Arts and Culture  

Salt Lake City is home to a wealth of cultural institutions, programs and public events that invite residents and visitors to find their favorite way to enjoy the arts. Salt Lake City has been a vibrant center for cultural expression beginning with the Native American communities, continuing through the pioneer period into the twentieth century and now looking toward the future in the twenty-first century.  

Theatre productions range from one-person shows to an Equity house and from new plays to touring Broadway productions. Film is very big in Salt Lake City which offers first-run Hollywood movies to independent and foreign films.  Of course, the Sundance Film Festival arrives in Utah every year, and Salt Lake hosts a number of screenings and related events. The music available to Salt Lakers is as diverse as their tastes, with international tours stages at the big arenas, touring and local artists at a number of music clubs, and quality series like Jazz at the Sheraton and the Twilight Concert Series.   

The Salt Lake City Arts Council produces a number of public programs, including the Twilight Concert Series in the summer and the Living Traditions Festival in May. At the Arts Council home in the Art Barn, the public can visit the Finch Lane and Park Galleries for year-round visual arts exhibitions and attend the Guest Writers Series, a literary reading series presented in cooperation with the University of Utah. The City Arts Council also publishes a quarterly newsletter/event calendar, available in hard copy or on-line. 

The Salt Lake City & County Building is home to the annual Salt Lake International Jazz Festival which celebrates this distinctly American artform every July. 

The Gallivan Center hosts concerts, festivals and other events year-round in the heart of the downtown. 

And the Youth City program offers young people a wide range of art classes and experiences through Global Artways. 

Through the depth and range of cultural expression to be found in Utah's capital city, the commitment to the arts is clearly a priority for its citizens.   

To link directly with arts and culture websites, see weblinks listed below. (For a more complete list of all arts organizations, click here.)