29 Oct Wanderings: Need an art-cation?

“If ever there was a time to be an artist in Salt Lake City, it’s now,” says muralist Miles Toland. He and fellow artist Joseph Toney recently completed the largest mural in Utah, Echoes of Eternity. Painted on the Salt Lake City luxury apartment building Astra Tower, the artwork depicts the Wasatch Mountains with two hands clasped over the water, signifying mankind’s connection to nature. “The developer gave us creative freedom with a lot of trust and a hands-off approach to what we were doing,” Toland says.

Over 300 murals grace buildings throughout the city and its outskirts. Photo: Lauren Wester

“The biggest change in public art, by far,” says Toney, “has been the explosion of murals across the valley. I feel very fortunate to be part of that scene.” To date there are more than 300 murals in the city and beyond, and neighborhoods such as the Granary District and South Salt Lake are following suit by organizing their own mural festivals.

It’s hard to imagine Salt Lake City in the mid-1990s fostering this kind of creative energy. Derek Dyer, longtime resident and executive director of the Utah Arts Alliance, recalls, “If you were into the arts back then, there were not many opportunities.” With only a few galleries scattered about town, he says there was little to no support for emerging and non-traditional artists. “A few musician friends moved out of the area,” he says, “because the only places they could play were at a handful of bars.”

The Gateway is home to over a million square feet of shopping, dining, office, and residential space. Photo courtesy of Visit Salt Lake

But all that changed in 2002 when Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympic Games. Dyer recognized an opportunity for the art community and launched a multi-disciplinary arts festival dubbed, They Came from Salt Lake. For two weeks during the 2002 Olympics, local dancers, artists, and musicians capitalized on the abundance of reporters and cameramen from around the world looking for human interest stories. They weren’t disappointed: Crowds gathered nightly, mesmerized by high-caliber performances downtown.

Temple Square is under reconstruction, but open to visitors. Photo courtesy of Visit Salt Lake

Today, cultural tourism is on the rise. “Downtown Salt Lake offers an immersive season of concerts, dance, Broadway tours, and opera that reflects the depth and diversity of our city,” says Kaitlin Eskelson, president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake.

Even the expansion and update of the Salt Lake City International Airport calls for the visual arts to be an essential focus. City planners see art as a way to showcase the fiber of the community, and in recent meetings, officials made it clear: Custom works of art are essential to welcoming the 28 million passengers visiting the airport annually.

Largest mural in Utah, Echoes of Eternity, by Miles Toland and Joseph Toney. Photo: Joseph Toney

One such work is by Napa, California artist Gordon Heuther. His immersive piece The Canyon is mounted on opposite walls of the new main terminal. The 362-foot-long installation of 500 membrane fins was inspired by Utah’s slot canyon landscape. Another work by Heuther, stationed at the airport gateway, is The Peaks, a 90-ton, 10-story weathered steel sculpture depicting five peaks representing the Wasatch Mountains and Utah’s five main Native American tribes.

Fans of land art will be well rewarded by a road trip from Salt Lake City to see Robert Smithson’s heralded Spiral Jetty. Be sure to go, though, only when the Great Salt Lake’s water level is below 4,197.8 feet, or the earthwork will be submerged. Photo: Eric Schramm. Photo courtesy of Visit Salt Lake

Since Salt Lake’s founding in 1847 by Mormon pioneers, art and architecture has been a cornerstone of the city, beginning with the designation of the new headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Temple blueprints that called for Gothic Revival Style architecture. Dedicated in 1893, buildings in Temple Square spread out across 10 acres and serve as the city’s epicenter. These days the square is under reconstruction, but sections are still open to visitors.

To get your bearings, sign up for a tour.  Options include a bus jaunt with City Sights — Salt Lake City Tours; or Trolley Tours of Salt Lake City, with guides who sing and act in period costume.

Murals and public art sculptures uplift the downtown core. Photo courtesy of Downtown Alliance SLC.

Leaning into art and culture, in 2018 Salt Lake City rebranded its downtown cultural core as The Blocks Arts District. This 40-block neighborhood amps up the atmosphere with pop-up engagements, dance performances, concerts, buskers, and working muralists. At last count, The Blocks boasted 50 murals and 20 art and performance venues. And 23 non-profit arts organizations are constantly devising ways to bring visibility to downtown’s art scene. Britney Helmers, program director of the district, says, “The Blocks are a hidden gem; tourists are excited to find such a creative presence in our urban core.”

Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) houses nearly 20,000 permanent works. Image courtesy of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Elsewhere in downtown, The Gateway shopping complex hostsDreamscapes, a digital and physical art labyrinth. The attraction features imaginary forests and ocean waters, created by some 100 artists who upcycled materials to craft an adventure for all ages.

Visual arts lovers can discover new favorites at local galleries and world-class museums including the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art. And on third Fridays every month, art venues stay open later for the Gallery Stroll, with a recent lineup featuring 16 different galleries welcoming evening guests.

