Jordan River Trail Art Panels
The Project
This past summer, the Glendale Neighborhood Council sought to commission an artist to create new artwork for four (4) large wooden signs along the Jordan River Trail in Glendale. Thanks to funding from Love Your Block and the ACE Fund, local artist Michelle Harris was awarded the project and went above and beyond by creating eight wonderful designs for the wooden panel signs by designing both the front and the back of each sign.
The signs are located at Fife Wetlands, International Peace Gardens, Three Creeks Confluence Park and the Peace Labyrinth. We are thrilled with the final product and hope you enjoy them as well! See a map of the panel locations where you can check them out along the trail.
about the artist
Michelle Harris is a local Salt Lake City artist/muralist originally from Kansas City, MO. Her passion for climbing and creativity has prompted work painting and designing murals for climbing gyms and studios around the Kansas City area. More recently, she has participated in local art markets throughout Salt Lake and continues to pursue work within the world of mural art. She has also created logos, tattoo designs, websites and more. Her favorite type of work is abstract line work — building from the simplicity of a line to create a bigger picture. Michelle has a unique style that mixes elements of nature and the outdoors with fine lines and movement. Her main goal is to continue to work on focusing her efforts on mural work and large scale paintings overall.
History
The Jordan River Art Sign Project was an idea by Van Hoover of Salt Lake City Parks & Open Lands eight years ago. He was interested in having community artists create art that could be switched out regularly for trail users along the Jordan River Trail to enjoy. He also saw it as a communication tool, suggesting to the community that there is attention and care going into the area along the trail in our neighborhoods here on the West Side.
Lewis and Laura Hansen, director of the Jordan River Commission, secured a grant through the county to build and create the signs and artwork was created by Justin Johnson of Justified Ink. Local youth were engaged as part of the project by participating in a guided canoe river trip along the Jordan River with the artist before helping install the signs. Many years have passed since the initial project and the Glendale Neighborhood Council sought to update and refresh the signs along the trail.
