Craft Lake City is delighted to announce its newest seasonal public art installation, Local Voices: Creativity & Community with Craft Lake City. On view now through December 30, 2024, this installation celebrates the mission and work of Craft Lake City, showcasing the organization’s dedication to fostering creativity and building community through their annual and year-round programming.
Craft Lake City’s mission is to educate, promote and inspire local artisans while elevating the creative community of Utah through science, technology and art. What began in 2009 as a single-day event organized by Salt Lake UnderGround (SLUG) Magazine at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City has grown significantly. This debut, now known as the Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons, quickly became a success. The overwhelming impact of this initial event led Craft Lake City to evolve into a standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization just two years later, fueling a mission to elevate Utah’s creative community. Since then, Craft Lake City has experienced exponential growth, offering a wide array of opportunities, events, programs and resources for both creatives and the general public alike.
As Craft Lake City grew, so did its programming. The Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival expanded from a one-day event into a vibrant three-day celebration, now attracting nearly 20,000 attendees and providing a platform for over 600 local makers, including artisans, performers, youth entrepreneurs, foodies, STEM exhibitors and visionaries. Soon after its inception, Craft Lake City’s impact blossomed beyond its summer festival with numerous year-round initiatives and signature events designed to bring community together and to support creativity in Utah.
In an effort to gather people from all walks of life and extend impact beyond Salt Lake City, Craft Lake City added two more signature events, the Annual Craft Lake City Holiday Market and the Annual Craft Lake City LetterWest Conference. Held each year in Ogden, the Annual Craft Lake City Holiday Market is northern Utah’s premier festive market, featuring over 140 creatives across the artisan, craft food, STEM, performer, vintage vendor, craft beer and spirit categories. The Annual Craft Lake City LetterWest is the nation’s premier hand lettering conference, bringing together global, national and local creatives who love hand lettering, graffiti and calligraphy through workshops, keynotes speeches, community art projects and more all in the Midvale Main Arts & Culture District.
In addition to these major events, the Craft Lake City has developed a diverse array of year-round initiatives, including artisan workshops, business academy classes and other essential resources to support and engage Utah’s vibrant creative community. Programs like artisan-led Craft Workshops, Community Inclusion Programs, the Youth Artisan Entrepreneur Program and STEM programming foster hands-on learning, youth entrepreneurship eduction, and inspiring creativity and innovation through interactive experiences and public art installations. Craft Lake City’s Local Voices Program also amplifies voices of local mission-driven organizations in an artful way, enriching the community with messages that matter.
“We believe in the power of sharing our story, as it helps us connect with those we aim to serve,” says Angela H. Brown, Executive Director of Craft Lake City. “This installation is a reflection of our commitment to making our organization more accessible to the public, ensuring that the community is not only aware of our diverse programming, but also invited to participate—whether as an attendee, partner, artisan, sponsor or volunteer.”
Craft Lake City invites the public to join them in celebrating the spirit of creativity and community! Visit the Local Voices: Creativity & Community with Craft Lake City installation now until December 30, 2024, to learn more about Craft Lake City’s mission and programs, then discover how you can be part of their vibrant community. Whether you’re a local artisan, a supporter or someone eager to experience Utah’s creative scene, there’s a place for you at Craft Lake City. Visit this installation in downtown Salt Lake City on Broadway (300 S) and get inspired to create, connect and make a difference.
Local Voices: Creativity & Community with Craft Lake City is open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, free of charge. To learn more about Craft Lake City’s mission and programs, visitors will have the opportunity to scan a QR code while viewing the artwork series on the streets of downtown Salt Lake City. Local Voices: Creativity & Community with Craft Lake City will be on display in 10 frames on Broadway (300 S) from November 1 to December 30, 2024.
With support from The Center for the Living City and The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change, Craft Lake City’s Local Voices installation series spotlights the inspiring work of Utah-based organizations in an effort to connect the community with ideas that matter. Craft Lake City curates this seasonal, rotating outdoor art exhibition for the Salt Lake community. The exhibits feature visually inspiring and interactive artwork meant to engage visitors and patrons. All Local Voices installations are displayed in fourteen metal frames along the sidewalks on the north and south sides of Broadway (300 South) between 200 West and 200 East in downtown Salt Lake City.
About Craft Lake City:
Founded in 2009 by Angela H. Brown, Executive Editor of SLUG (Salt Lake UnderGround) Magazine, Craft Lake City® is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with the mission to educate, promote and inspire local artisans while elevating the creative culture of the Utah arts community through science, technology and art. Craft Lake City strives to further define the term “Craft,” by modernizing the definition for handmade creativity.
craftlakecity.com @craftlakecity
Craft Lake City’s year-round programming is supported in part by the residents of Salt Lake County through the Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP) Program, Utah Division of Arts & Museums the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Salt Lake Arts Council, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and SLUG Magazine.
About the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change:
The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change is a community based, participatory project that uses the major construction processes in downtownSalt Lake City as catalysts to animate the city. The Museum engages a variety of audiences using a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach that includes performance art and video production, visual art, urban archaeology, anthropology, local history, existing businesses and ongoing deconstruction and construction processes as spectacles for people of all ages. Together these elements provide teachable moments in our efforts to manage and celebrate change. This museum has no specific address. Rather it is a construction of ideas, installations and illuminations that comprise a new way of seeing our city.
About the Center for Living City:
The Center for the Living City advocates for vibrant, adaptive, equitable communities created by and for everyone. We work to inspire civic engagement and leadership, invite creative urban solutions and expand our understanding of the ecology of cities. Our purpose is to advance social, environmental and economic justice as global urbanization accelerates.
centerforthelivingcity.org @centerforthelivingcity