This year’s Wasatch Back Student Art Show, Change, is presented alongside the exhibition, Under Construction, featuring Lewis Baltz’s celebrated Park City portfolio (a series composed of 102 photographs of Park City from the late 1970s), and Rodrigo Valenzuela’s more contemporary photographic and video-based work.
Lewis Baltz’s captivating images of Park City documented the rapid growth of the Prospector neighborhood, part of the artist's larger exploration of changing landscapes across the American West. In more abstract investigations of our urban landscape, Rodrigo Valenzuela highlights issues of labor, alienation, and displacement. In Change, local K-12th grade students explore the concept of transformation in various contexts: within landscapes, their communities, and themselves. The work created by these young artists is both incredibly imaginative and thoughtful.

During the tour, students will take a closer look at Baltz’s historical imagery, examining how human presence and rapid growth have shaped the evolving landscape of Park City. We will also explore Valenzuela’s contemporary response to Baltz’s work through photography, sculpture, and video. Together, we will engage in conversations about urban landscapes, about artworks that take the form of series, and about the overarching theme of change, drawing inspiration from all artists currently on display at Kimball Art Center. Expect open conversations about change and its impact on humanity in the past, present, and future. Students will take inspiration from these discussions and create their own artwork related to change, urban landscapes, and human impacts.

K-2nd grade project:
Build a structure with modeling clay

2nd-5th grade project:
Design a futuristic collage

6th-8th grade project:
Create a series of abstract sunprints

9th-12th grade project:
Explore change within oneself through self-portraits