Fox Sculpture Started With Summer School

The new fox sculpture in front of is more than MDO plywood, paint and posts.

It’s the product of 13 students’ work, community volunteerism, and a teacher’s vision – plus a metaphor on the high school experience. Art teacher Levi McCulloch led the project, which spilled beyond the new three-week summer school class to students volunteering their time throughout the summer and the first week of this academic year.

“It’s made out of four separate panels, and each of the panels is a different color and different shape,” McCulloch said. “All of them come together to make the Fox because there are four different years here – freshman, sophomore, junior, senior - but they all come together to make the Fox.”

The design itself is a composite of students’ ideas. The group cut the plywood with a jigsaw and primed and painted the wood. Then, Dan Nicholson of helped them install the sculpture outside.

“He engineered how we installed it and constructed it,” McCulloch said. “I had my design and I had a way to go about it, but he made it a lot simpler.”

The final product is about 10 feet tall, 12 feet wide and four feet deep, and is staked about five feet into the ground, McCulloch said.

Ultimately, the names of those who worked on the project will be dedicated on a flagstone set beneath the sculpture, and the area around the public artwork might be embellished with landscaping. The 13 students will be tied and connected to their school in a special way, McCulloch said.

“I like that the kids can walk past it and say, ‘I did that,’” he said.

McCulloch hopes to lead a similar public art project next summer – perhaps for the . But he also thanked administrations, including Superintendent Scott Wakeley, Director of Buildings and Grounds Brian Debolt, and Principal Ron Kiesewetter, plus local businesses for supporting the inaugural project.

“It’s designed to be driven past,” McCulloch said. “We did have to really sell that placement in front, because we wanted everyone who drives on Game Farm Road to see it. It’s because we wanted it to belong to everybody.”

Participating in the project were:

Build Team: Levi McCulloch, Dan Nicholson, Grant Brineman, and Tim Leifheit

Stone Donated by

Sandblasting Donated by

Design Team: Levi McCulloch, Kate Allen, Grant Brineman, Sara Erskine, Casey Fellerer, Jacob Felker, Casey Kramer, Justine Martin, Taylor Meyers, Eric Squiggles Murphy, Jake Otto, Taylor Vicini, and Monica Weihofen