BLOCKS BLOG
This Week Downtown
Sign up to receive a weekly curated calendar for Downtown Salt Lake City.
SIGN UP »
News & Stories straight from
The Blocks
From Ballet West to THE BLOCKS: The Downtown Alliance Picks Lucas Horns as THE BLOCKS New Program Director
Middle-school rides on TRAX first sparked Lucas Horns’s fascination with Salt Lake City’s evolving downtown—a curiosity that led him from Ballet West’s professional company to urban planning, community advocacy, and founding Project Rainbow. Now, the Downtown Alliance has tapped Lucas as THE BLOCKS Arts District’s new program director, a role that unites his passions for art, placemaking, and civic engagement. Energized by the opportunity, Lucas envisions THE BLOCKS as a dynamic ecosystem where world-class institutions and grassroots creators converge to celebrate and elevate Downtown’s vibrant artistic identity.
ABSLTY AMZNG ANMLS infuses Downtown Salt Lake with Color, Joy and Hope
To call their street art collaboration huge doesn’t fully capture this stunning piece. For perspective, its 14,000-square-foot area is the same size as three NBA basketball courts placed side-by-side.
Supersize Me: The Artists Responsible for Utah’s Largest Street Mural
To call their street art collaboration huge doesn’t fully capture this stunning piece. For perspective, its 14,000-square-foot area is the same size as three NBA basketball courts placed side-by-side.
How painting a mural in The Blocks gave a Utah artist a beautiful idea for promoting native species conservation
Pariatur ut anim proident dolore voluptate adipisicing excepteur consequat irure laboris nulla est dolor. Pariatur ut anim proident dolore voluptate adipisicing excepteur consequat irure laboris nulla est dolor.
Redefining the Score: Two Women Helping to Blaze New Trails with the Utah Symphony
Pariatur ut anim proident dolore voluptate adipisicing excepteur consequat irure laboris nulla est dolor. Pariatur ut anim proident dolore voluptate adipisicing excepteur consequat irure laboris nulla est dolor.
10 In-Person Things to do With Your Kids this Summer in The Blocks
If you’re like many parents and are looking for a way to tear your kids away from their screens and just DO something, look no further. Following are a boatload of fun, in-person things to do in THE BLOCKS to help keep your kiddos entertained until the new school year starts at the end of August.
21 Must-Try Downtown Salt Lake City Cocktails
“Let’s meet downtown for a drink” is the opening line in an endless number of stories about friendship, business ventures, and romantic partnerships. See some of our favorite downtown sippers and the bars and restaurants serving them.
A Conversation with Ballet West Music Director Jared Oaks
Jared Oaks speaks deliberately, with long pauses between sentences, as if he’s turning over each thought carefully in his mind before articulating it. But when in the pit, as conductor of the Ballet West Orchestra, Oaks makes countless rapid-fire decisions in service of what’s likely his biggest his role as the ballet company’s music director: maintaining a seamless connection between the musicians and what is happening on the stage.
The Story Behind the Gallivan Center’s Glow Art Installation
If you happened to visit downtown’s Gallivan Center Plaza last winter, you likely came across koro loko, a shimmery, three-dimensional heart sculpture by Utah artist Emily Nicolosi and the In Theory Art Collective. Don’t worry, however, if you missed it.
Vuelve El Festival Living Traditions AL Washington Square
El Festival Living Traditions apoya las tradiciones diversas y perspectivas artísticas a través de la presentación de costumbres históricas y contemporáneas, fomentando conversaciones que reflexionan sobre las cualidades únicas de varias culturas y las similitudes de la experiencia humana, creando vínculos entre los miembros de la comunidad.
A Tale of Two Buskers
It’s no secret that it takes both talent and grit to step out onto a stage to sing, play an instrument, dance or act. We submit, however, that busking—a la street performing—requires even more chutzpah.
Pie and Beer Day + Locally Made, Locally Played
After a two-year hiatus, Pie and Beer Day comes to The Gateway combined with the new Locally Made Locally Played Music Festival. Presented by The Blocks and Bad Brad Wheeler, the official sudsy celebration for alt-Utah and all things pie, beer, and music will be July 24, 12-6pm, offering more than 9,000 slices of pie and beer from 24 local breweries.
Performing Arts’ Triumphant Return to Downtown Salt Lake
After two years of cancellations, postponements and other COVID-19 shenanigans, the 2022-23 performing arts season in THE BLOCKS is, at long last, back to its colorful, talent-packed and thought-provoking normal.
Photographer, sculptor Jesse Meredith considers the influence of what many of us take for granted
Artist Jesse Meredith is curious; mostly, it seems, about why things are the way they are. His interest in people’s lived spaces led him to make Overton Windows, a photography-sculpture series examining how control and whiteness influence how many Americans live.
How to Sundance in Style in Salt Lake City
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center and Broadway Centre Cinemas will host dozens of screenings and for the first time, Megaplex at The Gateway joins as an official venue. But where to eat, drink, and party like Park City? We’ve got that covered too.
Green Loop Pop-Up: Exploring the Possibilities of Gathering, Art and Nature Immersion
The Green Loop is, in fact, a potential solution born from lots of conversations. Community requests to create more park spaces in Salt Lake City led to the proposal of a linear park as part of its Downtown Rising plan in 2006.