Our Next Bright IDEA

Asa school founded on bold ideas, Harpeth Hall continues to look beyond tomorrow to innovate for the global community our girls will enter. The next level in the school’s educational excellence is on the horizon — the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab. Modeled after the Stanford d.school principles and inspired by leading innovations centers such as the Wond’ry at Vanderbilt University, the Bullard Bright IDEA lab will transform Bullard Gymnasium in the Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School into a place for learning, experimenting, and dreaming. In the Bright IDEA Lab, Middle and Upper School students and teachers will take part in hands-on creation and innovation in maker spaces, labs, a recording studio, and a kitchen. With access to new and innovative resources, students will embrace intellectual risks and pursue big ideas. The educational space aligns with Harpeth Hall’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan and affirms the school’s commitment to leading-edge teaching and learning.

“In a time when life is reimagined for all of us and the norms and routines of yesterday are shed, a Bright IDEA Lab gives us the opportunity to envision a different kind of learning space,” Harpeth Hall Head of School Jess Hill said.

“A classroom, presentation space, studio, maker space, and lab all in one, this flexible space is without definition in the traditional sense. … In this space, the connections, collaborations, and possibilities are endless.”

The Bullard Bright IDEA Lab will promote:

Innovation • Connection between the sciences and the humanities. Design • Problem-solving skills through engineering, coding, entrepreneurship, digital humanities, and interdisciplinary scholarship. Education in Action • Opportunities to learn from featured speakers, participate in professional development sessions, convene student/teacher meetings, and conduct workshops to research, build, and launch entrepreneurial projects.

Visionary projects like this one move forward through the generosity of the school’s community. In January, the Harpeth Hall Board of Trustees unanimously approved the design. Fundraising is well underway for the $5.9 million project, and construction began at the end of the school year with a target completion date of early 2022.

Harpeth Hall looks forward to turning the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab into reality for the benefit of our students today and in the future.

View from the entrance of the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab

View from the loft

View from the staircase landing

Student display corridor

“With the Bright IDEA Lab, the limits of Harpeth Hall will forever be widened so that every student will have the ability to grow in a new way.”

— Draper Witherspoon, rising 9th grade student