It's difficult to pick just one art piece that defines Salt Lake City because there are so many to choose from.
Utah's capital has over 130 permanent public artworks that can be found in various forms across city-owned buildings, parks, sidewalks and plazas all across the city, according to the Salt Lake City Arts Council. There are plenty more visible pieces on private properties.
This list seems to be ever-growing, too. There's a giant apricot in Marmalade serving as a nod to the neighborhood's orchard history, two dozen 8-foot fish sculptures that were added along the Jordan River Parkway Trail on the city's west side as a playful way to celebrate the river's ecosystem, and countless murals painted on the walls of large apartment complexes popping up across the city, to name a few recent additions.
Then, of course, there's the 23-foot-tall whale leaping out of a roundabout near the city's 9th and 9th district. It has become a city icon of sorts since it was installed in the spring of 2022, generating a symbol printed on T-shirts, flags and other merchandise. It's even sparked individual marathons and got a shoutout during the most recent State of the State address.
Many of the city's art installations would not have existed without city funds, though. The city, in recent years, tweaked a 1984 ordinance tied to funds slated for public art, setting up a requirement that the city's budget and projects receive city funds to send 1.5% toward public art. It was 1%, similar to other Utah governments.
So why does Salt Lake City seek to invest more in art? It comes to the idea of building community connections, says Felicia Baca, director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council.
As Salt Lake City continues to grow and change, art can enhance placemaking, an idea of making community improvements that bring people to the area to live, work or play. It also creates a shared identity that can bring people from different backgrounds and experiences together.
"It makes our neighborhoods places where we want to be and tells stories about our people," Baca told KSL.com, following a panel discussion on art and placemaking that the council hosted on Dec. 12. "That's where we get to learn about someone's experience maybe being different from ours. That's where we learn about our neighbors or, when we come to the table, we learn something new about somebody else that we needed to learn. ... That's one of the huge assets of art."
The arts and culture sector, in general, also accounted for about 4.3% of the state's gross domestic product in 2019, she adds. This shows a more quantifiable figure about the impact it has on a community.
But city leaders agree that it goes beyond the numbers. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who attended the December event, said art helps identify what the city is and what its values are, especially as it grows.
"When you feel a place that has a sense of place, that has some identity — even if you can't put a finger on it yet — you feel like there's a kitchen table that the community comes around," she said.
All of these reasons are why art will remain a focus in the city's future. The city is working on another permanent roundabout art piece that will be unveiled soon, and art will be a key component in the creation or renovations of Glendale and Allen parks to name a few upcoming projects. Even the whale is currently scheduled to have a mural change sometime over the next three years, according to Baca.
Salt Lake City also received a $1 million grant in October that will be used for temporary art installations across the city that spotlight the Great Salt Lake. These projects are expected to pick up over the next two years.
Local developers and financiers who attended the event said that they believe large public murals and other art installations will continue to be a fixture through private funding and public-private partnerships, as well. They view these as community anchors with the potential to draw people in.
"I think with a lot of these projects, when they're done well, people are compelled to them. They want to be present in these buildings and places; they want to linger," said Shaleane Gee, senior vice president of community engagement at Zions Bank. "When they leave, they miss that and they want to come back. It's the life flow and the heartbeat of the city."
Baca says the city art council's interest is also "reciprocal" in that it wants to provide local artists with opportunities to showcase their work. In that way, artists can make a living from their work while their work can continue this cycle that showcases the city and brings neighbors together.