Town of Sahuarita and Sahuarita School District leaders joined forces this summer to commemorate the opening of the latest student-created art installation to grace the town.
Students worked with an artist and an advisor from their school to design and paint the public art piece titled “Picture Yourself in Sahuarita.”
The piece, a large, painted picture frame, is accessible from two sides. On one side the backdrop is of a desert vista and cacti. The other side has the town’s parks and recreation building in the background and a parks and recreation theme is visible when posing for pictures on that side of the project.
The project was funded through Pima Association of Governments’ Transportation Art by Youth (TABY) program.
Sahuarita Mayor Tom Murphy said people used to stop to take pictures with the Sahuarita letters in front of the Sahuarita Town Hall. The popularity of pictures with the 2023 TABY project inspired the new one.
“To me it is extra special because it is our youth,” said Murphy. “Providing them with jobs to create these wonderful pieces of art.”
The program, which PAG initiated in 1995 through its Transportation Improvement Program, offers paid summer employment for youth artists. Proposed projects must be submitted by a sponsoring jurisdiction, which manages the approved project and is reimbursed for budgeted project expenses. The sponsoring jurisdiction is required to recruit youth artists from economically disadvantaged areas.
“It has been 31 years of providing Transportation Art by Youth projects across our region,” said PAG Project Implementation Administrator Lance Peterson. “That’s a lot of opportunities for our youth to partner with local artists to provide artwork on our roadways across the region.”