Art Tiles

Don't know if they are quite masterpieces but I'm sure people, especially their parents , will enjoy seeing them for years to come.

Mayor Brad Cole is pleased to announce the completion and installation of Phase II of the City Hall Tile Project, a thirty foot tile mosaic that lines both sides of the first floor corridor of Carbondale’s City Hall and features miniature masterpieces created by hundreds of students from Carbondale Elementary School District #95.

The Tile Project was inspired during Mayor Cole’s 2005 Sister City Tour, where he saw a similar “homage to the imagination of community children” at Chong-Ming Elementary School in Tainan City, Taiwan. The first phase of the Tile Project was completed in 2007, when a 16 foot tile mosaic was installed on the second floor corridor of City Hall.

The new tiles were painted by first through eight graders at Parrish, Thomas, Lewis and Carbondale Middle School during the fall of 2009. They were then fired at the SIUC School of Art and Design and installed in the first floor corridor under the supervision of City staff.

For visiting officials, members of the public doing business with the City and for City employees who work in the building, the mosaic mural offers a warm and vibrant setting. For the hundreds of students whose works of art now hang permanently in City Hall, the mural offers a source of pride and ownership in their local government.