Donovan Mitchell, formerly with the Utah Jazz basketball team. Photo: Lauren Wester

Visitors seeking an adventurous art roadtrip might want to visit Spiral Jetty, about two hours away by car from Salt Lake City off the Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake’s northeastern shore. Created in April 1970, the famed earthwork by American land artist Robert Smithson [1938-1973] consists of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks arranged in a counterclockwise coil 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide. In 2017, Utah recognized the jetty — open free of charge around the clock, and now maintained by the Dia Art Foundation — as its official state work of land art, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. Before setting out, be sure to check the lake’s water level through the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Salt Lake Hydro Mapper website.

Onishi Yasuaki, Stone on Boundary, 2025, Copper Foils, Magnets, and Wire, on loan from the artist. View of site-specific installation at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Architectural marvels can be found throughout Salt Lake City, as well. Immerse yourself in a bygone era in historic lodging at the historic Asher Adams hotel. A prime example of adaptive reuse, the hotel is housed in a 1909 Union Pacific train depot and features a lobby with ethereal ceilings, original ticket windows, and terrazzo floors that harken back to the time of leisure train travel before commercial airlines. And standing proud is the 13-story Hotel Monaco, in the retrofitted Continental Bank building, originally opened in 1923. Its vault and teller windows remain as an homage to the building’s past life. 

Creating Echoes of Eternity, the state’s largest mural. Photo: Joseph Toney

Restaurateurs have also sought to cherish venerable structures. An 1882 adobe home in the Central City neighborhood is now Roux restaurant, featuring classic French cuisine with an artful contemporary “fusion” twist. In 1915, the Fraternal Order of Eagles opened its two-story Neo Renaissance building as a social hall; today the high-ceilinged space houses Caffé Molise, an elegant Italian restaurant a short stroll away from the Salt Palace Convention Center. The owners keep the Eagles’ heritage alive with eagle motifs and antiques throughout. And in idyllic Millcreek Canyon, a short drive southeast of the city’s center, a 1920 mansion retreat for a steel baron has been transformed into Log Haven, a romantic restaurant where diners enjoy the quiet ambiance of the woods, creek, and waterfall while enjoying elegant cuisine that features local and regional organic and natural ingredients.

Incandescence by Joseph Toney on the 6th floor rooftop terrace of Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City. Photo: Josephy Toney

This is a town that values landmarks. Among the many include Salt Lake City’s Main Library. The modern six-story, curved-glass edifice heralds scenic views. And within walking distance is the Salt Lake City and County Building, known for its sky-high spires, clock tower, and stone carvings of Utah heroes. The sandstone and granite structure is an ideal case study in Richardsonian Romanesque architecture.

Finally, no one should depart without attending a show at one of Salt Lake’s breathtaking performance venues. The Eccles Theater features a five-story glass lobby and an interior inspired by the canyons of southern Utah and starry skies. Abravanel Hall, home to the Utah Symphony Orchestra, is festooned with European crystal chandeliers and a 27-foot-tall Dale Chihuly glass sculpture made from 1,276 individual hand-blown pieces.

“Art attractions are plentiful, and we have a cool cultural scene,” says Utah Arts Alliance’s Dyer, who highly recommends Salt Lake as a fantastic art-cation destination. “Art is good for your quality of life. It’s good for your health. It’s good for everyone.”

Kathy Chin Leong is an award-winning journalist with works published in the New York Times, National Geographic, Books, and many other publications. She lives in Sunnyvale, California with her husband Frank and daughter Gwen.

If you go…

Architecture

Abravranel Hall
385.468.1010; saltlakecountyarts.org

Eccles Theater
385.468.1010; saltlakecountyarts.org

Salt Lake City Main Library
801.524.8200; slcpl.org

Salt Lake City and County Building
801.535.7704; slc.gov

Supreme Court of Utah
801.578.3900; utcourts.gov

Temple Square
801.240.8945; churchofjesuschrist.org

Attractions

Dreamscapes
801.637.5155; utaharts.org

Great Salt Lake
801.828.0787; stateparks.utah.gov

Spiral Jetty
435.471.2209; holtsmithsonfoundation.org/spiral-jetty

Tours

City Sights – Salt Lake City
801.531.1001; saltlakecitytours.org

Trolley Tours of Salt Lake City
801.364.3333; saltlaketrolley.com

Lodging

Asher Adams Hotel
801.895.3195; asheradamshotel.com

Grand America Hotel
801.258.6000; grandamerica.com

Hotel Monaco
801.595.0000; monaco-saltlakecity.com

Art Galleries, Museums and Attractions

Museum of Contemporary Art
801.328.4201; utahmoca.org

Natural History Museum of Utah
801.581.6927; nhmu.utah.edu

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
801.581.7332; umfa.utah.edu

Salt Lake City Gallery Stroll
info@gallerystroll.org; gallerystroll.org/

Restaurants

Caffe Molise
801.364.8833; caffemolise.com

Log Haven
801.272.8255; log-haven.com

Roux Restaurant
385.256.1367; rouxslc.com