Santa Clarita, Newhall Elementary School and ARTree Community Arts center teamed up to piece together a lesson plan on Santa Clarita Valley history Friday.

The project work came ahead of a celebration Saturday planned for a mural unveiling that’s almost 18 months in the making, including its planning and preparation.

The final product, which is a 6-foot-by-6-foot tile mosaic depicting SCV historical landmarks such as one of the early iterations of the Newhall Elementary from the early part of last century, to the city’s first jail, to more recognizable features for the third-grade artists, such as the Six Flags Magic Mountain tower.

The project was actually a project conceived by the school’s previous principal, Tammy Rainville, and Dianne Foderaro, the education chair for the arts center, who was working with several ARTree staff in Mrs. Davis third-grade classroom. Rainville brought up the idea to Foderaro for an art piece to decorate outside the school, and Foderaro had just the project in mind.

In order to create funding for materials and project, Foderaro applied for a grant from the city of Santa Clarita, realizing the opportunity just six days before the deadline. It also helped the school is located within the city’s Arts District and an area of Newhall the city has been working for years to revitalize.

Foderaro’s application beat the deadline, garnering city support, and she began to visualize how the piece might look at the beginning of the calendar year.

The tile mosaic mural idea came about as a need to develop an art project that would be meaningful as a historical reference for students and the community and also include Newhall Elementary school in the downtown Newhall arts district.

The ARTree Community Arts Center, with two studio spaces on 6th Street, has been teaching art classes and creating public art for nearly eight years.

The ARTree has designed the mural, ordered the tile, and will paint the picture onto the wood base before students add the tile.

ARTree supervised the tile work with third-graders on Friday, with the plan for it to be unveiled to the community members Saturday.

The school and the district have worked together to coordinate and purchase materials, advertise the project, and invite the community to participate.