Artwork by Nikkita Nouveau
Salt Lake City, UT – Feb 1, 2022 Craft Lake City, Utah Humanities, The Center for the Living City and The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change are tremendously pleased to announce a vibrant new Celebration of the Hand public art exhibition. On view from February-April 2022, Celebration of the Hand: Faces of Creativity showcases the faces behind Utah’s diverse arts scene while inspiring viewers to apply to be part of the 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival (happening August 2022). Craft Lake City commissioned 14 Utah-based DIY Fest alumni to create self-portraits to display in a series of large streetside posters in downtown Salt Lake City. Spotlighting local talent is what Craft Lake City is all about, and as part of our mission statement to elevate the Utah creative community we are taking this opportunity to champion the creative individuals behind the work they create!
From ethereal photography to geometric illustration, and psychedelic collage to charming and whimsical caricatures, Celebration of the Hand: Faces of Creativity endeavors to showcase the diverse faces of Utah’s artistic makers-and-shakers. All of our contributing artists are former DIY Fest vendors and this exhibition, tied together with Craft Lake City’s color palette, encapsulates their unique artistic styles, collectively utilizing a wide range of media including 35mm film photography, digital collage, caricature art, and illustration. Artists were also encouraged to incorporate additional motifs to represent themselves and their making process, for example the tools they use to create their art or the thought processes they experience while in their creative flow. This range of artistic styles pays homage to the wide breadth of participation that is featured at the DIY Fest, Utah’s largest local-centric art, music, science and technology festival. The DIY Fest features hundreds of local artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, youth entrepreneurs, performers, & STEM exhibitors over three days the second weekend of August.
Artwork by Trishelle Jeffery
If you have walked or driven along Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City, you may have noticed some steel frames, or plakats (the German word for billboard), lining the sidewalks. These plakats are the platform for Craft Lake City’s outdoor exhibit, Celebration of the Hand.
The Center for the Living City, in collaboration with Craft Lake City and The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change, curates this rotating outdoor art exhibition for the Salt Lake community. The exhibits feature visually inspiring and interactive artwork meant to engage viewers and passersby, and provide the local artisan community a venue to showcase their talent and contribute to the city’s cultural enhancement. The artisans build upon Jane Jacobs’ ideas of self-organized city planning in their work, as they design opportunities for animating the evolving cultural district of downtown Salt Lake City. The exhibit allows the public a first-hand experience of Jane Jacobs’ vision of self-organized urbanism as the plakat artisans contribute to the city landscape and essentially become city builders themselves. If you are interested in learning more about Jane Jacobs’ work, visit the Center for the Living City’s website: http://centerforthelivingcity.org/.
The plakats are installed adjacent to the sidewalks in downtown Salt Lake City, and are located on the North and South sides of Broadway (300 South) between 200 West and 200 East. The exhibit is open to the public 24 hours a day 7 days a week from February – April 2022, and is free of charge.
Artwork by Mojdeh Azani
The public is invited to join Craft Lake City for a free virtual Lunch & Learn event on Tues., February 22nd, 2022 at noon MST. Virtual attendees will have the opportunity to share ideas and ask questions about the new public art exhibition in downtown Salt Lake City, while learning about the artistic vision behind some of the works in this curation project as well as the DIY Fest & its application process. Pre-register to attend this virtual discussion by clicking the link below!
| Sign Up for the Virtual Discussion! |
Be Part of the DIY Fest! At the 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons you can display and sell your handcrafted wares, connect with an incredibly talented group of other local makers, artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, youth entrepreneurs, performers, & STEM exhibitors — all while building your business & befriending thousands of local dedicated DIY Fest patrons! Applications are open to Utah residents until Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. MST. Click the button below to start your application!
| Start Your Application |
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.
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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, the Salt Lake Arts Council, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented by Harmons is Utah’s largest local-centric art, music, science and technology festival. The DIY Fest features hundreds of local artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, youth entrepreneurs, performers, & STEM exhibitors over three days the second weekend of August.
About the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change:
The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change is a community based, participatory project that uses the ever-changing development processes underway in Salt Lake City as catalysts to animate city life. 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’s purpose is to expand the understanding of the complexity of contemporary urban life and through it, promote increased civic engagement among people who care deeply for their communities. The Center provides portals for community engagement through the lens of urban ecology to further the understanding of the interconnected human and ecological systems in our communities. The Center’s multi-disciplinary approach to community engagement is applied through educational programs, collaborative projects, fellowships, on-line portals, workshops and publications.