Town of Sahuarita Summer Youth Art Program

For the past three years during the month of June a small handful of students are selected to work on a massive public art project. The students design, create and install tile murals and mosaics depicting nature scenes of Southern Arizona.

Using a document camera to trace one of the designs onto tile

Students work everyday Monday-Friday for 8 hours a day, it's a full-time job with many responsibilities. Teamwork is essential and everyone must be able to collaborate in order to be a truly successful program.

The kiln is always fully loaded

Tiny applicator bottles are sometimes used for details

Hand-made porcelain tiles ready to be installed

An incredible amount of tile!

Each piece has the jagged edges ground off

Many students find the glazing to be the most rewarding

The first year I began as director we were in charge of the inside of the tunnel walkway that connects the SUSD school district with the Town of Sahuarita Municipal Complex. Working on one side and the next year the other, our theme expanded from native birds and plant to native wildlife.

The length on one side is about 150 feet

We didn't know how spoiled we were working in the shade

Last year we began to work on the north side of the tunnel and our style of artwork needed to change. The painted look of the murals would quickly fade in the Arizona sun, even though it is essentially made of glass, the colors would only last a few years. We decided to create a mural of a day/night theme on each side of the tunnel entrance and work with a combination of hand cut porcelain tiles and small mosaic pieces.

Starting to work in the sun really shortened our outdoor work time

the day side under construction

The Night side under construction

That feeling you get when the job is done! (for now)

This upcoming year our task will be to develop designs that tie-in to the towns history. I already have a student working on ideas based on historical photos if we can find any. I will keep you posted on our progress.