(please note: Williams Fine Art at 641 East South Temple has changed its name to Alderwood Fine Art. Clayton Williams now operates Williams Fine Art at 132 E Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103 | 801-712-7577 – www.williamsfineart.com)
Hopping locations is difficult, tedious, and time consuming. Although it can suck the life right out of the ones who are doing the moving, a recent relocation for Williams Fine Art Gallery will give a new life to its business. Just a few blocks east of their former location, they are now located at 641 East South Temple in Salt Lake City.
Although the seemingly endless miscellaneous tasks that come with moving are still getting sorted out at the gallery, all of the paintings are hung and the doors are open to the public, just in time for Gallery Stroll. This move has brought Williams from the depths of the unseen basement on 200 East, to a visible and comfortable spot tucked right on the corner of H street and South Temple. A vast window facing the busy boulevard gives the gallery the ability to attract more walk-in customers. Currently, iconic paintings of Utah geology hang to attract passerbys. Tom Alder, the owner of Williams Fine Art, facetiously hopes that “people on South Temple will be driving along, rear ending each other in awe, while looking into the open window of the gallery.”
Inside the gallery, the rubber-neckers will find a whole new component to the gallery: on the second, downstairs floor of the new space four 12’ by 12’ studios are available for artists to rent out. Alder happily anticipates a flow of creation below the feet of gallery strollers and buyers, “We’ll have a little artist community in our own basement. Its kind of fun!” The artists are provided with their own kitchen, break room, lounge area, and key to the basement door that will allow them to come in whenever they please.
The inside of the typically traditional gallery has taken a bit of a modern twist. The ceiling tiles were plucked out to expose the clean looking plenum space. The ceiling combined with stained panels and white walls makes way for a smooth trifecta of pleasing aesthetics in the 2500 square feet area. “The new industrial look allows us to go further into abstraction,” comments Tom. In addition to the territorial tour of Utah Williams’ visitors are used to getting from the gallery’s roster of landscape artists, as patrons wind through the displays, they’ll find refreshing surprises of contemporary pieces around each corner.
They’ll find the new space is smaller than the 200 East location, but Alder thinks the downsizing, from 5000 square feet to 2500 square feet, is more than offset by the street visibility and display area footage. Alder notes his thoughts as he considered the move: “Pacing through the different locations, I found they were virtually the same. Square footage isn’t where the money is made, it’s the display area.”
Overall, the move is paving Williams Fine Art Gallery a path for more success and greater opportunity. Don’t miss the chance to acquaint yourself with this worthwhile arena of captured beauty. The gallery’s official grand opening will be in August, when they host the Plein Air Artists of Utah Festival, but you don’t have to wait that long: the gallery will be open for the June Gallery Stroll, Friday, June 21, 6-9 pm. They will be hosting several new and notable artwork arrivals, including works by Kimbal Warren, as well as early Utah artists Mahonri Young, Paul Fjellboe, Joseph A. Everett, Florence Ware, and Louise Richards Farnsworth.
More information on the location and artists can be found on the gallery’s website: http://www.williamsfineart.com.

Haylee Wilkes is the 15 Bytes summer intern. She’s a sophomore at Dixie State University majoring in Professional and Technical Writing. At Dixie she plays on the volleyball team and acts as a Student Ambassador for the school.
Categories: Daily Bytes | Gallery Spotlights | Visual Arts
Haylee,
Many thanks for your accurate and well-written article about our gallery and the move. Lots of things are happening, not only with the move, but with our name change next month to Alderwood Fine Art. That will put us at the top of some search engines, especially the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll list, instead of being #36 of 36 galleries.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me and with regard to your expert writing skills. All the best to you.
Tom Alder