Salt Lake City artist Jamie Kyle is one of four selected by The Blocks to be part of their revitalized Exhibitions on Main program. Image by Shawn Rossiter.

We’ve heard a lot recently about plans to transform or revitalize downtown Salt Lake City. There’s renewed interest in the city’s Green Loop, the idea for an urban forest meandering through the city that would provide more opportunities for recreation and community engagement. The grassroots Rio Grande Plan seeks to eliminate some of the railroad crossings that divide the city. And then there’s the plan that has overshadowed both of these—Smith Entertainment Group’s proposed development around the Delta Center. The most longstanding idea to transform downtown Salt Lake City—and maybe the easiest to implement, at a cost of $125 million, much cheaper than the $4 billion the Smith Group is seeking—is to turn Main Street into a pedestrian-only corridor.

Talk of revitalizing Main Street goes back decades, probably as far back as the 1960s, when suburban sprawl and the spread of malls—strip or otherwise—replaced downtown as the valley’s prime shopping destination. It goes back at least to the beginning of this century, to when we hosted our first Olympics and already Main Street was struggling to adapt to changing times. One of Mayor Rocky Anderson’s initiatives in the wake of the Olympics was to activate the newspaper kiosks on Main Street by using them to feature images by local artists. This was, in part, a response to artists’ unsanctioned attempts to change the downtown vibe by creating their works out on the city’s sidewalks. The city’s idea for sanctioned artistic exposure was to display reproductions of an artist’s work on the upper sections of the kiosks, above where vending machines sold copies of the local newspapers (back when buying a physical paper was still a thing).

It was a fairly simple initiative and by no means saved downtown. But it didn’t exactly hurt, either, and the project has waxed and waned over the past two decades. The most recent revival was initiated by The Blocks, the sales-tax-subsidized organization created in 2017 to bolster the downtown culture and arts scene. When The Blocks was formed, it became the custodian of the kiosk program, though at the time, because there were more pressing priorities, little was done. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, further delaying things. Merinda Christensen began working for The Blocks during the pandemic, and when she recently took on what is officially the “Exhibitions on Main” program, she wanted to make sure the kiosks were better than ever. “Our goal is to help capture voices in our artistic community through an outdoor exhibition space in a high-traffic area that is free and accessible to everyone,” Christensen says. “You don’t need a ticket in hand to come enjoy local art. We really wanted anyone with a vision, story, or artistic idea to apply to this program and share their offerings with the community, adding vibrancy to our downtown.”

The revitalized program’s call for submissions went out in February, and the selected artists put up their work in May. “There was no theme or direction in what they could create, we just let them have artistic freedom with the work,“ says Christensen. Each artist is featured on one of the four kiosks located on the east and west sides of Main Street on the blocks between 200 and 300 South and between 300 and 400 South. They occupy the bottom spaces, previously reserved for newspapers, while the upper spaces advertise various activities happening in the downtown area. Each artist receives a stipend for participating, and their works will be up for a year.

Jamie Kyle blends images and ephemera to create digital collages. Image by Shawn Rossiter.

You may have seen Jamie Kyle’s work this year at the Utah and Park City Arts Festivals. She creates digital collages deeply rooted in old photography and ephemera, combining these disparate elements to create new images. In much of her recent work, she embraces the romance of the “American West.” One work features a man with a weathered face, his countenance merged with a wide-brimmed hat that seamlessly integrates a landscape of rugged mountains and cacti. In another, a woman in a sleek black dress is positioned against a backdrop of a sprawling desert landscape. The interplay of her modern appearance with the arid, timeless scenery blends a sense of history with the beauty of the landscape. A third image presents a female figure, her serene profile overlaid with elements of ancient architecture and desert flora. The soft, pastel tones of the background enhance the dreamlike quality of the composition, suggesting a bridge between different epochs and cultures. These are lovely, seamless works that have the feel of a playbill series, and in that sense, blend in well with the kiosks, which are also used to advertise performing arts events in the downtown area.

Dallin Orr’s “The Golden Hour” features portraits bathed in lush color. Image by Shawn Rossiter.

Dallin Orr’s contributions to the kiosks also have a slight arts-marketing vibe to them. If you attended Artists of Utah’s 35×35 exhibition earlier this year, you may have noticed Orr’s two paintings: brushy cloudscapes that celebrate the west’s unique color and light. In addition to being a fine artist, Orr is an illustrator, an enthusiastic enough one to create works for imaginary, or uncomissioned, projects—like a book cover for The Count of Monte Cristo or DVD packaging for a Criterion Collection edition of Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Orr’s “The Golden Hour” is a series of portraits capturing individuals in reflective moments bathed in the lush light of a fading day. The title not only refers to the time of day but also symbolizes, according to the artist, fleeting, heartfelt exchanges, like catching someone’s eye or sharing a vulnerable conversation. Orr’s work captures these intimate gestures and gazes, elevating them to moments of emotional connection. The bold, fluid script that announces the series in one image might cause you to think they are advertising a TV series following the lives of young adults in the early ’80s.

Kate Wolsey’s work suggests a younger cohort, including her four-year-old son, who contributed some of the drawings for her kiosk work. As she explains in this 2021 video, the Utah native has been through various phases in her work: a sewing phase, a screen printing phase, a bookbinding phase. But she’s best known as an illustrator, focusing on people and the humorous situations they get themselves into. Her illustrations owe a lot to nostalgia, especially for the age of the funnies, those comics you’d find at the back of the Sunday paper. Her characters, which include anthropomorphic animals and quirky human figures, are rendered in a simplified, cartoonish style that emphasizes their expressive faces and dynamic postures, set against a backdrop filled with textual and numerical elements, adding a layer of urban graffiti charm. The use of vibrant colors and patterns, such as polka dots and stripes, adds to the youthful and energetic feel of the pieces.

Rosa Bandeirinha’s project Legacy looks to age and wisdom in a series of portraits celebrating members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly its members over the age of 60. As a queer immigrant and artist, Rosa uses this platform to highlight the voices and experiences of individuals who have shaped a more inclusive and equitable society. Through portrait photography and mixed media collages, Legacy presents five individuals, each featured with a photograph, graphic elements representing their identity, and a quote from their interview, all signed by the subjects themselves. Paired with Kyle’s own digitally-manipulated images up the street, Legacy offers an updated and more inclusive vision of life in the American West.

Rosa Bandeirinha’s Legacy project celebrates pioneers in Utah’s LGBTQ+ community. Image by Shawn Rossiter.

It may take a minute to realize the images in the Exhibitions on Main are independent projects and not marketing for downtown events, but that moment of discover may be part of their charm. If, that is, people see them. Empty storefronts and vacant lots along Main don’t bode well for tons of foot traffic. Pedestrian-only streets have helped to create vibrant city centers, from Barcelona’s Las Ramblas to Buenas Aires’ Florida Street. With their “Open Streets” program, where they close off a block or two here or there for a day or two, Salt Lake City has flirted with the idea, but only briefly and temporarily. Only something more permanent will really make a difference. In reality, maybe the best we can hope for is the Smith group will be nice enough transplant the kiosks to their new plaza.

The Blocks plans on releasing a call for entries for the next installment of Exhibitions on Main in February, 2025.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.