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Airport Art Program

Airport Performances

The Salt Lake City Department of Airports occasionally schedules musical performers to provide live music for all passengers to enjoy. The musicians may perform during holidays, for special events or announcements. Click here for more information on musician selection guidelines.

Art Collection

If you stop to think about it, art and travel go hand-in-hand. Both provide glimpses of other places, other perspectives, and other cultures.

In this fast paced, post-9/11 world, security screening and air travel can be stressful. For this reason, among others, more and more airports are turning to art to make the traveling experience more enjoyable.

As common as art collections in airports are becoming, the Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) started building its collection in 1977, through the direction and oversight of former Airport Authority Board member and chair of the Airport Arts Subcommittee, Joseph Rosenblatt.

SLC’s collection boasts several local artists, different mediums and a vast array of landscape art that depicts Utah’s iconic beauty.

Some of the new state-of-the-art installations at SLC include:

The Canyon⌄

    • By artist Gordon Huether. Taking inspiration from the surrounding landscape, The Canyon inspires passengers through an indoor canyon. The installation represents the vast canyons of Utah and creates a sense of place for the airport. The 400 ft. long by 22 ft. tall tensile membrane fins are comprised of aluminum tubing and composite fabric.

canyon north 2

The Falls⌄

    • By artist Gordon Huether. Hung in the escalator well of The New SLC Terminal is the 65-foot tall installation. Like The Canyon, this installation is inspired by Utah’s natural beauty and resembles the waterfalls dispersed among the state’s canyon landscapes. Cascading roughly six stories from the terminal ceiling to the floor, the suspended sculpture makes use of the location’s natural light. The sculpture partners colorful, light-sensitive dichroic glass panels with light refracting glass rods to create ever-changing colors and patterns on adjacent surfaces.

 Gordon Huether The Falls

Northern Light⌄

    • By artist Gordon Huether. Airport guests exiting the Central Tunnel into Concourse B will be greeted by Northern Light at the end of The Canyon 2.0. Constructed from 500 hand-drawn glass rods and 300 dichroic glass panels, Northern Light is supported by a stainless-steel framework weighing 5,000 pounds. Northern Light pays homage to The Falls, harnessing the same vibrant hues and dynamic light interactions as the 65-foot-tall escalator well sculpture, evoking the same sense of awe and wonder.

 Gordon Huether The Falls

World Map⌄

    • First installed in in the original Salt Lake City International Airport in 1960, the World Map was salvaged and installed in Concourse B as part of Phase 3 of The New SLC. The architectural firm Ashton, Evans and Brazier designed the massive 38-foot-by-38-foot map which was constructed out of terrazzo and features existing airline routes as of 1960. When the old Terminal 1 was torn down, construction crews cut the map into 75 pieces, with each piece about 4 feet by 4 feet in size weighing approximately 400 pounds. The pieces were stored until crews used them to reinstall the World Map.

plates 3

Column Plates and Benches⌄

    • By artist Gordon Huether. The sculpturally integrated Column Plates and Benches are located in the Terminal and create a visual distinction as well as functional seating. Echoing the sculptural forms found in a canyon, the columns provide interest and induce a sense of wonder, while maintaining the corridor view. Benches are placed throughout the area. Both installations are made of composite materials and function as seating as well as sculptural elements.

plates 3

The Peaks⌄

    • Travelers to the Salt Lake City International Airport are greeted by “The Peaks,” a monumental gateway installation. Inspired by the majestic Wasatch Mountains, the five towering elements pay tribute to Utah’s five major Native American tribes, Ute, Diné (Navajo), Paiute, Goshute and Shoshone and the five elements of the natural world: air, earth, fire, space and water. Weighing more than 75 tons, “The Peaks” is fabricated with weathering steel and the tallest peak stands about 90 feet tall. A map of the world is integrated into The Peaks façade, with a hand-crafted glass rondel demarcating Utah, for an extraordinary ‘You Are Here’ moment.

