ABOUT US
The History of Kimball Art Center
Since its founding, Kimball has expanded considerably in its programs and offerings.
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Kimball Art Center's Timeline
2023
For Kimball Art Center, a new home for art in Park City is paramount. Our current home is and has always been a temporary solution. After two short years, we have outgrown the space showing a demand for creative programs, arts education, exhibitions and the Arts Fest in Park City.
For more info on our future plans and home and how you can help, visit FUTURE KAC page.
2022
In addition to mounting regular exhibitions of local and world-renowned artists, Kimball encourages artistic creation across media through the more than 300 classes it offers annually, robust classroom outreach programs, summer camps for children of all ages, and studio spaces for the Park City community. Unique in its status as the only nonprofit organization in Utah committed to bringing art education to public school classrooms, Kimball reaches some 15,000 students each year.
2021
After spending five and a half years testing the eventual arts and culture district location in a temporary home, the organization opens once more in a temporary location at the YARD, 1251 Kearns Blvd. While this location is temporary, almost 9,000 square foot former warehouse was reimagined and rebuilt to include the museum-quality flooring, lighting, and walls required to host the caliber and quality of art the Kimball Art Center will welcome in this temporary home.
2017
Recent solo and group shows have been devoted to the work of internationally-acclaimed artists, from painters Xi Zhang (2020) and Kara Walker (2015), to mixed media artist Zhi Lin (2019), sculptor Richard Serra (2017), conceptual artist John Baldessari (2015), and installation art duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude (2014).
2016
The Kimball Art Center’s moves from its home on Main Street to a new location in the Bonanza Park area at 1401 Kearns Boulevard. The Art Center planned to reside there for approximately three years while a new permanent art center was being designed for the future Arts and Culture District of Park City. Then Mayor Jack Thomas had secured funding to purchase a 5.25-acre parcel in Bonanza Park to create an arts and culture district. Working in tandem with the City and sharing its vision of a sustainable, walkable, livable, vibrant community, Kimball Art Center joined Park City and Sundance Institute as a partner and anchor tenant in the neighborhood.
2005
Since its founding, Kimball has expanded considerably in its programs and offerings. Within months of opening, Kimball was teeming with activity, offering over 35 classes spanning many media, and exhibiting the work of local students, as well as established Utah artists. Under the auspices of the Art Center, the Kimball Arts Festival – true to the spirit of its originators in the summer of 1969 – has established itself as one of Utah’s leading cultural events, attracting 50,000 visitors annually, and garnering national attention for the 200+ artists whose work it displays.
1976
Bill Kimball’s hopes came to fruition several years later when, in 1976, the Kimball Art Center opened its doors. Its first location was the once-dilapidated, newly-renovated Eley Garage on Park Avenue. At its opening, Bill Kimball expressed his fervent hope that the space would “provide the opportunity for each person to expand his interest in the arts.” For nearly fifty years, Kimball Art Center has been engaged in the work of fulfilling its founder’s vision.
1969
In the summer of 1969, a group of local Park City artists came together to launch an open-air arts festival on historic Main Street. Their aim was to imbue Park City – already a bustling ski resort during the winter – with cultural offerings offseason, during the summer months. Within a few short years, the Art Festival had taken off, drawing some 40,000 visitors to the town. Inspired by the artists’ creative energy, Ogden-born philanthropist Bill Kimball decided to expand upon their efforts through the creation of a permanent home for the visual arts in Park City.
