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Children fortunate to grow up in the Nashville Public Library system enjoy a memorable landscape for their reading journeys, filled with creative visual scenes to accompany so many written stories. What longtime Nashville reader among us isn’t nostalgic for the mousehole in the wall at the bygone Ben West Library or for Wayne White’s cranky head at the Main Library downtown, to name few whimsical library landmarks? 

No doubt, kids who grow up reading at the new LEED Gold-certified Donelson Branch library will enjoy an indelible memory of native flora and fauna, courtesy of artist Amber Lelli’s shining suspended sculpture, Celestial Falls. Installed in June 2024 and supported by Metro’s Percent for Public Art funding, the 28’ x 17’ structure hovers over a two-story reading room and depicts layers of water and land hosting a gleaming chrome-silver ecosystem of species found along the Cumberland River. 

“I chose animals popular in children’s books,” Amber says of the native menagerie of squirrels, butterflies, finches and rabbits visible from the ground floor, from upstairs in the children’s section and from the parking lot. She even modeled Celestial Falls’s yellow-bellied slider after her own pet turtle. 

The silver-on-silver scheme of 18 plants entangled with a dozen animal species lends itself perfectly to an impromptu game of I-spy, as in “I spy with my little eye… a fern…an aster…a persimmon…a mockingbird.” But it’s not just for kids. Celestial Falls is a destination sculpture, with an all-ages message about the importance of protecting biodiversity. 

When she’s not shaping and gilding seven-foot-tall lemon bee balm and oversized dwarf irises for her own work, Amber helps lead the team of craftspeople in the studio of sculptor Alan LeQuire as they prep for installation of his monumental works at the Parthenon this summer. In fact, the gilder who helped apply aluminum leaf on Celestial Falls’s Sweet Betsy trillium, tulip poplar and zebra swallowtail was also involved in the gold-leafing of LeQuire’s towering Athena in the Parthenon at Centennial Park in 2002. 

LeQuire Gallery will host Rest in Pieces, an exhibition of new work by Amber Lelli, Feb. 8-March 15. The mixed-media sculptures on display will feature aluminum-gilded works reminiscent of Celestial Falls. The show opens on International Women’s Day, when several women artists involved in the creation of Celestial Falls will discuss the project, along with their own ongoing work. For information about the opening reception (6-8 p.m.) and other events, visit lequiregallery.com.