New mural planned for Salt Lake City’s historic Japantown
Salt Lake City’s historic Japantown—one of the last remaining traces of what was once a thriving Japanese American district downtown—will receive a new community-informed mural this summer. Led by the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency in partnership with the Salt Lake City Public Art Program and a community-led Japantown Art Committee, the project will bring a large-scale work by Utah muralist Cole Eisenhour to the north-facing wall of the Multi-Ethnic Senior Highrise along 100 South.
Drawing on the Japanese practice of kintsugi—repairing broken pottery with gold, emphasizing fracture as part of beauty—the design uses flowing gold forms and interconnected imagery to reflect generations of Japanese American life in Utah. The mural arrives as renewed attention focuses on Japantown’s cultural legacy: once spanning several downtown blocks, the neighborhood was largely erased by wartime incarceration, postwar displacement, and urban renewal, leaving only a single block anchored today by the Japanese Church of Christ and the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple. Planned for installation later this summer, the work is envisioned as the first in a broader effort to strengthen Japantown as a visible cultural corridor in the city center.
Utah novelist shortlisted for international fiction prize
Salt Lake Valley writer B. Robinson has been shortlisted for the inaugural Libraro Prize, a new award aimed at discovering emerging English-language fiction writers. The prize package includes £50,000 in support—a £30,000 cash award, £20,000 in marketing backing, and a publishing deal with Hachette UK.
Robinson earned a place on the six-book shortlist for An Oath of Malice, a dark psychological thriller centered on a writer held captive by a killer who believes he has a message for the world. An English teacher by day, Robinson lives in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, where he encourages students to develop a love of reading and writing while pursuing his own literary ambitions—a reminder that Utah’s creative community continues to make its mark well beyond the state’s borders.
Salt Lake City launches inaugural Poet Laureate program
Applications are now open for Salt Lake City Poet Laureate Program, marking the city’s first official effort to appoint a civic ambassador for poetry. The three-year position (July 2026–July 2029) will recognize a local poet to engage communities through public readings, civic events, and a signature project designed to connect poetry with everyday life across Salt Lake City’s seven council districts.
The selected laureate will receive a $5,000 annual honorarium and support for programming, with responsibilities that include public appearances, community engagement, and the creation of an original civic poem each year. Open to Salt Lake City residents with a demonstrated record of publication and outreach, the application deadline is May 17, positioning the program as both a new platform for literary visibility and a signal of the city’s growing investment in its literary arts ecosystem.
5/7 SLTRIB: Sculptor behind a Washington war memorial will bring a monument to Utah’s Capitol
An empty parcel of grass adjacent to the Utah Capitol will eventually hold a massive monument sculpted by the artist behind the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Members of the Capitol Preservation Board, which includes Utah’s top elected officials — like Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz — unanimously approved the proposal Wednesday.
The approximately $50 million project by Sabin Howard is dubbed “Grand Liberty Arch,” and is supposed to be funded by private donors. Howard said he has already raised nearly $2 million of that total.
“I feel very confident about it,” Howard told the board when discussing funding, adding, “And I come with a reputation, so I can do this.”
4/29 SLUGMAG: Food, Nostalgia and Connection in Mercedes Nokyi Ng’s Art
When you hear the word food, what do you usually think of? Do you think of community gatherings with overflowing containers of shareable cuisines? Or maybe you think of five-star restaurants with shouting chefs, bustling tables and food straight out of a magazine? Or maybe, just maybe, you think of a meal that feels like home with every bite.
For Hong-Kong- and Utah-based artist Mercedes Nokyi Ng, food is all of these factors captured in her oil-painted canvases. Her art features paintings of food, her home in Hong Kong and “the randomness of life,” as stated on her website. She works primarily in oil paint because she fell in love with it in college due to its “versatility and forgiveness. It takes a while to dry, and it makes me slow down a bit,” Nokyi states.
4/16 SLTRIB: Scientist, novelist and president: Here’s who will lead Westminster University next
She’s been a field biologist studying tropical plants from the Congo to the Caribbean. She’s published two award-winning novels. And she’s been a leader in higher education, including as a dean at the University of Utah and, most recently, the president of a college in Maine.
Now, Sylvia Torti is returning to Utah, where she will take the helm of Westminster University — a small private school in Salt Lake City where her varied passions will fit perfectly with the liberal arts mission.
The university, tucked in the foothills of the Sugar House neighborhood, announced Torti’s appointment in a news release Wednesday. The news was quickly met with pomp and praise by students and alumni.
4/4 SLTRIB: A pioneer love story in bronze: Utah sculptor’s masterpiece unveiled at new City Hall Plaza in St. George
Of all the art that graced St. George’s City Hall Plaza during its grand opening on Friday, it was renowned sculptor Jerry Anderson’s bronze of a seminal historical moment that was the showstopper.
Titled “One Beautiful Thing,” the life-sized sculpture the city commissioned depicts David and Wilhelmina Cannon, the couple sent by pioneer-prophet Brigham Young in 1861 to settle the area.
As author and history buff Lyman Hafen explained at the plaza’s debut, Wilhelmina, exhausted by the harsh elements— sun, wind, floods, snakes, scorpions and mosquitoes —challenged her husband to find a single “good and beautiful” thing about the area to convince her to stay.
David, Hafen explained, returned one day and presented Wilhelmina a sego lily that so enchanted her she opted to remain.
“It is said that after that day, Wilhelmina Cannon had only praise for this place where she lived and labored until she was nearly 90 years old,” he said. “Her story and hardships stand, as does this monument, as a tribute to the many other pioneer women who made the desert blossom as a rose.”
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4/1 SLUGMAG: Utah Dreamer’s Association: Dreamscapes
Ladies and gentlemen, a metaphysical force hasslipped through the cracks of the dream world and taken root at The Gateway in the heart of downtown. Dreamscapes has a new location, new events and new quests to help you reignite your creative passion. Artistic Director and Executive Director of the Utah Arts Alliance (UAA), Derek Dyer and his team of dreamers have spent the last seven years curating an immersive experience highlighting local artists. This exhibit is perfect for those looking to inject some whimsy into their life young and old alike! Cozy spaces, secret corridors and mystical creatures may just have you lost in a dream for hours.
You’ve likely heard of Dreamscapes — they’ve taken on several iterations over the years in various locations. The idea was born in 2017 as a short term project until Dyer learned this could be beneficial to keep as a permanent installation. Dreamscapes’ most recent location was in The Shops at South Town, but they now have the opportunity for a homecoming right where it all began as Dreamscapes at The Gateway. The current location grants more creative freedom to the team, allowing more connection to the exhibit. “This space feels more expansive because you feel more immersed,” Dyer says.
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UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Mixed Media
