Johnston Now Honors: Excellence in Arts honoree leaves lasting mark on students, community

By Jamie Strickland

Smithfield-Selma High School art teacher and Princeton resident Magen Hill Pike has taught at several schools throughout the area in her nearly 20 year career in education. In each school, she has left a lasting impact, both on the students and the buildings that house them. 

From a painting of a raven at Riverwood Middle to an art history timeline at Kinston High and a shadow mural at Benson Middle, just to name a few, the artwork she created and inspired numerous children to create adorns the walls at schools across the region. 

The creativity of her students has also extended well beyond the walls of their school buildings and out into the communities.

It’s this impact on her students and the community that has earned her the 2024 Johnston Now Honors Excellence in Arts Award. 

Pike developed her eye for art from a young age, having been inspired by her elementary school art teacher. 

“She gave us this large piece of newsprint paper that if you moved it wrong, it would rip. It was super thin. And she said, ‘I want you to take your pencil and just do big scribbles,’ and she would always demonstrate and say ‘Just take your whole arm and just draw big scribbles.’ And then she made us stop and find things in the scribbles. And so we would look at it and find, like,  fish, or birds, or faces or objects.”

From that experience, Pike began spotting things in the patterns around her, in curtains, fabrics, wood or even the cracks in concrete.

“That was the influence for a lot of my personal pieces,” she said.

After high school, Pike traveled to Europe and beyond, witnessing famous works of art in person and gaining inspiration from those experiences. 

“I saw the Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling and the Last Judgment in Vatican City, The David and the trapped prisoners at the Accademia in Florence. I went to Greece, London, Turkey, Paris, Switzerland, Sorrento, Capri, Rhodes, Turkey. These were inspirational in my lessons and influenced my teaching to students. … I always visit historic places, art museums, landmarks, monuments and local galleries and markets. Inspiration comes from any and everywhere.”

She attended The University of Mount Olive and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Communications. There, she took classes in disciplines such as graphic design, painting, sculpture, photography and drawing. 

She interned for a graphic design firm, where she put her personal touches on the projects she worked on.

“It was a geographic technology group…so I wanted this like, Earth look. So I was going to the dump and taking photos of rust. So they thought I was a little quirky.”

Early in her career, she worked for a gallery in downtown Goldsboro doing art restoration and picture framing, where she acquired even more of her skill set. 

“I learned how to set up a show. Paint the walls, puddy the holes, frame the art, label,” she said.

A love of small town, country life motivated her to stay close to home rather than moving away for a job, and she decided to pursue a career in teaching art to others.

She got her first teaching job at Midway Middle in Sampson County. From there she took a job at Riverwood Middle, then worked at Kinston High School and Benson Middle School before landing in her current position at Smithfield-Selma. 

She has worked hard to secure grants and raise funds from local businesses to bring art out into the community, as well bring professional artists in the schools so kids could learn from them first hand.

While still teaching full time, in 2015 she earned her Masters of Arts in Education from East Carolina University.

At Smithfield-Selma she designed a large “Sparta” mural and worked with an International Baccalaureate student on a project to paint the columns of the school cafeteria to showcase international foods and culture.

She also received a grant to install a professional art gallery outside her classroom that showcases student artwork throughout the year.

Pike and her students can often be found out and about, most recently working on several murals in downtown Selma. 

“I think what’s cool about it, is when the community saw the students out there, they would just walk up and talk to them and kind of introduce themselves. It honestly just started to feel like family,” she said.

Being out in the community is a valuable contribution to the kid’s education, too. The kids had to create estimates, design proposals, order supplies and handle other aspects of project management.

“They’re really learning so much about business,” she said. “And when it’s finished, it’s a big sense of accomplishment. And a source of pride for them and the town. Something that you don’t get on a worksheet or through a video.”

Teaching hasn’t slowed down her own creative drive. Pike has continued to create original works of art and last year won second place at the N.C. State Fair. While dropping off student artwork for the competition, she decided to enter a piece of her own in the professional division. 

“I was like OK, here’s an owl that I did a demonstration on watercolor with. I’ll just put it in. And then I won second place!”

Pike said many of her students have gone on to have successful careers such as industrial design, an artisan baker, tattoo artist, photographer, a Harvard graduate who went on to become a dentist and many more. She’s proud to have played a role in teaching them to see things from a different perspective. 

Pike’s endeavors to bring art into the community will persist this summer as she teaches kids at multiple camps and becomes the community art paint instructor with Johnston Community College, as well as teaching art appreciation at Wilson Community College.

Thank you to Gorman Group Insurance for sponsoring this award