By Melissa Fields
Among the almost 50 murals in The Blocks Arts District is a particularly large and dynamic piece located on the east-facing corner of 300 South/Broadway and Edison Street. There the geographically titled “Edison & Broadway” calls attention to what are arguably the Salt Lake Valley’s greatest hits: a vibrant urban core, the majestic and uniquely nearby Wasatch Mountain Range, and some of the wildlife that make this corner of the world truly magical.
Utah based Muralist and Fine Artist Chris Peterson created “Edison & Broadway” in 2019 after The Blocks selected him from a pool of more than 40 artists to beautify what was previously a blank and enormous 100-feet wide, nine-feet tall “canvas” on the south end of the Edison Street parking garage. Peterson’s design included gloriously large portraits of a moose, a honeybee, a black bear, and a bison against the Salt Lake City skyline, a light string (“A friend of mine who works at Copper Common told me Edison was the first street in the city to get electricity,” Peterson says.), and the Wasatch Mountains. “I designed the mural to reflect the unique character of this place, what I love about it and what I think lots of other people love about it, too,” he says.
Last spring The Blocks Arts District asked Peterson to return to “Edison & Broadway” to give the time-faded mural a little spruce up. But rather than simply applying a fresh coat of paint to the existing design, Peterson used the opportunity to tell a more specific story about Utah’s former and current native species, part of a project he co-launched in 2023 with the Utah Wildlife Federation called Utah Wildlife Walls. “I am conservation minded, but instead of getting into the pros and cons of policy or politics about it,” Peterson says, “through Utah Wildlife Walls I promote conservation by celebrating species and the opportunities that all of us who live in this time and space to experience these species firsthand.”
To that end, Peterson altered a few of the animals depicted in “Edison & Broadway” to have more authenticity, including transforming the black bear into a grizzly. “I realized that when electric lights first came on in downtown Salt Lake [in 1881], grizzly bears still inhabited the canyons and foothills just above the city,” Peterson says. “The grizzly in this mural is dedicated to the last grizzly shot in Utah, a bear known as Old Ephraim, who died in 1923, and Bart the Bear [a trained bear used in multiple television shows and movies] who died in 2000.” Peterson also changed the honeybee to a Utah native bumblebee. “Honeybees are used largely for agricultural use whereas our native bumblebees provide critical support to native plants throughout the state.” Peterson also amped up the overall brightness of “Edison & Broadway” four shades from the original. “Color is power,” he said with a smile.
Though the launch of Utah Wildlife Walls, Peterson set a goal to paint a native speciesthemed mural in every county in Utah. He’s completed seven murals as part of the project so far, with four more are scheduled for completion by the end of this year. Each, including downtown Salt Lake’s “Edison & Broadway,” include a QR code that gives the viewer more of the story, both about those who contributed to getting the mural done and the wildlife pictured.
For a map to all of The Blocks’ 48 murals (and six music venues, 23 art organizations and 20 art venues), visit theblocksslc.com.
