Salt Lake City Public Art Program

Connecting people to place and place to stories since 1984

Jordan River Current (Glendale Park)

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Jordan River Current is a large-scale public art installation along the Jordan River. Santa Fe, NM-based artist, Colette Hosmer, created a total of 25 eight-foot-tall steel trout sculptures as part of this multi-site project aimed at connecting recreational users of this natural tributary with their environment.

The artwork was installed at four different boat ramps, spanning 7.2 miles along the Jordan River Trail. Across all four sites, one fish in each cluster is painted in a different color than the rest visually linking all locations across the river and functioning as a wayfinding element and marking for each ramp.

The Glendale Park site contains five sculptures, with one fish painted blue. The artist team and the Salt Lake City Arts Council established a partnership with Edison Elementary School in Poplar Grove for this commission. The school’s 4th grade students were involved in naming all four colored fish within this installation. The blue fish at Glendale Park was named BeanCheleen.

Colette Hosmer is a contemporary naturalist who is celebrated for her monumental outdoor sculptures and site-specific work utilizing organic materials.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

View the rest of the installation at Gadsby Trailhead, Riverview Trailhead, and Fisher Mansion.

Jordan River Current (Fisher Mansion)

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Jordan River Current is a large-scale public art installation along the Jordan River. Santa Fe, NM-based artist, Colette Hosmer, created a total of 25 eight-foot-tall steel trout sculptures as part of this multi-site project aimed at connecting recreational users of this natural tributary with their environment.

The artwork was installed at four different boat ramps, spanning 7.2 miles along the Jordan River Trail. Across all four sites, one fish in each cluster is painted in a different color than the rest visually linking all locations across the river and functioning as a wayfinding element and marking for each ramp.

The Fisher Mansion site contains three sculptures, with one fish painted green. The artist team and the Salt Lake City Arts Council established a partnership with Edison Elementary School in Poplar Grove for this commission. The school’s 4th grade students were involved in naming all four colored fish within this installation. The green fish at Fisher Mansion was named Decrayvion.

Colette Hosmer is a contemporary naturalist who is celebrated for her monumental outdoor sculptures and site-specific work utilizing organic materials.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

View the rest of the installation at Glendale Park, Riverview Trailhead, and Gadsby Trailhead.

Jordan River Current (Gadsby Trailhead)

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Jordan River Current is a large-scale public art installation along the Jordan River. Santa Fe, NM-based artist, Colette Hosmer, created a total of 25 eight-foot-tall steel trout sculptures as part of this multi-site project aimed at connecting recreational users of this natural tributary with their environment.

The artwork was installed at four different boat ramps, spanning 7.2 miles along the Jordan River Trail. Across all four sites, one fish in each cluster is painted in a different color than the rest visually linking all locations across the river and functioning as a wayfinding element and marking for each ramp.

The Gadsby Trailhead site contains six sculptures, with one fish painted white. The artist team and the Salt Lake City Arts Council established a partnership with Edison Elementary School in Poplar Grove for this commission. The school’s 4th grade students were involved in naming all four colored fish within this installation. The white fish at Gadsby Trailhead was named BiggieCheese.

Colette Hosmer is a contemporary naturalist who is celebrated for her monumental outdoor sculptures and site-specific work utilizing organic materials.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

View the rest of the installation at Glendale Park, Riverview Trailhead, and Fisher Mansion.

Jordan River Current (Riverview Trailhead)

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Jordan River Current is a large-scale public art installation along the Jordan River. Santa Fe, NM-based artist, Colette Hosmer, created a total of 25 eight-foot-tall steel trout sculptures as part of this multi-site project aimed at connecting recreational users of this natural tributary with their environment.

The artwork was installed at four different boat ramps, spanning 7.2 miles along the Jordan River Trail. Across all four sites, one fish in each cluster is painted in a different color than the rest visually linking all locations across the river and functioning as a wayfinding element and marking for each ramp.

