Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- A new art walk in downtown Salt Lake City features eight installations highlighting water importance.
- "Hidden Waters" follows the path of City Creek, which travels underground in the area.
- Similar installations, supported by The Blocks Arts District, could be added over the next decade.
SALT LAKE CITY — A group of a few dozen stopped and looked up at a blue water droplet literally staring back at them.
This droplet — with an eye bulging out on each side — is meant to symbolize that it's a living entity, local artist Trevor Dahl, who designed the piece, explained to the crowd.
"The eye represents the consciousness of nature and something that we should all try to remember in this urban jungle, which is the whole point of this project," he said, speaking through a megaphone as cars buzzed behind him and construction crews worked on Temple Square behind him.
Dahl's piece is one of eight new art installations added to the tops of poles along North Temple from State Street to 400 West, all of which highlight a water source underneath the ground below and the importance of water.
All eight are part of an art installation called "Hidden Waters," which follows City Creek's path as it continues west from City Creek Park toward the Jordan River.
"We want to ignite the ideas of how they can conserve water," Britney Helmers, program director of the Blocks Arts District, a segment of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, told KSL.com, adding that it also aims to get people thinking about water preservation and the hidden creek below them.
The project is about a year and a half in the making, starting when Seven Canyons Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for "daylighting" underground creeks, brought a downtown art idea highlighting water sources to The Blocks Co-Create program.
Seven Canyons Trust is behind a project that seeks to unearth a section of City Creek along the Folsom Trail in Poplar Grove. The creeks and streams that travel from the Wasatch Mountains travel underground because of development on top of them, but the organization argues that removing these barriers has many benefits, including improved water quality and beautification.
"It's not just about revealing creeks, it's about resurfacing the stories, cultures and creativity tied to them," said Ronnie Pessetto, the organization's director.
The Blocks' program awarded about $30,000 toward the concept through the $90,000 to $125,000 that the organization sets aside every year for different unique downtown art installations. Nearly two dozen artists submitted their concepts for consideration, and the field was narrowed down to eight based on various criteria.
A board composed of the two organizations and a few outside funders picked the winning designs after considering different perspectives and highlighting people from different backgrounds, Helmers explained.
While Dahl focused on vigilance, Cara Jean Hall focused on Utah's native plants she recently planted after removing park strips at home. Sawyer Stroud depicted the relationship between the region's mountain snowpack, its creeks, streams, rivers and lakes.
Kate Wolsey's design celebrates skiing on one side and hockey on the other — the latter a nod to her native Canada — to symbolize how water in its frozen forms is the "foundation" for about every Winter Olympic sport. Vicky Lowe also leaned on her family's history, painting a water protector that traces back to her Indigenous Mexican roots.
"We, as indigenous people, have been trying to protect the land and the water for (hundreds of years)," she said, adding that she left the message "water is sacred" on the other side to drive home the importance of water sources.
The pieces will remain up for at least a year, but Helmers said the goal is to keep similar art installations up for the next decade, leading up to the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The organizations are exploring rotating displays or more water drops that could be added across the city.
A few other creeks also flow underneath the city in different parts. These include Red Butte, Emigration and Parleys creeks, which converge before also flowing into the Jordan River. Seven Canyons Trust sparked a project to daylight that confluence, leading to the creation of the Three Creeks Confluence Park in Glendale four years ago.
"We're working to beautify the city, and we're all just trying to get multiple different stories of Salt Lake City's past, present and how we're going to change our future," Helmers said.
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