Our family moved to Nashville at the end of 2014—along with every other person and their uncle. As a mom of two, I’ve enjoyed watching our city flourish. And with parts of Nashville experiencing revitalization, it means more for us to see and do. I’ve particularly enjoyed the emergence all over the city of Nashville murals.
I’m always trying to come up with ways to entertain my four-year-old as we travel from place to place in our vehicle. Instead of turning to Netflix and Amazon Prime for solutions, we’ve started looking for these murals during our errands and other Nashville adventures. It’s not just fun for the kids! Adults also enjoy seeing art flourishing in unique ways.
There are so many murals popping up around the city. We had to put together a guide for our fellow Nashville mamas (and visiting families!) to help get the most out of these amazing works! We traveled from East Nashville to Downtown to West End to collect these murals. And the ones compiled are just a fraction of those in Nashville!
Parts II, III and IV of our guide will be available soon. So as you wait with anticipation, check out these creative ways to help your kids engage in this art form and have fun in the process!
Do a photo scavenger hunt.
Using our forthcoming guide, take your kids on a photo scavenger hunt. All you need is a cell phone! You can drive by and take a picture or stop and include your kids in the photo. Make it a game! It could also be a fun activity for birthday parties.
Make a mural with your kids.
Depending on how brave you are—you could buy a large white piece of paper or canvas and let your kids paint, color and draw on it or you can designate a wall in your house as a mural wall and let them go to town with their creativity! You could also simply pull out the sidewalk chalk and let them create a temporary piece of artwork on the sidewalk.
Hang up a Nashville map with push pins.
Another way to collect murals is to put up a map of Nashville on the wall. Every time you see a mural, add a pin to the map. This makes it easy to collect murals over time, and your kids can learn about maps in the process.
Play mural Bingo.
If you go to this Bingo generating site, you can copy and paste mural images into the Bingo spaces and create mural Bingo! Keep the Bingo sheets in your vehicle and whenever you spot a mural, mark it down. It’s an easy, long-term game.
Read books about murals to add to the experience.
Before you go to explore, check out the following books from the Nashville Public Library:
Olivia Paints a Mural by Veronica Paz
Amelia Bedelia Chalks One Up by Herman Parish
Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds
Maybe Something Beautiful by Isabel Campoy
Keep your eyes peeled for Part II of our Nashville Mural Guide!
We’ll be sharing some of the murals in East Nashville!
