All Oak Hills High School students electing to enroll in an Art and Design Department course will develop a Competitive Advantage, Appreciation of the Arts, Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, Interdisciplinary Connections, Social and Global Awareness, and Career Preparation related to Visual Communication.
The 2026 Thomas More University Juried High School Exhibition participants have been announced! The TMU Juried High School competition is open to regional high school juniors and seniors from across the Greater Cincinnati and Tri-State area. The event is structured to educate young artists on how to professionally submit, prepare, and display work for a juried gallery competition. Eligible participating high school seniors have the opportunity to receive art scholarships.
Congratulations to the following OHHS Art and Design students whose work was selected for the exhibition:
Instructor: Jamie Schorsch
Baylee MoormanMichael SmithDesmond Damon
Desmond Damon Baylee Moorman Michael Smith
A special congratulations to Sarah Sieve, who’s scratchboard Randy’s Candies, received the Gallery Director’s Choice Award in the 2026 TMU Juried High School Exhibition!
Stop by to view the exhibition in the Eva G. Farris Gallery on the Thomas More University campus until November 24th, 2026.
The Oak Hills High School Art and Design Department recently partnered with the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) to bring the Artist & Writer in Residence Program to OHHS, providing students with an opportunity to explore creativity, experimentation, and artistic expression through hands-on learning. Designed to challenge K–12 students throughout Greater Cincinnati to develop important 21st-century skills, the program encourages creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration through visual communication and creative exploration. Professional artists and writers work directly with students in the classroom, introducing new perspectives, techniques, and approaches to the creative process.
At OHHS, this special enrichment opportunity was open to all students during X-Bell and led by Art Academy of Cincinnati instructor and multidisciplinary artist Erika NJ Allen. Allen is a Guatemalan-born, Cincinnati-based artist whose work explores the connections between personal experience, cultural identity, consumption, labor, migration, and resilience. Working primarily in ceramics and photography, she transforms familiar materials and everyday objects into thought-provoking works of art. Much of her ceramic practice focuses on recreating fruits and vegetables in clay, using their forms, textures, and natural processes of growth and decay to explore ideas about the body, nourishment, healing, and transformation.
Her work also examines the cultural and political histories of the banana industry and its connections to labor, immigration, and the experiences of marginalized communities.
Through her own artistic practice, Allen demonstrates how ordinary materials and personal experiences can become starting points for meaningful creative exploration.
The four-day residency at OHHS centered on the idea of “Clay Break,” encouraging students to step away from their everyday routines and embrace the freedom of making, experimenting, and discovering through clay. Rather than focusing on creating a perfect finished product, students were encouraged to approach the material with curiosity, take creative risks, explore possibilities, and learn through play.
Clay provided a hands-on way for students to investigate form, texture, structure, and the unexpected results that can emerge through experimentation. The process emphasized that creativity isn’t always about having a predetermined plan or knowing exactly what the final outcome will look like. Sometimes the most meaningful discoveries happen when students are willing to explore, make mistakes, change direction, and see where their ideas lead.The four-day Clay Break reminded students that creativity thrives through curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to play. By making space for exploration and new ways of thinking, OHHS students had the opportunity to discover the possibilities of clay while developing creative skills that extend far beyond the art room.
The Artist & Writer in Residence Program reflects the value of bringing professional artists into school communities and connecting students with creative practices beyond the traditional classroom experience. Through its partnership with OHHS, the Art Academy of Cincinnati provides participating educators and students with professional guidance, curricular support, and the necessary art materials to make these experiences possible.
Thank you to the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Erika NJ Allen for bringing this engaging and inspiring creative experience to Oak Hills!
OHHS Art & Design students are showcasing their creativity and artistic voices in Taking It to the Streets, the Southwest Ohio Art Education Association (SWOAEA) K–12 Student Exhibition featured at this year’s upcoming Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA) State Teacher’s Conference in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.