The Riverview Trailhead site contains 11 sculptures, with one fish painted red. The artist team and the Salt Lake City Arts Council established a partnership with Edison Elementary School in Poplar Grove for this commission. The school’s 4th grade students were involved in naming all four colored fish within this installation. The red fish at Riverview Trailhead was named Finny.

Colette Hosmer is a contemporary naturalist who is celebrated for her monumental outdoor sculptures and site-specific work utilizing organic materials.

Photos by Logan Sorenson.

View the rest of the installation at Glendale Park, Gadsby Trailhead, and Fisher Mansion.

The Crossing

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The Crossing is inspired by the fluidity of water and the evolving nature of public transportation, its users, and the central neighborhood in which this artwork is located. According to the artist, The Crossing “illustrates water spreading out, so people can pass through.” The portal created by the breach between the two sculptures invites people to immerse themselves into the artwork and reflect upon the ever-changing nature of Salt Lake City – a place inhabited by individuals who, like water, are constantly changing and evolving. Throughout the steel panels, the artist integrates colorful floating pearls and egg-shaped spheres, indicating new, exciting, and unknown possibilities. The Crossing asks viewers to consider the ways in which people—as individuals and as members of a community—move like water, with waves that carry new futures and opportunities.

Jiyoun Lee-Lodge creates art that is influenced by social media and is inspired by the intersectionality of her own shifting identity: as woman, as an immigrant, and as an individual existing in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world.

This project is made possible through the Salt Lake City Public Art Program, a service of the Salt Lake City Arts Council, and with support from the Salt Lake Art Design Board, Patrinely Group, PEG Companies, Lowe Property Group, Sinclair Real Estate Company, Utah Transit Authority, and the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City.

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.”

Shredding the Knar

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The 9 Line Bike Park is a unique recreational amenity, offering dirt jumps and a pump track for Salt Lake City riders. In 2017, Salt Lake City’s Department of Parks and Public Lands responded to community requests to expand the 9 Line Bike Park at 700 West and 900 South. The bike park, popular with riders of all ages and skill levels, includes jump lines and a pump track. The starting platform for the jumps uses large concrete blocks to stabilize the platform and retain dirt, providing 400 square feet of surface for murals wrapping the blocks.

Shredding the Knar is by artist Charlotte Pili. Pili’s work features riders, bikes, and dust clouds along with the occasional speech bubble exclaiming “Send it!” Pili’s mural send a message of belonging to people of all genders at the parks and action lines show her images to be in motion, just like the riders. The mural’s colors are cohesive with the park’s plants, sky, and dirt jumps and keep the site alive in all seasons. Pili deliberately left space between her images, so the original color and texture of the blocks is visible in places.

This temporary public artwork is intended to remain installed for three to five years. This project was made possible through the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Public Art Program, with support from Salt Lake City’s Department of Parks and Public Lands.

Free Flight

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The 9 Line Bike Park is a unique recreational amenity, offering dirt jumps and a pump track for Salt Lake City riders. In 2017, Salt Lake City’s Department of Parks and Public Lands responded to community requests to expand the 9 Line Bike Park at 700 West and 900 South. The bike park, popular with riders of all ages and skill levels, includes jumps and a pump track. The storage container located on site is used by City crews and volunteer work groups to store maintenance equipment, and provided 208 square feet of surface for a mural wrapping three sides of the unit.

Josh Scheuerman’s Free Flight depicts a fleet of paper airplanes and origami birds in front of blue geometric mountains and a glowing orange and yellow sky. Free Flight showcases the Wasatch Front and mimics sunsets visible from the park. Scheuerman used the familiar image of childhood paper airplanes to evoke the concept of flight after he noticed young kids at the park watching the older riders catch air.

This temporary public artwork is intended to remain installed for three to five years. This project was made possible through the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Public Art Program, with support from Salt Lake City’s Department of Parks and Public Lands.

Photos by Logan Sorenson and Josh Scheuerman

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