St. Paul’s celebrated the installation of internationally renowned ceramic artist Margie Hughto’s Open Doors Donor Wall of Honor at an artist reception in her honor at St. Paul’s on April 22, 2026. As part of St. Paul’s 200th Anniversary as a parish, the Wall of Honor was dedicated by Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe on May 16th, 2026.

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A Syracuse University professor and local treasure, Hughto created a wall-mural inspired by the beauty of St. Paul’s worship space and the goals of the Open Doors project – access, preservation, renovation, and mission. The mural spans four walls and contains images found within St. Paul’s worship space, depictions of nature, reflections on William Morris’s mission style tapestries, and 135 name tiles of the donors who made Open Doors a reality.

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St. Paul’s is honored that an artist of Hughto’s caliber has further beautified its historic buildings to mark the completion of its largest capital improvement project since 1958. Open Doors provides the infrastructure necessary to partner with A Tiny Home for Good as they begin construction of a ten-unit housing facility on the second floor of St. Paul’s Parish House.

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Margie Hughto is an internationally recognized ceramic artist with an extensive exhibition record that includes many solo as well as group exhibitions. Her artwork is included in many private, corporate, and museum collections including IBM, Kodak, Merck, Mayo Clinic, Smithsonian, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and at the Renwick Gallery. Her most notable public art project was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of NYC for the Cortlandt Street subway station at the World Trade Tower II. Entitled, “Trade, Treasure and Travel,” the work consists of 12 large-scale ceramic tile murals at the Cortlandt Street subway station.

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Hughto has examined ceramics in a non-traditional format, finding her métier in the slab or wall-mural format. Her work is characterized by shifts in color, shape, and style. It includes references to landscape and to painterly and natural abstraction.

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From 1971-1981, Hughto worked at the Everson Museum of Fine art as a part-time teacher, consultant, lecturer, and Curator of ceramics. She curated numerous shows including “New Works in Clay I, II, III,” “Nine West Coast Clay Sculptors,” and “A Century of Ceramics in the United States: 1878-1978.” The Century Show was accompanied by a book published by E. P. Dutton, which is a major reference for museum curators, collectors, teachers, and artists.

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Hughto joined the faculty of Syracuse University in 1971. In May 2026, Professor Hughto received the Chancellor’s Citation Lifetime Achievement Award and was celebrated for an incredible 50 years of service to the University. Her extraordinary contributions to teaching, scholarship and the arts have left a lasting mark on our community and beyond.