Salt Lake City Public Art Program

Connecting people to place and place to stories since 1984

Not Just a Sport

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In 2024, the basketball court located in the center of Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park was demolished and reconstructed. New perimeter fencing and seating were added to encourage the area to become a gathering place. This reconstruction was supported through Salt Lake City’s Capital Improvement Program, following a constituent application submitted by Lance Lavizzo of Hard-N-Paint Basketball, an organization that hosts street basketball tournaments throughout the Salt Lake area, with many games held at Liberty Park. In December 2022, the Salt Lake Art Design Board, with input from the Salt Lake City Arts Council, selected this site for Percent-for-Art funding.

At the request of the Salt Lake Art Design Board, artist Lindsay Huss was commissioned to create a vibrant perimeter mural in bold shades of blue, yellow, and orange. Titled Not Just a Sport, the mural captures the essence of street ball culture, illustrating how the game transcends sport to become a powerful expression of community, identity, and creativity. The artwork incorporates elements of music, dance, fashion, and art. Key symbols include a spray paint can, representing street art, and a cassette player with jukebox lighting, reflecting the deep connection to hip-hop and rap music. Shoe tread patterns and a two-tone gold chain further evoke the energy of breakdance, the fluid movement of players, and the urban fashion that defines the culture.

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

Lindsay Huss, an artist represented in the 2023-2025 Salt Lake City Pre-Qualified Artist Pool, 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 R/E Media Utah

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

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)

by

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.”