SALT LAKE CITY — Creative Mural Art is on the rise in Salt Lake City. But what’s behind the art form explosion?
“This is actually my niece,” mural artist Bill Louis said as he pointed to his mural painting located outside Hobby Lobby at West Valley Fair Mall. “She’s a Pacific Island girl. So the murals titled ‘Where We Belong,’ and so it's, it's to represent people of color that have moved to Utah, that have come here to kind of make Utah their home.”
Louis is a mural artist. He was born in Fiji, but now he’s a resident in Salt Lake City.
He says murals are a representation of Utah in 2023-the influx of diverse cultures, including his own that the state has seen over the last 15 years.
According to local mural artist Josh Scheuerman, mural art in Salt Lake City has been booming. And it was only a matter of time.
“But even 15 years ago, there wasn't really an appetite for murals. And I think that's changed as, as the culture has changed.
The history of mural art is Salt Lake City
“So 100 years, really, respectively 150 years, everything was hand painted,” Scheuerman said. “So there were just hand painters that would go and create billboards, and the front of buildings and you can still see go signs that they're called, which is like the old hand painted signs that are all worn in downtown Salt Lake and those are protected now.”
From signage, to graffiti that was once counterculture, displayed on the edges of society, mural art has found its role in the mainstream of an ever changing Salt Lake City.
“Yeah, we do get quite a bit of inquiries about opportunities for muralists,” said Renato Olmedo-González is the public art program manager for the Salt Lake City Arts Council.
The Arts Council is a division of Salt Lake City Corporation in the Department of Economic Development .
“ It's a very novel art form in a way that it's one of the easiest ways and simplest ways to really revitalize a space or transform a building,” Olmedo-González said.
“I think murals are a way in which the community can see themselves reflected in really important ways. It's fun shapes, and colors, really vibrant. But it's also local people, you know, like, I know, some of I know, a lot of those people, and I'm friends with a couple of their kids.”
So how do you create a mural art in Salt Lake City?
“So, a mural is often one of the easiest artworks to do, because it doesn't require permitting, Olmedo-Gonzales said.
But creating a mural isn’t as easy as finding a blank canvas to practice and paint on.
Olmedo-Gonzales says the city isn’t allowed to commission a mural on its own unless it's part of a new structure or development.
“Unfortunately here in the city for us, it's kind of difficult to do murals just because of how our funding works.
“We don't have a Public Art Program doesn't have a mural program or a mural initiative. So a lot of the time, it's up to the private developer to just follow local laws and ordinances.”
Olmedo-Gonzales recommends artists interested in murals keep practicing and keep a look out for calls for artists, which usually comes from private business owners.
Festivals like Mural Fest in South Salt Lake and Midvale City Mural Festival have brought artists from around the country and the world to transform Utah cities into a real life canvas- events that local artist Lizzie Wenger says has strengthened the art scene in the Beehive state.
“I think here art has never been a really big part of the culture, there's a lot of focus on outdoor recreation, Wenger said.” “So I think a lot of Salt Lake city's residents and businesses are sort of focused on that and have been for a very long time. But I think with more people coming in, there's just more of a drive to expand upon the arts and you know, put more time and effort into it and kind of grow the art scene here.”
Do murals cause gentrification?
While opportunities to create murals have become more abundant in Salt Lake City, being cognizant of which jobs to take Wenger says allows for other artists to have a say in the future of their communities
“Muralists have two main responsibilities on the topic of gentrification, one of those being to create something that's meaningful, and that has a positive impact on a community and the other one to recognize when a job maybe isn't best suited for you.”
Louis also highlights that the playing field for artists isn’t all the same.
“I mean, in the west side, you know, I have a lot of family in the Glendale area, a lot of Latin friends, a lot of Pacific Islander friends, and a lot of them don't know how to fill out, you know, a request for proposal or a request for qualification,” Louis said. “And so it's harder for them to get these projects. And so I hope that in the future, like the language of the art, can be a little bit easier for some of these emerging artists.”
The future of murals in SLC
As Salt Lake City continues to grow, murals prove not only to be a source of beautification but a sign of growth-and for many artists a source of pride.
“So the art is I feel like in Salt Lake is growing, they're trying to push the arts a lot more especially like with the Utah Arts Alliance, or Salt Lake City public art program,” Louis said. “Like they're all they do want more art. And so, you know, this mural (the one of his niece) came about because of that, you know what I mean? So this is the first mural ever painted outside of Valley Fair Mall. And I was the one that painted it.”