The Peaks

The River Tunnel⌄

    • The River Tunnel art installation is featured in the 1,000-foot long Central Tunnel connecting concourses A and B. The art installation was inspired by the beauty of Utah and reflects the rivers that flow through the state’s mountains and canyons. Artist Gordon Huether has created a completely immersive experience—from the terrazzo flooring to the blue ceiling, walls and lighting—to create a cohesive, congruous experience for passengers. The art installation is fabricated in the same fashion as The Canyon, which is a membrane sculpture made up of individual “fins” that have an aluminum frame wrapped with a Tweave Duratech 570C fabric material and enclosed with a zipper along the spine back. LED lighting is projected onto the fins in tones of blue. A curated travel-themed music playlist features a 100-song playlist through 150 high quality speakers.

River Tunnel 1

Whimsy Walls⌄

    • The work of 18 local and national artists was selected for The New SLC Whimsy Wall art project. The large-scale artwork–are unique vinyl wall wraps that were created from original artwork and installed in the airport’s 24 restrooms post-security. The artwork is unique and one-of-a-kind and intended to inspire and immersive and engaging experience for travelers. Artists were encouraged to submit work that reflects the culture, community, landscape and spirit of Utah.

SC Whimsy Wall July 2020 24

Mid-Concourse Tunnel Murals⌄

    • By local artist Traci O’Very Covey and Texas-based DAAS. Each artist painted two, 144 ft. murals in the Mid-Concourse Tunnel that bring Utah’s four seasons to life. O’Very Covey created the summer and fall murals, while DAAS created the winter and spring murals. Covey’s summer mural portrays majestic mountain canyons, vast open spaces and red rock deserts of Utah. Her autumn mural portrays the season with various flora and fauna unique to Utah in the warm tones of fall. DAAS’s winter mural focuses on highlighting the diverse topography of Utah through imagery of valleys, cliffs and canyons, drawing the view from night into day across a landscape saturated in iridescent snow flurries and rays of light breaking through the spaces between, while his spring mural highlights wildflowers and perennials commonly found throughout Utah.

Spring Mid Concourse Tunnel

Near Distance⌄

    • By Soonju Kwon, Reihaneh Noori and Hannah Vaughn. The Salt Lake City-based artist team designed, fabricated and installed this unique and original work of art in the TSA security checkpoint exit. The piece speaks to the spirit, culture, people and landscape of Utah. Near Distance was fabricated out of plaster, Great Salt Lake salt, charcoal and cast copper alloy.

Near Distance Art August 2020

You are Here⌄

    • By artist Jenkyn Powell. You are Here, a leaded glass wall created by Jenkyn A. Powell, is an abstraction based on a cellular map of molecular biological process that occur in living cells. These biological pathways include the Krebs Cycle, glycolysis and others that convert matter into energy on a cellular level in life. This piece was originally located in the former airport’s International Terminal. The piece was refurbished and re-located to the west wall of The Gateway, where the evening sun illuminates the piece.

You are Here

Flying Machines⌄

    • By artist Dennis Smith. The Flying Machines are large, whimsical mobiles that were originally displayed in the previous airport. The pieces underwent a restoration at the artist’s studio prior to being re-located to the west end of Concourse A.

Flying Machines August 2020 8

The Hoberman Arch⌄

    • By Chuck Hoberman. The Hoberman Arch is a 72’ wide by 36’ high mechanical curtain created for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Medals Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City. The arch was inspired by Utah’s natural stone arches. The semi-circular aluminum structure resembles the form and movement of a human iris and weighs approx. 31,000 pounds. It is made up of 4,000 individual pieces put together as 96 connected panels with 13,000 steel rivets. The panels vary in size with the largest being 5’ wide by 9’ high.

Hoberman Arch

To find out more about the art installation selection process for The New SLC, register for SciQuest. For further details on the airport's art collection, please call 801-575-2768.

Click here for information about The New SLC art installations.