The exhibition celebrates the many ways art connects to our everyday lives, communities, and personal experiences. Student artists are encouraged to explore a wide range of themes, including street art, graffiti, murals, public art, fashion, sneakers, music, dance, sports, physical movement, and social action. From carefully observed still lifes and personal narratives to bold statements about identity, culture, fairness, and the environment, the exhibition highlights the diverse perspectives and experiences of young artists.Taking It to the Streets encourages students to look closely at the world around them for inspiration. Everyday objects, familiar spaces, community interactions, and moments of movement can all become meaningful subjects for artistic exploration.
Having artwork represented in this exhibition highlights the importance of creative thinking, personal expression, and connecting classroom learning to the broader community. The opportunity also allows students to share their work with art educators from across Ohio and celebrate the many ways young artists interpret and respond to the world around them.
Congratulations to the following students from Ms. Schorsch’s Studio Art Foundations course who were selected participate in the exhibition and demonstrate how art can move beyond the classroom to inspire, communicate, and connect communities!
Tym’Shay Akins Noah Miragliotta Jack Rosebrook Maddie Smith
On October 23rd, AP Art and Design students embarked on their first field experience as a part of this year’s Contemporary Arts Center School Outreach Program. The CAC SOP offers students from grades 2 through 12 a comprehensive, immersive experience with contemporary art. Running from September through May, this year-long program includes an in-school orientation, guided tours of CAC exhibitions, a classroom project tied to the exhibition led by a local artist, and a spring visit to an artist’s studio. Program docents work with the same class throughout the year, fostering continuity and rapport with the students.
During the tour, students engaged with two different exhibitions.
Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance) is Widline Cadet’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States. Organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and curated by Kristen Gaylord, the exhibition explores Black diasporic life through Cadet’s personal experiences immigrating from Haiti, examining family, memory, loss, resilience, and belonging. Through photographs, ceramics, video, murals, and multimedia installations, Cadet creates a “living archive” documenting three generations of her family and the connections that endure across time and distance.
In the Interest of Timefeatures seven artists connected to Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky who explore how photography captures and shapes our understanding of time, memory, history, and truth. Through family photographs, changing landscapes, historical archives, geological processes, and personal narratives, the artists challenge the idea that a photograph represents a single moment. Curated by Theresa Bembnister, the exhibition is a Featured Exhibition of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial, The Long View, which explores how photography and film shape our perceptions of time and perspective.
The students wrapped up their visit exploring the 6th floor Creativity Center + UnMuseum where the could interact with a wide range of materials and space while exploring additional exhibitions by artists.
As part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial, the opening of Wayfarers at the Delhi Event Center featured an engaging artist talk highlighting the creative journeys, perspectives, and experiences of three members of the OHHS Art and Design community: Jamie Schorsch, Steve Groh, and Hannah Knight. The artist talk offered an opportunity for attendees to hear directly from Schorsch, Chair of the OHHS Art and Design Department and Ohio Art Teacher of the Year, photography teacher and artist Steve Groh, and OHHS Art and Design alumna Hannah Knight (2018). Together, they shared their perspectives on art and photography, the ways photography influences how we see and understand the world, and the personal journeys that shape us as artists and individuals.
The conversation was especially meaningful within the context of Wayfarers, an exhibition co-curated by Groh and Knight that brings together photography from OHHS Art and Design alumni alongside work by their former teacher. The exhibition explores the idea of the “wayfarer”, someone who travels along a path or embarks on a wandering journey, as a metaphor for the artistic and personal paths we take throughout our lives.
The artist talk also connected naturally to this year’s FotoFocus Biennial theme, The Long View. The theme encourages viewers to consider photography through the lenses of time, distance, perspective, and reflection. In that spirit, the speakers reflected on where their own creative journeys began, how those experiences have shaped their work, and where those journeys have led them.
For the OHHS Art and Design Department, the event was a powerful example of how the impact of art education can extend well beyond the classroom. The conversation brought together a former teacher, a department leader, and an alumna to share their experiences and demonstrate how creative journeys continue to evolve over time.
