Summit County PUBLIC ART PROGRAM

About the Summit County Public Art Advisory Board

The Arts Council serves as an advisor and liaison to the Park City Public Art Advisory Board and the administrator of the Summit County Public Art Advisory Board, managing the planning, operations, and outreach for the group. This includes the execution and oversight of a 1% Public Percent-for-Art Policy, which assures that 1% of the budget of county capital improvement projects be set aside to support the installation of new public art at Summit County construction or renovation sites. We also support additional public art and creative placemaking projects countywide with the goal of enriching our community.

Washakie: Through the Lens of Time

Summit County is pleased to host a 2024/2025 traveling exhibit from the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center. The exhibit features photographs and written information about the Shoshone-Bannock Chief Washakie, an important local historical figure. Washakie: Through the Lens of Time will be on display at the Kamas Valley Library until January 3, 2025, then it will move to the Kimball Junction Library from January 3 - March 7, and finally display at the Coalville Library from March 7 - May 9. Stop by and learn about Chief Washakie’s life!

Mission

The mission of the Summit County Public Art Advisory Board is to celebrate and unite Summit County residents through public art. In April, 2008, the Summit County Board of County Commissioners affirmed their belief that the aesthetic nature and charm of Summit County is further enhanced by the arts and an awareness of the visual arts. Through ordinance 696, the Commissioners created the Summit County Public Art Program and Advisory Board. The County Commissioners allocated 1% of capital facility funds as seed money for the new program.

About the Collection

Summit County's Public Art collection consists of 20 major works of art, including the Fine Art Collection of approximately eighty (80) pieces of fine art housed in the County Courthouse, several murals, sculptures and the Art Pianos for All collection, which seeks to bring back the piano as a centerpiece of music, community, & art in Summit County, Utah. Artist decorated pianos are placed in public areas to be played and enjoyed by all. Our Summit County collection has been recently digitized and archived online and can be viewed online here and at the link below.

Traveling Exhibit

Here is just a sampling of amazing fine art you can find in the County Fine Art Collection at the Summit County Courthouse in Coalville, Utah and in public spaces throughout our community. To promote visibility and to educate the community about the Collection, the Summit County Public Art Advisory Board curates Traveling Exhibits which showcase select pieces in public exhibition spaces throughout the County.

George Beard Photography Exhibit

George Beard’s exploration of photography was made possible by the dramatic changes in this medium in the late nineteenth century. This period saw the introduction of faster, easier, and more mass-produced formats, among them the dry-plate negative. This new process was much less expensive than producing daguerreotypes, and eliminated the requirement of a portable darkroom. The plates could be processed days or weeks after exposing them, rather than needing to be done immediately.

Beard was largely a self-taught artist, but he met or sought advice from multiple artists in the region, among them the noted photographer Charles Roscoe Savage. Using his photographs primarily as inspiration for his landscape paintings, it is interesting to note that he developed very few of his many negatives into prints. In fact, of the entire collection housed at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, which comprises 1,761 photographs, only 197 objects are original prints. Here is a sampling below.

Sculptures and Murals

Here is just a sampling of the amazing sculptures and murals you can find around Summit County, UT.

Art Pianos For All Programming

Pop-up Performances with Art Pianos for All

Our Art Pianos are located in the following places around Summit County!