When you sit down with Alexis Tharp, the new art teacher at Litchfield High School, you get the immediate sense that she is exactly where she's meant to be. After a teaching career that began in 1997 and has taken her through classrooms in Missouri, South Carolina, and several Illinois districts, she didn't come to Litchfield by chance or convenience. She came because it felt right. When the position opened, she moved fast, sending her resume in early before the rush. She applied with intention, interviewed with clarity, and carried into that conversation the certainty of someone who knew she had found the school that fit her best. Litchfield gained the benefit of that certainty, and the early signs suggest the district made a very good match.

Alexis lights up when she talks about high school learners. They're old enough to know who they are, young enough to surprise themselves, and independent enough to bring something real into a space like hers. She laughs when she contrasts the experience with elementary, but she doesn't hide her preference. High school students choose to be in art. They elect it, seek it out, and in many cases, rely on it. "They want to be in there," she says, and that single distinction changes the entire culture of her classroom. When kids walk into a room because they want to be there, the entire posture of learning shifts toward curiosity and ownership.

She arrived to find students who were used to treating art as the "easy A," a place where the work didn't demand much and the outcomes were largely assumed. That changed on day one. Alexis raised expectations—not with harshness, but with honesty. Turn it in quickly and thoughtlessly, and she'll hand it back with the unspoken message that you're capable of more. But she also gives second chances, and sometimes third ones, because art is built on revision. It is the one discipline where redoing the work is not a sign of failure but a practical expression of growth. She doesn't punish students for trying again; she insists on it. In her room, iteration is not a loophole. It's the point.

Much of her confidence comes from the support she feels inside the school. "It's huge," she says. "That is like half the battle." It's not something every teacher can say so freely. She feels trusted and encouraged, given the autonomy to run the program the way it was meant to be run. That trust is changing the texture of the art room. Students sense it. They know when a teacher is empowered. They know when the room belongs to someone who loves being there. A friend has even jokingly dubbed her the "Art Queen," a nickname she deflects with a laugh, though the truth behind it is easy to see: she's quickly becoming the anchor around which the program is taking shape.

Ask her what she loves most about teaching art, and she'll tell you it's the way creative problem-solving becomes second nature. "Everybody needs that in their life," she says. In her room, nobody gets benched. She believes there's a place at the table for every student, from the ones who arrive bursting with ideas to the ones who need time and safety to figure out what they're capable of. Art becomes the rare space in a school where confidence isn't tied to speed, where the quiet student finds voice, and the perfectionist learns to try messy things without fear. From future engineers to aspiring nurses to students heading into trades, the ability to interpret the world, see multiple solutions, and work through uncertainty is invaluable. Her classroom becomes the proving ground for those abilities.

There's also a touching personal note that reveals just how deeply this work runs in her own life. Her daughter recently asked if she could drop choir to take art instead—a small moment, but one that speaks volumes. Kids often gravitate toward the spaces that feel alive, warm, and welcoming, and the fact that her own daughter sees art that way is a quiet, genuine endorsement of what Alexis is building.

This is the story Litchfield deserves to hear: an experienced educator with nearly three decades in the classroom chose this district with intention, stepped into a role that fits her perfectly, and is now rebuilding the high school art program into something rigorous, joyful, and deeply human. In her classroom, students are learning not just to draw, paint, sculpt, or design. They're learning to try, to revise, to fail safely, to recover, and to discover who they are. On her bulletin board hangs a quote that captures her entire philosophy: "Creativity is intelligence having fun." Confidence is being shaped there. Identity is being shaped there. And with Alexis leading the way, Litchfield's art program is becoming a place where intelligence doesn't just show up—it has fun.