Back in the day, Miners Hospital was a hub of activity caring for unwell miners and birthing babies. In the 1980s, the historic building was carefully moved from the base of Park City Mountain to its current location at the entrance to City Park where it was renovated. It served as Park City’s new library for a decade before the library moved across the street to its current location at the old Park City High School.
Since 1993 when the library left Miners Hospital, the brick building has served as satellite offices for city staff, a place to meet Santa during the holiday season and rented infrequently as a gathering spot for small groups.
More recently, Miners Hospital is being used by local independent artists, who don’t have the means to rent gallery space, to show their work.
Sundyn Woolf grew up in Park City and says this weekend’s show, titled Miners 9, represents the nine artists who are participating.
“We really are interested in having it be open to the public as much as possible and used in a responsible way that can really support the integrity of the building.”
Woolf says being able to exhibit at Miners Hospital is helping build her confidence as a young artist.
“I consider myself an amateur,” she said. “But it's great because I'm not at the place where I can show in a gallery. I have a small studio space, it's the basement of my home, and I really can't do larger works. So, this has been so amazing that I have a place where I can show my work. And so, it is such a huge opportunity in a way that I wouldn't get otherwise. And it's just makes me feel like the real deal.”
Multi-media artist Blossom Murray agrees this is a unique opportunity for independent artists.
“Not all of us can really afford to be in a gallery, or a street artist. Co-ops have a lot of other things that they offer. But what we’re really wanting is to be able to show our work. It was also my first show last month. So, I'm also a new artist on the scene. And it gives us a chance to explain our work, tell our story to and meet the community and network with other artists.”
Park City Special Events Manager Jenny Diersen says the building is well used by the Sundance Film Festival from November to February and three months a year for summer camp. The rest of the time, the building is open to the community to rent on a sliding scale, depending on the user and how much of the 3-story building is used.
“We see a lot of different community uses there,” Diersen said. “We have everything from birthday parties to meetings with nonprofits. We have different conferences come in there and use that space so I would say it’s widely used by the community for a bunch of different reasons.”
Woolf paints with acrylics using an encaustic technique with objects she’s found. Murray paints portraits, florals and landscapes and also creates handmade artist journals using different kinds of art paper. Other artists exhibiting this weekend include ceramists Joe Cordery and Tom Caswell, photographer Johnny Adolpson and jeweler Steve Johnson.
Organizer Peg Bodell says she hopes the end of the month exhibits will be another draw to the Last Friday Gallery Stroll on Main Street and will provide a consistent option for local artists to show and sell their work.
A variety of local artists will rotate through the shows each month.
The Miners 9 exhibit at Miners Hospital opens Friday and runs through Sunday. The hours on Friday and Saturday are from noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
This will be the last show of the year and will pick up again for nine months beginning the last weekend in March 2024.
