Salt Lake City Public Art Program

Connecting people to place and place to stories since 1984

Roads & Rivers

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Kathryn Stedham noted in her artist statement for the Glendale Library public art project, “Roads & Rivers serve to represent what connects us, both literally and figuratively.”

Stedham’s series of abstract paintings depict images loosely based on aerial photographs and/or typographical maps featuring roads and rivers that represent the diverse Glendale community in which the library is located.  She created active, textured, organic spaces of the “roads & rivers” as well as intermittent flat planes of color that compliment the library’s architecture and design. Each piece was informed by the various cultures and places represented within the Glendale community as well as the area surrounding the library.

Blue Line; Highway, Byway; Landing; Roads & Rivers (featured image)

Happy-Go-Lucky

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These three over sized four leaf clovers reflect the changing faces and activities happening in the park throughout the day. The shiny, lyrical leaves full of their cheerful magic may very well be a clue to discovering the elusive pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Jordan Meadows Park is a pocket park located adjacent to an elementary school in an active westside residential area.

This public art project was funded through a Community Development Business Grant from Salt Lake City Corporation.

Untitled – Cliff Garten

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This project was completed in partnership with the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City for the downtown business district. The series of benches, thirteen in all, are located within a three block area on Main Street.

This series of three benches is located on the east side of Main Street in front of the entrance to Gallivan Plaza.

Sun, Moon & All Things In-Between

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Sun, Moon & All Things In-Between is a glazed tile mural that artistically reflects the vitality, cultural diversity and aspirations of the Glendale neighborhood. The mural showcases the community’s inclusiveness and through the vibrant, colorful and inventive imagery, celebrates its residents. This collaborative, enlightened artwork blends thoughtfulness and respect in its creative function and encourages imagination, exploration and the exchange of ideas by those who observe it.

The Bike Stops Here: Artist Designed Bicycle Racks

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Seeing the rapid growth of bicycling in Salt Lake City and the desire to encourage more people to choose cycling as a transportation option, there is an essential need and desire for safe and secure bicycle parking. To that end, and in the ongoing effort to weave art into the fabric of our urban infrastructure, the Salt Lake Art Design Board requested proposals from Utah artists to design and fabricate bicycle racks that are identifiable, functional, and imaginative. The bicycle racks are installed at 8 downtown locations along the 300 South Cycle Track from 200 West to 600 East.

The project was designed to meet the following goals:

To enhance Salt Lake City’s image as a cultural destination and bicycle friendly city: a community that regards bicycles as a permanent and important part of the City’s transportation system.

To promote clean air, a healthy lifestyle, and encourage more people to choose bicycling as a transportation option.

To provide and integrate into our urban infrastructure, usable public art as aesthetically functional bicycle parking.

Secret Dwellings

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Cottonwood Park is an active 25-acre property that intersects with the Jordan River Parkway. It serves the residents of Jordan Meadows Neighborhood as well as the employees of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food whose building is located adjacent to the park.

Secret Dwellings reflect cottonwood leaves floating down the river, traveling through the landscape and cityscape, like people from all over the world brought to this area to make their homes here, bringing their stories and memories, creating a new vibrant community.

Konopasek’s 3 sculptures are intimate, approachable and encourage curiosity and a sense of wonder. They reference the river as a connection, as a life source and the natural habitat coexisting with the urban habitat. They also suggest the growth cycle of trees and leaves; budding to falling and making space for more leaves – parallel to people and the city.

The text on the sculptures is fragmented nursery rhymes in English and Spanish to represent the sense of wonder and a new beginning.

School Children’s Monument (Tribute to the Nation’s Constitution and Flag)

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Knaphus was a Mormon convert, who produced many sculptures and bas-reliefs for LDS temples, as well as busts of famous Utahns, decorations for office buildings, mortuary and chapel friezes. His best known work is the Handcart Monument, one of the most recognized symbols of Mormonism. The heroic size version stands in Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Perhaps his best-loved secular monument is the 1937 School Children’s Monument near the west entrance to the Salt Lake City and County Building. It features a granite base holding a scroll depicting the United States constitution. On either side of the base, facing each other, are life-size statues of a boy and girl looking up at the United States flag atop the seventy-foot flag pole set in the base. The statue honors school children, whose nickels and dimes paid for it.

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