Salt Lake City Public Art Program

Connecting people to place and place to stories since 1984

Ballpark Neighborhood Murals: Safe, Home, Homerun

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Over the summer of 2025, the Ballpark neighborhood was transformed into a vibrant open-air gallery through the creation of ten new murals. Each mural emerged from a unique collaboration between a local business and a local artist selected from the Public Art Program’s Pre-Qualified Artist Pool. Business owners offered their walls as creative canvases, while artists designed site-specific works that captured the people, stories, and distinctive character of the neighborhood.

Funded by the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) and programmed by the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the initiative infused the neighborhood with new energy, color, and creativity. The project celebrated and strengthened the artistic spirit already thriving in the community, uplifting small businesses, showcasing local talent, and cultivating a deeper sense of place. Together, these ten murals formed a cohesive and dynamic collection that reflects what makes the Ballpark neighborhood truly one of a kind.

Paul Heath is a life-long Salt Lake City resident who graduated from the U. of U. with a BFA in Drawing and Painting in 1985. He has been involved in several public art projects, from the history of Salt Lake City baseball for the etched glass windows at Smith’s Ballfield, to this mural to celebrate the Ballpark Community. Since 2013, Paul has also been an elementary Visual Art teacher with the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program in the Salt Lake City School District. He received a master’s degree in education with USU in 2018. Here is how Paul describes his work for public and private commissions: “I characterize my work as “Pop-Nostalgia”. As a lifetime Salt Lake City resident, I draw inspiration from the awesome neon signs we have around us. I see my work as playful documentation, looking at objects and neighborhood niches through a lighter lens. I also paint images of older antique toys… to elicit a smile or friendly smirk.”

Photos by Logan Sorenson

Ballpark Neighborhood Murals: For the Wild Ones

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Over the summer of 2025, the Ballpark neighborhood was transformed into a vibrant open-air gallery through the creation of ten new murals. Each mural emerged from a unique collaboration between a local business and a local artist selected from the Public Art Program’s Pre-Qualified Artist Pool. Business owners offered their walls as creative canvases, while artists designed site-specific works that captured the people, stories, and distinctive character of the neighborhood.

Funded by the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) and programmed by the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the initiative infused the neighborhood with new energy, color, and creativity. The project celebrated and strengthened the artistic spirit already thriving in the community, uplifting small businesses, showcasing local talent, and cultivating a deeper sense of place. Together, these ten murals formed a cohesive and dynamic collection that reflects what makes the Ballpark neighborhood truly one of a kind.

Lindsay Huss is a graduate of Weber State University with a degree in Visual Arts. After a decade-long teaching career, she transitioned to art full-time. Her work, a captivating blend of realism and abstraction, delves into themes of self, community, and placemaking. Recognized with numerous accolades, including the Indie Ogden Award for Best Ogden Artist and the Ogden Mayor’s Award for Visual Arts, Huss remains an active figure in the Ogden art scene, contributing to several murals in the Nine Rails Creative District and throughout Utah.

Photos by Logan Sorenson

Apricot (Marmalade Plaza)

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This project was made possible through the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Public Art Program, with support from the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake Art Design Board.

“The steep streets of the Marmalade District were all originally named after fruit-bearing trees that were grown by the first residents of the neighborhood.  The fruit of the trees was made into marmalade and sold at the bottom of the hill.”  -Day Christensen

Day Emil Christensen is a sculptor and mixed media artist. He has been commissioned for numerous public art works in Utah. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in Art and Design and a Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 2008, Christensen was awarded a grant from the Utah Arts Council as part of the Individual Artists Services Grants program. He currently resides in Highland, Utah.

Photos by Logan Sorensen

Pages of Salt

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Managed by the City’s Public Art Program, and funded with $2.2 million from the RDA’s major reconstruction of Regent Street, Pages of Salt is Salt Lake City’s largest investment in a single piece of public art to date.

Pages of Salt is comprised of stainless steel rods and 336 Teflon flags that cover the entire north façade of the Walker Center Garage. The work’s themes are specific to its location on Regent Street, and in Utah more broadly. In Kahn’s research as part of responding to the Arts Council’s Request for Qualifications for the project, he became fascinated with the site’s connection to the printing presses of both The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, which were located on Regent Street for over 80 years. The images of hundreds of newspaper pages draped on conveyer belts echo the many identical swaying parts Kahn often utilizes in his wind sculptures.

