Salt Lake Art Center
20 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
(801) 328-4201
Hours
Tuesday – Thursday and Saturday: 11am.to 6pm
Friday: 11am to 9pm
Closed Sunday, Monday and Holidays
As part of a 1975 bond referendum, a new facility was built to house the Salt Lake Art Center. It is owned by Salt Lake County as the Salt Lake County Performing and Visual Arts Center. Salt Lake County is involved with the major renovations and ongoing maintenance of the facility. The Salt Lake Art Center was founded in 1931 as a non-profit private institution to enhance the visual arts in Utah, and has added to the cultural and aesthetic heritage of Utah for over 70 years. It was first housed in the Art Barn on Finch Lane. In its first 25 years it brought Salt Lake City the works of Diego Rivera, and Maynard Dixon (1930s), Marsden Hartley, Reginald Marsh, and Vincent van Gogh (1940s) and many other important early exhibitions of regional and American modernism, abstract expressionism, photography and prints.
The mission of the Salt Lake Art Center is to encourage contemporary visual artists, and art that challenge, and educate public perceptions of civil, social, and aesthetic issues affecting society. The Salt Lake Art Center hosts 12 - 15 exciting international, national and local art exhibits annually in its three galleries: the Main Gallery, the Project Gallery and the Street Level Gallery. The Salt Lake Art Center presents educational programs for all ages. KidsmART, is a hands-on art education program for children in after-school programs from elementary schools around the city. ArtWORKS is a program of art education for teens, and is a partnership with Granite High Alternative and Granite High School. In addition, the Salt Lake Art Center presents a regular series of Art Talks, informal gallery talks featuring artists, curators, humanists, and others who speak to issues examined in the exhibitions on display. The Salt Lake Art Center exhibitions and education programs are free of charge.
As a focal point for contemporary visual art, the Salt Lake Art Center fosters a stimulating climate that allows for interaction, and participation among visitors, artists, and students that would not otherwise exist. This interaction encourages the integration of all the arts into the community life, and creates a bridge between art education, exhibition and public appreciation.