Photo Provided Bellaire High School photography students pose for a photo. They plan to hold an exhibit beginning May 17 at the village’s Great Stone Viaduct. Pictured in the front row from left are Ana Arroyo, Miracle Smallwood Honeycutt, Brooklyn Zonker, Jenna Soland, Elizabeth Rogerson, artist-in-residence Rebecca Kiger and Maddie Miller. Pictured in the back row from left are Konnor Cruise, Dane D’Aquila, Raven Pettigrew, Heather Bennington, Torrey Klempa, Abby Craig, Gracelyn Maupin, Lyndzey Crupe and art teacher Megan Ritchea. Not pictured are Jocelyn Blon, Tauni Bleau Huntsman and Taylor Rife.

BELLAIRE — Bellaire High School photography class students are preparing to make their debut next month, when they will display a series of photographs depicting the local environment.

The exhibit opening is set for noon to 2 p.m. May 17 at the Great Stone Viaduct, where it will remain on display until the end of the month.

Rebecca Kiger, artist-in-residence for the class, said after the group failed to receive a response from Bellaire Village Council regarding holding the exhibit at Union Park, they decided to move it to the viaduct — a fitting location since it is depicted in some of the students’ photographs.

In March, photography students sent a letter to council requesting the use of the park for the exhibit; however, council members, who admired the idea, said they needed additional information prior to making a decision.

The exhibit will include around nine 6-foot cubes, each of which tells a story about the local environment, such as the progress of preserving the Great Stone Viaduct, water woes in Bridgeport and residents aiding in the efforts of their communities. Kiger said there will also be an introduction cube that explains the exhibit and the students who created it.

“We basically learned about a variety of topics and stories in our area. It’s been sort of an exploration of the history here, the environment here,” she said.

“We did a story about Mr. Potts, who is this iconic figure in Bellaire. He used to be the elementary school librarian, but he pretty much spends four hours a day picking up trash in Bellaire. He says Bellaire is his home and his hobby. He does that and does a lot of beautification. … That’s one of our happier stories about Bellaire.”

Other stories involve a crayfish expert at West Liberty University and the damage to local creeks from previous acid mine drainage.

“We’ve been trying to just learn and explore the area,” she said.

Kiger said the students reside in different areas, including in the village and in Bridgeport and Martins Ferry, so some of the stories will involve surrounding communities as well.

Kiger said she obtained a grant through the Ohio Arts Council that helped to make the spring project possible, as well as securing a grant through the Center for Contemporary Documentation.

“It’s a national project which supports photographers from around the country to do stories about the environment and it’s inspired by something that happened in the earlier part of the 20th century. They sent, through the Farm Security Administration, multiple photographers were sent out to document the country, and all that work is now held in the Library of Congress. So the goal of this new initiative is to do the same thing — to collect all this work being made around the country,” she said. “It’s been a whole discovery about what it means to live in the Ohio Valley, both the things we’ve got going for us and some of the challenges environmentally.”

Other students at the school have joined in to help make the exhibit a reality. Kiger said industrial arts students at the high school are constructing the wooden cube frames that will display the photographs. The photography class also partnered with West Virginia University. She said a group of college students conducting drone work assisted the class in getting drone photography for the project.

Kiger said Time Magazine has shown interest in featuring the project, though that has not yet been confirmed.

“They would be sharing it as this is how a group of Ohio teenagers learned about where they live and the environment through photography,” she said.

The cubes will be set up underneath the arches at the Great Stone Viaduct. All are welcome to attend the opening and check out the exhibit.

“People can walk down the path and see the different stories,” she said.

Once the exhibit concludes at the end of May, the Bellaire Public Library will archive the panels.