Kahn was also inspired by the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats it leaves behind. The flags’ light-catching whiteness and square cutouts reflect the crystalline structure of salt and the patterns left by the receding lake. The artwork is intended to suggest a vertical cloud of newspapers swaying in the wind. By making the wind patterns visible, Kahn hopes to stir a sense of awe and appreciation for our environment and allow viewers to reflect on their relationship with nature.

Based in Northern California, Ned Kahn has created over 100 public works in the last 30 years, throughout the country and abroad. His installations often mirror or respond to nature, engaging wind, water, fog, and light to bring an increased appreciation of the natural environment. In his initial application for the Regent Street Project, Kahn wrote “I am deeply fascinated with the history and phenomena of the Great Salt Lake and the surrounding region. I am intrigued with the idea of creating an artwork for Regent Street that would draw its inspiration from the amazing natural forces and phenomena that occur in the region as well as responding to the actual forces that are present on the Regent Street site.”

Colorful Connection

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In 2017, the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City requested an appropriation from the City’s North Temple Viaduct bond to create an art installation as part of the I-15 underpass Pedestrian Improvements Project. The project’s goal of contributing to a safe and aesthetic passage at a key juncture linking the east and west sides of North Temple garnered the participation of several city departments, and was an opportunity to blend installation, landscaping, and links to the community the project sits within. The Salt Lake City Art’s Council commissioned local artist Traci O’Very Covey from its pre-qualified artist pool to design and implement Colorful Connection.

Playful and bright, Colorful Connection consists of steel sculptures, a sign introducing the “NOTE District,” a vinyl mural utility box wrap, and complementary landscaping between the bridges. The work enhances the experience traveling under the I-15 underpass and vibrantly greets pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and transit users alike. O’Very Covey’s imaginative characters and installations incorporate the colors and circular shapes of the NOTE District branding throughout the project, highlighting the sense of community and connection in the neighborhood.

Follow the Art in the NOTE District walking tour to see and learn about this work along with four other public art projects in the area: map and details here! 

This project was made possible through the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Public Art Program, with support from Salt Lake City’s Redevelopment Agency, Engineering Division, and Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

 

Flying Objects 5.0 (2017)

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The Flying Objects public art project began in 2005 during a time when downtown Salt Lake City was under considerable construction for the City Creek Center, one of the nation’s largest mixed-use downtown redevelopment projects. The project was designed to stage a series of sculptures, installed in three locations, that added color, shape, interest, whimsy, and vitality to the streetscape through a curated series of twelve sculptures in a range of styles and materials.

Since then, five series’ of Flying Objects have been accomplished with great support from the artists and the community. The first four series were installed for a period of 2 to 2½ years; however, Flying Objects 5.0 which consists of 18 sculptures will be a permanent installation. The permanent series is located on the medians of 300 South and 400 West to 300 East. Flying Objects 5.0 was paid for collaboratively by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City Public Art Program. 

The Flying Objects project has offered both established and emerging Utah artists an opportunity to participate in a temporary public art project and create sculptures on a smaller scale using a variety of materials and subject matter.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

Ribbons in Time

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Paul Housberg’s installation, Ribbons in Time, was designed to weave subtle ribbons of color throughout the interior of the Eccles Theater. Drawing inspiration from the blues and grays of the Great Salt Lake, the warm yellows and oranges of sunsets, and the golds and pinks of Southern Utah’s canyons, the artwork balances vibrancy and restraint. Its lively hues create a graceful, festive atmosphere that shines through the theater’s façade, while its minimalist design invites each viewer to form their own personal connection with the colors.

This public art project was funded by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City. Special thanks to the Salt Lake Art Design Board, Salt Lake City Arts Council, and Salt Lake City Corporation for their assistance with this project.

Photos by Paul Housberg.

Thread, Trail, Rope and Yarn

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Thread, Trail, Rope and Yarn celebrates the landscape and cultures of the Salt Lake valley. Native, pioneer and modernist traditions intersect and overlap as illustrated by the shared practice of weaving. Threads, short and long, colored in shades found in the high desert, represent the many journeys made, to make this valley what it is today.

This public art project was funded by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City. Special thanks to the Salt Lake Art Design Board, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, and Salt Lake City Corporation for their assistance with this project.