncheon, and the famous Purple and White Party.

“I think we all really took for granted the ease of gathering with friends and family prior to the pandemic,” says new Director of Alumnae Engagement Arden Hare McKenzie ’09 who returned to work at Ashley Hall in 2021.

“Knowing that our group of alumnae didn’t have the chance to come together in such a long time was something that I was passionate about fixing. I’m thrilled that we were able to welcome over 50 classes of alumnae this past April for our first Alumnae Weekend since 2019. Seeing these women reunite after years of missed reunions, class parties, and campus activities was something that I’ll always remember with a smile and gratitude and work towards recreating each and every year.”

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2022 ASHLEY HALL DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE AWARD WINNERS In April, we celebrated award winners from 2020 and 2021, as well as these 2022 Distinguished Alumnae Award Winners. Please join us in congratulating all these alumnae!

FERN KARESH HURST ’64 COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD

Christian Monroe Holiday Douglas ’72 MARTHA RIVERS INGRAM ’53 EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS AWARD

Langdon Edmunds Oppermann ’70 CRANDALL CLOSE BOWLES ’65 PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Tiffin Dowling Lamoreaux ’01 TONISHA BELL ALSTON ’99 YOUNG ALUMNA AWARD Caroline Hay Robinson ’05 DEWAR GORDON HOLMES ’26 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE AWARD Missee Tuttle Fox ’73

In the Spring of 2023, Ashley Hall will host a reunion weekend for all alumnae.

The event will honor classes ending in 3 and 8, so get ready!

To connect with your class, contact Director of Alumnae Engagement Director Arden McKenzie at mckenziea@ashleyhall.org 55

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CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY HALL CLASS OF 2022

The 36 outstanding young women of this year’s graduating class were accepted by 65 of the most prestigious colleges and universities around the world, garnering $2.2 million in merit scholarships. The Ashley Hall community is proud of all they have accomplished!

Appalachian State University (2) Arizona State University (2) Auburn University (3) Baylor University Belmont University (2) Boston College Brown University Bryn Mawr College Bucknell University Case Western Reserve University Charleston Southern University (2) Clemson University (11) Coastal Carolina University College of Charleston (8) Colorado State University Denison University Elon University Emory University Flagler College Furman University (9) Georgia Southern University High Point University Hobart and William Smith Colleges Bold = Schools graduates will attend Number = Graduates accepted 56

Ithaca College Kenyon College Lafayette College Lander University Limestone University Louisiana State University (2) Loyola University Chicago (2) Marquette University (2) Mercer University (2) North Carolina A & T State University Northeastern University (2) Ohio University Pace University Purdue University Queens University of Charlotte Savannah College of Art and Design Sewanee: The University of the South (4) Smith College The American University of Paris The College of William and Mary The University of Alabama (3) The University of Tampa The University of Tennessee

Tulane University of Louisiana (2) University of Arizona University of California (Irvine) University of California (Los Angeles) University of California (San Diego) University of Colorado Boulder University of Denver (4) University of Georgia (3) University of Miami (3) University of North Carolina Wilmington University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of South Carolina (15) University of South Carolina (Upstate) University of St Andrews University of Vermont University of Virginia (3) Washington and Lee University Winthrop University Wofford College (10)

| Photo by Liz Regalia

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“

The best gift we can offer is the giving of ourselves.

—ASHLEY HALL HEAD OF SCHOOL JILL MUTI 2004-2022 During her time at Ashley Hall, Jill Muti created a culture of philanthropy that infused the school with possibility. With the support of a steadfast community, dreams were accomplished both for the School and the students who we are privileged to serve. Let us continue to dream as we ensure the legacy of Ashley Hall for current and future students.

Each gift to the Loyalty Fund invests in the aspirations of our students and reinforces the universal truth that each person has the capability to make a meaningful difference in someone else’s life. PQV.

GIVE ONLINE AT ASHLEYHALL.ORG/GIVE

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COMMENCEMENT

2022 Written by Liz Regalia Photos by Kelly Grace Photography

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On Sunday, May 29, 2022, under the shade of blooming magnolias at the Bear Cave, members of the Class of 2022 took their final steps as students and first steps as Ashley Hall alumnae.

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In time-honored fashion, this year’s ceremony celebrated seniors as they enter the next phase of their lives as independent, ethically responsible, and confident women.

It also beautifully honored outgoing Head of School Jill Muti as she too embarks on her next journey as Head of School at the prestigious St. Stephen’s School, an International Baccalaureate World School located in Rome, Italy.

Student speakers included First Honor Graduate Vivian Miller ’22, Second Honor Graduate Chloe Ross ’22, and Emory Meyer ’22 who presented this year’s Senior Class Gift, a maple tree that will be planted in front of McBee House. Natalie Laing, Director of the Engagement and

Policy Directorate for the National Security Agency, then took the stage to deliver this year’s commencement address.

As one of our country’s top national security intelligence officials, Laing impeccably exemplified just how far the PQV spirit could take every graduate sitting before her.

This year’s commencement exercises highlighted a mix of treasured senior memories as well the bright future that lies ahead. But the resounding message was the importance of cherishing the present. After two years of enduring the trials of a global pandemic, the Class of 2022 was able to celebrate the end of their time at Ashley Hall together, and that moment is all anyone could have asked for.

In 2006, the Ashley Hall Alumnae Association unanimously voted to begin a new graduation tradition. That year, seniors identified an alumna in their life to induct them into the Alumnae Association. Each graduate was then presented with a special circular pin of amethysts and pearls, the origins of the School’s Purple and White teams, from her sponsor at commencement as a symbol of their shared heritage and everlasting connection.

