Princeton High Arts Student Leads Mural Project with Support from Ed. Foundation

Princeton High School art student Klair Siciliano is leading a project this spring to create a permanent mosaic mural outside one of the high school’s art rooms.

This project, funded with a $1,000 grant from the Princeton Education Foundation, will cover three walls around the entrance to the art classroom and will be seen by thousands of people for years to come.

Siciliano was chosen to lead the project by art teacher Linda Nickman, who assigned her a similar project last year to help complete a mosaic inside the art classroom. Siciliano designed the mural to be filled with colorful tiles and glass. Her designs were drawn to scale and shared with Princeton High School principal Gary Snyder and superintendent Judy Wilson, who jointly approved the project plans.

Princeton High School does not have the budget to support these kinds of special projects, but the mural project won a Princeton Education Foundation mini-grant. Teachers may apply for the grants to support specific programs to enhance their classroom teaching.

Last year, twelve projects across the district were supported through a Princeton Education Foundation mini-grant. The projects included elementary level reading initiatives, middle school applied science and technology projects, and the enhancement of a high school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program.

With the $1,000 mini-grant for the mural, Siciliano was able to begin work and buy supplies from a wholesale tile and glass distributor. All Princeton High studio art 3D class students will contribute to the project by making small circular tiles with positive phrases or images on them meant to inspire others who view this large mosaic. The white-on-white tiles will be made from clay and fired in the kiln at the high school, and will unite to form the background and add interest and texture to the mural’s flower burst design.