What types of material might a college artist cleave together

two very different meanings. It can describe cutting or splitting something apart with a sharp instrument, or - oddly enough - it can describe sticking to something like glue.

Cleave can refer to being in close contact, to staying really, really close to someone or something: "If you are walking in the pitch-black woods without a flashlight, you want to cleave to the person in front of you."