Park City’s Main Street was adorned with four murals over the Fourth of July weekend, including one with the words “Black Lives Matter.” By Wednesday morning, the Black Lives Matter mural had been vandalized.
Gray paint was used sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to deface the Black Lives Matter mural on Main Street between the Egyptian Theatre and Treasure Mountain Inn. The word “Black” and the clenched fist symbol in “Lives” were both covered up, making the mural read, “Lives Matter.” A second mural, reading “Peace, Unity, Love,” featured a bracelet adorned with the letters “BLM.”
The “B” was also covered in gray paint.
In total, four temporary murals were commissioned over the holiday and were a joint project between the Summit County Arts Council and Park City Municipal. The other murals, which read “Solidarity” and “Justicia Para Todos!” -- which is “justice for all” in Spanish -- were untouched.
Park City Mayor Andy Beerman says the project was part of a $15,000 grant to the Park City Summit County Arts Council, which chose Utah-based black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) artists for the project. He says the Fourth of July weekend was chosen for the project because the traditional fireworks and parade had both been canceled.
“We wanted to do something special this year for July Fourth because we had canceled the parade and the fireworks,” Beerman said. “We thought this was the perfect time to highlight our art on the street and because this community has been in the midst of an equity discussion, we thought it would be very timely to have that art deemed on racial equity.”
Jocelyn Scudder, executive director of the Park City Summit County Arts Council, says the murals were chosen as an opportunity for local artists to express themselves with regards to the movements against racial injustice that have been sweeping the nation since early June.
“We figured it was a great time to kind of capture this national and international moment while people are talking about race and also as Park City has a critical priority of social equity, to really invite some black, indigenous, and (other) people of color artists to come up and respond with their artistic interpretations and produce a series of these murals that address issues surrounding racial equity and social equity in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent nationwide protests,” she said.
Bill Lewis, Aljay Fuimaono, Mariella Mendoza, and the Roots Art Collective were chosen to create the Main Street murals.
The project was already a hot-button issue in Park City before the vandalizations. Many people voiced their support and objections to the project on social media. Some criticized the murals, saying city government should not be endorsing political ideologies. Beerman says the art was not an endorsement of a particular group and instead was intended to spark thought in the community over issues of social equity.
Park City has had a community-wide social equity initiative in place since 2018.
“I’ve had people go so far as to accuse us of dividing the community and that was by no means our intention,” Beerman said. “I think, if anything, this has maybe uncovered some divides we have and pointed out why we really need to have these equity conversations now.”
Beerman adds the city has already made statements condemning police brutality and expressing solidarity with communities of color, which were cosigned signed by Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter.
Scudder agrees and says the murals were not a statement by local government, but meant to highlight the artists chosen for the project and to amplify their messages as members of the BIPOC community in Utah.
“These murals have sparked a really important community dialogue,” Scudder said. “The art is sharing their experiences and we are providing a platform. The Arts Council was a coordinator and facilitator in this, we’re so grateful for the city’s support, but it’s really about these Utah-based artists looking inward at our own communities in Utah and how they may feel about racial equity and how they interpret it. This is their message.”
The Park City Police Department is currently investigating the vandalization of the murals on Main Street. Fuimaono was the artist who created the Black Lives Matter mural and he posted to his Instagram account on Wednesday he is “on standby” to repaint the street if he is asked to.
