Seventh Graders Bring Art to Life Through Storytelling

TALLULAH FALLS, GA — When Tallulah Falls School seventh grader Emily Papandreas began scrolling through the online collection of the High Museum of Art, she found a story waiting for her.

“My eyes landed on this piece, and I felt inspired,” she said.

The photograph — “The Guest 5:39 p.m. 27-6-96 (NB”) by Christopher Bucklow — sparked her imagination instantly. From that single image, a fictional narrative began to unfold.

Her story explores how loneliness can corrupt the soul. “I was looking at the photograph, and I thought of a sailor — a fisherman who frequently goes out to sea and always has the chance of not returning, but goes out anyway,” Popandreas explained. The tale took shape on her Chromebook in Kim McClurg’s seventh-grade English class.

As McClurg prepared to teach a “Writing From Pictures” unit from the Institute for Excellence in Writing curriculum, she reflected on her students’ upcoming field trip to the High Museum in Atlanta. “I thought, what better way to make a field trip come alive?” McClurg said. “I changed my lesson plans when I made that realization.”

Her assignment: Visit the High Museum’s website, select a work of art that speaks to you, and write a fictional story inspired by that piece. The results exceeded expectations. “I have never gotten stories like this before,” McClurg said. “They put so much work into every bit of it.” 

For an entire month, students immersed themselves in the full writing process. They developed keyword outlines, drafted in writer’s notebooks, revised thoughtfully, and refined their structure. Lessons focused on stylistic techniques such as varied sentence openers, strong verbs, adverbs, prepositional phrases, clauses, dialogue, figurative language, and polished mechanics. “It opened up their writing,” McClurg said. “They are experimenting with style and learning how to vary their structure intentionally.”

Scarlett Stapleton excitedly announced she stayed up late writing her story. “I am really proud of how I took the persona of someone from the Tudor period. Here’s a line I wrote: ‘Face me when I speak to you!’ It is how I wanted my character to speak and to act.” 

Stapleton’s story was inspired by “A Woman of Boulogne Nursing Her Child’’ by Aimé-Jules Dalou. To shape her story, she conducted research on Mentha pulegium, a flowering plant in the mint family historically associated with infertility. “They have beautiful purple flowers and bloom late July through September,” she said. 

Turner Lander also found research essential to his storytelling. He selected a photograph: “Gussy’s Magnolia,” by Jack Spencer.

“I immediately saw the contrast — the white magnolia against a dark background,” Lander said. “I thought that would make a great story.”

His narrative traced an ancestral journey from 1765 to 1997, imagining the story of enslaved individuals escaping from George Washington’s plantation during the Revolutionary War. “Gussie mentioned the magnolias, and she teared up, thinking of how loving her great-grandma was,” Lander shared. Writing across timelines, he discovered, can be one of the most challenging — and rewarding — aspects of storytelling.

Audrey Roy picked “The Proscenium, Théâtre Antoine” by Édouard Vuillard, a painting that reflected her personal interest. “I found a painting of someone in the audience looking up at the stage, and it was in the style of painting that I like,” she said. Her story is about a girl's struggle with friendship and bullying, and how she found the stage a place to

overcome. “I wanted to do something that most kids experience,” she said.

Students scrambled to put the finishing touches on their stories – their polished versions due Thursday, the day before the trip to the High Museum. 

At the High, students finally saw the art in person. For Popandreas, it was magical. “I didn’t expect it to be so big – it is 12 feet wide.” And what she thought was just a painting wasn’t. “I had not seen the detail – every wire, every shard of glass, every shred of fabric was perfectly placed.” 

Roy noticed the textures and strokes. “I could feel what the person felt when they were painting it,” she said. I could understand the painting more as I stood next to it. I felt more connected to the artist.”

Through this creative integration of art, research, and writing, Tallulah Falls School seventh graders discovered that inspiration can begin with a single image — and grow into powerful, original storytelling. 

By connecting classroom instruction to real-world art experiences, teachers like McClurg are helping students see that great writing does not begin with a blank page. Sometimes, it begins with an image — and the courage to imagine the story behind it.