The Summit County public works building in Hoytsville is a stretch of cinder blocks longer than a football field that overlooks Interstate 80 and Hoytsville Road.
In March, the county hired Argentinian muralist Sasha Primo to paint more than 100 feet of the building, and Primo arrived in Summit County last week to start formulating a design.
“All these places and people I’m meeting, and workshops, will give me the information and the different symbols and elements," Primo said. "So I don't have any design yet. I'm going to make the design at the end of these two weeks, and then I'm going to spend the third week painting the wall.”
The Summit County Public Art Advisory Board and the Arts Council of Summit County and Park City are hosting several community events, including a workshop from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday at the Ledges Event Center, 202 Park Road in Coalville.
All are welcome, but the committee specifically requested North Summit residents to attend and share their connection to the land.
Primo said, at the first workshop, the group discussed what symbols and icons are important to North Summit. Those included the Weber River and the geologic ledges that jut out of the ground and punctuate the landscape, as well as symbols of the area’s pioneering and ranching heritage like wagon wheels and horses.
He said he’s using interviews, site tours and workshops to learn about the area. He’s also hosting workshops with high schoolers and elementary school students in the coming days.
Primo said he’s engaging with multiple members of local Indigenous tribes and hoping to learn how members of the Ute and Shoshone tribes lived on the land. He said the mural will incorporate elements of several cultures, past and present.
“For me, it's just trying to respect and show respect, and show some form of different existence between these cultures," Primo said. "And (it) doesn't have to be all combined into one character or all combined into one element, but it will showcase different symbols and different elements across the mural to show that, OK, we have this culture right now. But there are also other cultures that used to live here.”
The arts board is scheduled to hold a meeting May 24 to approve Primo’s design, after which he’ll start painting. The following weekend, there will be “community paint days” — chances for people to help create the mural. Those are scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Friday and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, both at the public works building, 1755 S. Hoytsville Road.
Primo said he’ll help those who want to paint, and that they won’t be asked to fill in a block or paint a background, but given an opportunity to provide valuable help.
For more information, or to register for the events, visit PCSCarts.org/blog.