This now cherished tradition still lives on today.

Legacy g n i t Las

| Opposite: Graduates threw a single red rose from their bouquets into the air in celebration after the last diploma was delivered. | Above: The Class of 2022 at the Bear Cave in full Ashley Hall graduation regalia. | Left: Newly minted alumnae embracing each other in joy.

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The Making of a Portrait: DRAWING FROM LIFE TO LEGACY Written by Liz Regalia

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Every leader in Ashley Hall’s history has been honored with a portrait that hangs on campus after their departure. Artist and Upper School faculty member Lynne Riding takes us behind the scenes of the creation of the latest addition to the School’s century-old art gallery.

Studio art faculty member Lynne Riding first learned to draw by sketching family members and friends from life and using Vogue magazines for inspiration.

Little did she know as a child growing up in Mid Wales in the United Kingdom that she’d one day see her fashion illustrations 6-feet tall plastered on the side of double-decker buses and in the London underground. “My students at the time used to stop and point out the window when they’d see one go by,” she says with a laugh.

For over three decades, Riding has been simultaneously working as a

professional artist and teaching figure drawing and painting. Prior to moving to the United States in 1991, she was well-known in England as an illustrator for H&M, Topshop, Boots, and Marks & Spencer, as well as a studio art professor at The London College of Fashion and Technology.

Her experiences led her to teach at College of Charleston, the Art Institute of Charleston, and eventually Ashley Hall in 2017.

Outside of the classroom, Riding continues to create her own artwork from her airy, sun-filled home studio.

Her freelance drawings and abstractions alike have been showcased in museum exhibitions around the country from San Francisco to Florida, but her latest piece will be on display in a spot much closer to home: Muti House at 159 Rutledge Avenue.

In January, Riding was commissioned to paint a portrait of Ashley Hall’s fifth Head of School Jill Muti. We sat down with Riding just as the final coat of paint was drying on her oil-on-linen

masterpiece to learn more about the process of portrait painting, as well as how her expertise on the subject makes its way into her classroom.

PREPARATION BEFORE PAINT “The work that takes the longest when it comes to painting a portrait like this is actually the work you must do to get into it,” says Riding. “Preparation is about considering the subject.

Observing character, mannerisms, posture, and the way the subject holds themselves.”

To do this, Riding began by researching photos of her subject and sketching for potential compositions. Then she met with Muti multiple times in person before picking up a brush with the goal of making her feel comfortable so that her natural energy could shine through.

“I’m trying to get her essence onto the canvas and so I encouraged her to just talk to me,” Riding says. “Then one day, she put her hands in her pockets and started moving her shoulders,

| Opposite: Lynne Riding in her home studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo by Liz Regalia | Above: Riding’s Upper School Drawing and Painting class with their self-portraits hanging in Jenkins Atrium. Photo by Lynne Riding

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and I said, ‘Stop! That’s exactly what you do!’” The natural position Muti fell into was ultimately the inspiration for the composition of her portrait. “I really think that’s the essence of this painting. It captured her stance and her uniquely elegant yet free, go-getting spirit and energy.”

After months of cycling between painting and drying time, Riding completed Muti’s portrait during the first weeks of April. “Suddenly something just comes out of you and you say, ‘You’re done.’ It just comes out loud each time. It’s very strange.”

DRAWING FROM LIFE

The portrait was framed and hung in its new home on May 3, 2022, just in time for the dedication of the Muti House for Performing Arts where it will hang for centuries to come.

Once Riding decided on the composition of the portrait, she sketched Muti freehand while observing her in person.

The ability to draw a figure from life is a critical skill for any artist to have, she explains. “When I went to art school, one of the first classes you take is learning to draw a model from life because it’s one of the hardest things to do,” Riding says. “The subtleties in studying figures and capturing all those nuances is challenging. But once you learn to make an accurate study, then you can draw anything really.”

A strong foundation in basic design, using shape and composition, is exactly what she aims to give her students.

“One initial skill that I teach the students is to draw each other,” Riding says. “They sit across the table and we do a very fast exercise. I time them, so in the end, they end up drawing a portrait of their friend in a minute.” The focus here is to get familiar with proportions and measurements in order to make a figure feel 3D. Once they learn these skills, they are tasked with drawing a self-portrait, which is even more difficult.

ONTO THE CANVAS At the end of January, Riding transferred her sketch of Jill Muti onto a 24 x 35 linen canvas with carbon paper. Then with a fine brush, she used oil paint to draw over the lines and filled in the darkest areas on the figure first. “This process is known as adding ground colors and undercolors into a painting,” Riding says. “You start laying in the midtones and then the eyes.”

From there, Riding continued to paint in the basic color and structure of the hair and head. “It’s the most important thing because it’s the foundation to build on,” Riding says. “I put the darks in on the face, all the tonal shadows.” She then filled in the background of the portrait prior to having Muti sit for her again in March so that she could add fine details and perfect the proportions of everything from her jaw to eyebrows.

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| ”Winnie Wren” by Lynne Riding

“The subtleties in studying figures and capturing all those nuances is challenging.

But once you learn to make an accurate study, then you can draw anything really.”

–LYNNE RIDING

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JILL SWISHER MUTI ASHLEY HALL HEAD OF SCHOOL 2004 – 2022

It’s tradition for every Head of School to be honored with a portrait at the end of her tenure. As a result, the halls of McBee House are filled with faces who have transformed the School over the course of the last century. This portrait gallery of excellence is a constant reminder of the leaders who have made Ashley Hall the School it is today.

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