For more than two decades, the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center has been an important part of Philip Matthews’ life. 

As a student in the Troy City Schools, Matthews frequently had his artwork put on exhibit alongside hundreds of other students as part of the annual Young Masters Exhibit. Now an art teacher at Troy High School, Matthews has helped put his own students’ artwork on display at Hayner. 

Now, for the first time, Matthews, a 2005 Troy High School graduate and 2009 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, will have his own art exhibit at Hayner. His ceramics exhibit, “Order and Fire,” will be on display at the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center from Jan. 10 to Feb. 25. 

He will be there from 2-4 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 12) for an artist’s reception.

“It’s pretty cool,” Matthews said of the opportunity to be Hayner’s featured artist. “I’m a graduate of Troy, so I had things go to Hayner as a student. I’ve hung things up at Hayner as a teacher, and now I get to have my own stuff there, so it’s come full circle. I’m very excited and thankful.”

Troy High School art teacher and Troy City Schools art department chairperson Jill Hartman was the one who suggested to Hayner that Matthews should be a featured artist.

“Jill Hartman suggested show ideas, and she tossed out my name to the board at Hayner and got the ball rolling from there,” Matthews said. 

It’s fitting that Hartman should be involved in Matthews becoming a featured artist at Hayner, as she was there at the beginning of teaching career. She was his cooperating teacher for his student-teacher placement. Her father-in-law, former Troy High School art teacher Herb Hartman, helped spark Matthews’ interest in ceramics and pottery when he was a guest teacher in an art classes while Matthews was a student at Troy.

“I had Jill’s father-in-law, Herb, when he came in for a week and we did a (pottery) wheel unit with him, but it wasn’t until I had to do a semester of ceramics in college, more teacher certification, that I really got into it,” Matthews said. “I started with Hartman, and then moved on from there.”

Matthews not only teaches ceramics at Troy High School, but continues to create his own pieces. His display at Hayner will feature two distinct ceramics methods.

“It’s all my ceramic work,” he said. “There’s two different styles. One is more based on geometric shapes, contrasting colors, black/white and then the color of the clay, and then the other is a style called Raku. It’s the same stuff we do here (with students in classes), where we set it on fire, lots of bright colors splashed everywhere. One is very orderly, the other is the opposite of that.”

Once Matthews’ exhibit  comes down at the end of February, he will turn right around and once again work on displaying his students’ artwork for the Young Masters Exhibit.

 “I’m moving out and we’re putting the kids’ stuff up right after that,” Matthews said. “It will be cool to have them follow right after that.”