Every day, students pass through the high school’s hallways, focused on what the next period will bring. However, with the help of local artist Megs LeVesseur, Ceramics students have added color and a permanent reminder of belonging to the walls.
Art teacher Helma Groot said the tiles were installed in the hallway between the middle and high school during the week of Feb. 23. The installation covers the interior windows of science teacher Melody Spencer’s classroom, she added.
Groot said she chose to invite LeVesseur to be a visiting artist because she previously worked with Groot’s classes in 2016. She added that the experience was beneficial for her students.
“The kind of techniques she uses are really interesting and techniques that I would like my Ceramics students to know how to use,” Groot said.
Junior Ivy Camboni said the project required the class to use multiple different skills.
“We had to carve out details or carve out shapes on other pieces of clay and then adhere those to the original slab of clay,” she explained.
Sophomore Gibson Price said he learned new ways to use glaze in creating the tile.
“We used this black underglaze that would go into the cracks, and add a bunch of detail, and I didn’t know that before,” he added.
LeVesseur said most of her work is focused on carving, but she also uses other techniques to add complexity.
“Surface design is [part of] making that visual narrative,” she said. “A lot of my work stems from that.”
Groot explained LeVesseur led the students in adding texture, creating sculptural elements and glazing to create over 100 tiles that represent each of their individual communities.
LeVesseur said many table groups decided on an additional overarching theme for their tiles, such as sports or places within Bexley.
“We talked about what community means to them, and it was kind of fun how it organically developed,” she said.
Camboni explained she communicated an important part of her community by adding two flowers and a tree to her tile.
“It’s important to me because I feel like I’ve grown a community with my sisters,” she said. “It represents the community because my sisters and I used to draw that when we were younger.”
Camboni said creating the tiles was time intensive but worth it.
“My favorite part was getting to put it on the wall, because it settled in that it was going to be in the school forever,” she explained.
Price said his tile features a lion surrounded by a tennis ball, soccer ball, basketball and football.
“I feel like sports is a great part of community in Bexley,” he said. “Just going to games and spending time with friends at games is always fun. I feel like it brings Bexley together.”
LeVesseur added she chose to focus the installation on community because teenagers often feel out of place.
“I remember as a high school student trying to find my way,” she said. “I think it’s really helpful to cultivate acknowledgement of a feeling of belonging within either the schools, or clubs or sports.”
LeVesseur explained she believes community and a sense of belonging are crucial to the human experience and important to regularly reflect on.
“The process of thinking about what community means to you on a daily basis or weekly basis, having students work through that, I think is extremely helpful,” she said.
Published and digitized March 2026.
