When a building has been around for 70 years there’s a lot of “stuff” that gets collected. Sometimes those things are boxed in a storage room; sometimes they’re hanging on a wall.  When a building gets renovated, the question of what to do with these items always comes up.

Over the years, a number of students have created art that appears as murals, sculptures, and paintings within the current high school building. One specific and noticeable type of art are the painted ceiling tiles that appear in hallways and classrooms. The ceiling tiles at Hempfield Area High School have always been a special and unique touch to the school, and it is a big challenge facing administrators as they figure out what to do with these dozens of tiles currently adorning the ceilings.  

Instead of throwing them away, Visual Arts teacher, Mr. Billick, came up with the idea to give the tiles back to the original creators. Nevertheless, we are still left with hundreds of tiles that do not have names or phone numbers on them, making it almost impossible to find who created them. Mr. Billick has many ideas on what to do, like creating a book documenting pictures of them or even creating an art wall in the new building. The goal is to keep these Hempfield memories alive forever.

There are many things at our school that will be missed and that hold a special place in the hearts of students and faculty members. The beautiful art placed on the ceiling tiles are one of those things that won’t be there when we walk in the new halls.