The finalists each have a proposal for a sculpture that would live on the east side of the Ledges Event Center in Coalville, next to the Summit County Fairgrounds.
The Summit County Public Art Advisory Board put out a call for proposals last November and began evaluating entries this year.
Board administrator Thea Henney said placemaking was a priority.
“The board was seeking artwork that created and celebrated a strong sense of place and recognized the cultural history of Coalville city and Eastern Summit County,” Henney said.
One proposal, from artists Sasha Primo and Romeo Sosa, mimics red rock features found throughout Utah. Primo, who lives in Argentina, visited Summit County last year to create a mural in Hoytsville, after conducting numerous interviews with locals.
The installation would be metallic, and Summit County residents could offer ideas for magnetic petroglyphs representing things important to the community that visitors could arrange and rearrange.
“These icons will come from community outreach, and will include local landmarks, wildlife and cultural traditions,” Primo said. “This way and together with the community, we will produce our own artistic and modern petroglyphs.”
Another finalist duo is Don and Cha Cha Weller of the Kamas Valley. Their proposal is a steel sculpture that depicts either a cowpoke or a miner, depending on the angle of the viewer.
“Cowboy or cowgirl—whichever it is, I tried to make it so that it could be either—represents agriculture in Eastern Summit County,” Don said. “And the miner is a touch of history. Even though there wasn't much mining in Coalville, there was mining for a short while, and the name Coalville kind of nails that one into their history.”
Don has also designed the Summit County flag and the rectangular steel artwork outside the Park City Library.
The third finalist is Ken McCall of Boise, Idaho, whose ancestors were Mormon pioneers. McCall said his family is still scattered around Utah in various places.
His proposal evokes the four seasons, with massive natural icons that double as benches: an ash leaf for summer, maple leaf for fall, snowflake for winter and sego lily for spring.
McCall says the seasons feature prominently whenever he visits family in the mountains.
“And so every time I go up there, Utah has some pretty significant season changes,” he said. “They get a lot of snow and they also have some pretty amazing springs and summers. So it's just one of the things that's kind of always popped in my mind when visiting the area.”
The last finalist is Martin Miller, co-founder of the artistic collaborative Antistatics. Miller, who teaches in the Department of Architecture at Cornell, says nature and the systems at work within it inspire a lot of his work.
But he admitted creating pieces that mimic the beauty and even behavior of nature can be tricky in a place like Summit County.
“There's certainly a challenge in putting something in a space where you turn around and see the mountains, you're like, alright, well,” Miller said. “You can't really beat nature for beauty.”
Miller’s proposal consists of interlocking webs that form shapes evoking something like conjoined tree trucks or mountain peaks.
The public is encouraged to attend the final selection on Tuesday, March 7, to give input. The meeting will be at the Ledges Event Center in Coalville at 4 p.m. Click here to attend via Zoom.
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