The courtyard wall at the future Canyon Country Community Center has been chosen as a location for public artwork, and you can be part of the process! This unique art piece will serve as a backdrop for weddings, special events and more. Artist Katy Krantz was selected by the Santa Clarita Arts Commission to create a ceramic tile wall mural. Krantz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose multi-disciplinary practice includes painting, ceramics and community-based projects.

Krantz’s project for the Canyon Country Community Center courtyard wall will include ceramic tiles made by community members. Tiles will be created at three socially distanced community engagement events held in Santa Clarita’s open spaces. At these events, Krantz will be stationed at designated locations handing out blocks of wet clay. Community members will then be invited to take a self-guided hike and encouraged to press the clay into textures encountered along the way. Krantz will collect the clay impressions at the end of the hike and take them to her studio to fire, glaze and eventually incorporate them into the mural’s overall design.

There will be three different opportunities for residents to participate in this community engagement program. The first is Saturday, May 1, at Central Park, next to the Western Tiger Swallowtail & Yerba Santa Clarita Public Art Sculpture. The second is Saturday, May 22, at the Elsmere Canyon trailhead and the third is at Towsley Canyon in the parking lot adjacent to the trailhead on Saturday, June 5. In an effort to avoid high temperatures, all three events will be held from 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Participation is free to the public, and clay is provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information about the Tile Wall Community Engagement, please visit santaclaritaarts.com, or contact Katherine Nestved at knestved@santa-clarita.com.