Park City Public Art Board's Favorite Local Pieces // Sheltering Aspens

In this blog series we feature Park City Public Art Board Members favorite local art pieces. See public art through new eyes and experience what makes these pieces so special according to our Public Art Board members. Once you’ve read our blog, go experience these public art pieces for yourself! 

In this blog post we feature a favorite from Park City Public Art Board Member, Alex Butwinski. 

His favorite Park City Public Art piece is Sheltering Aspens, by Koryn Rolstad at the Marsac building (the town’s City Hall, two blocks east of Main Street – 445 Marsac Ave.) and it was the first piece he was involved in acquiring as a Park City Public Art Board member. He even hosted the artist that designed the piece, which he described as “quite the character.”

When the call for artist qualifications went out, fifty artists, primarily sculptors, responded to a City Hall search for someone to create a piece of art or pieces of art to be put on display outside the Marsac Building as part of the municipal efforts to decorate Park City with publicly displayed art.

The Public Art Advisory Board combed through the applicants and went with Seattle based artist, Koryn Rolstad, based on information about previous works and the appropriateness of the artist’s works for the site. 

Sheltering Aspens, consists of approximately 75 fabricated “trees” and over 1000 “leaves.”  The artist’s website explains that with this particular project, the piece emulates the iconic Aspen groves unique to the Utah mountain region. The project pushed the typical idea of sculpture into an interactive site, inviting visitors to walk through a riot of color cast through the translucent eco-resin leaves populated on 72 aluminum curved tree posts, strong enough to withstand 110 mph winds. The project is installed in existing concrete planter boxes surrounding the plaza allowing visitors to walk through and around the installation on their way to the city hall entry. The grove of aspens  connects the aspect of nature with  the present day Park City community.

See the Sheltering Aspens  at the MARSAC building for yourself at 445 Marsac Ave.,  Park City, UT 84060. Thanks to PAAB member Alex for the insight. Stay tuned for more Park City public art favorites coming soon. Learn more about the Park City Public Art Board here.