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Keith McCord reporting There's a segment along 300 North in Salt Lake that passes underneath I-15. To be honest, when you drive through the area it's kind of boring to look at--just drab, gray concrete. But there's a neighborhood effort to change that.
Concrete pillars and lots of angled concrete that slants up from the sidewalks make up the 235 feet to get from one side of the freeway to the other. This summer, though, things will begin to look brighter.
Sprucing up a freeway underpass is not the easiest thing to accomplish. But if you get a bunch of artists together and seek input from a diverse community, all of the sudden things look a lot brighter.
The nonprofit organization NeighborWorks began conceptualizing its "Bridge over Barriers" project in 2003. When it's completed, that 235-foot section will become a colorful 22,000-square-foot mural--a project aimed at bringing together two neighborhoods divided by the freeway.
"They believed the best way to link that was to turn this concrete structure into a vision of beauty, and by doing so, you would force the neighborhoods to work together to create it," said project director Terry Hurst.
For the last several years, a dozen artists have been interpreting the ideas expressed by community residents and organizations about what message the mural should convey. "I think the message is: This is our community. This is the way we feel about our community," Hurst explained.
The first mosaic, which will become a wrap for one of the 16 pillars, is starting to take shape. Lead artist Lily Yeh says the community helped the artists create the "feel" of the mural, and she says the community will also be a part of constructing it too.
"I think we will involve hundreds of youth to come and actually lay tiles on these beautiful columns, and we will install them. And the artists will be the leader, and they will monitor and guide and supervise," Yeh explained.
As for the artists, they're thrilled the project is finally moving from ideas on paper to actual results. "I think anyone who will see it, especially en mass, will be blown away. We're hoping it will be a destination on the west side," said artist Suzanne Simpson.
It'll be about 18 months until the entire mural is completed. But by this summer, four of the pillars will be transformed from concrete to a colorful mosaic.
Art projects like these can be found all over the country in various forms, and because entire communities are involved in creating them, they do bring about a sense of neighborhood pride. That's certainly the hope here.
For more information on NeighborWorks, click the related link.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
