The South Salt Lake Arts Council recapped its 2024 fiscal year in December. Here are some of the highlights. 

• Their three major ongoing activities are: creating a 10-year strategic plan, redesigning the Historic Scott School as an arts center and assessing its organizational structure. Former director Lesly Allen retired, and the position was being held on an interim basis by Sharen Hauri, neighborhoods director. It also has two vacancies on its board of trustees. 

• Mural Fest featured 14 new murals and 8,000 attendees. 

• Craftoberfest introducing a busking tent and kids garden. 

• Other events included Art and Ale Trail, Grid City Music Festival and three Get to the River events. 

• Its Celebrate South Salt Lake program saw eight mini grants awarded to seed cultural events for other organizations. The grants, funded by Rocky Mountain Power, dispersed $4,000. 

• Creative Arts for Life doubled its classes from the previous year to 45. Jody Engar, arts council coordinator, told the SSL City Council they added music and literature classes. 

• Creative Arts for Life also doubled its participants to 378 and tripled its class revenue to $13,354. 

• Creative Aging class at the co-op became so popular the class was capped at 25 participants due to capacity. A grant funded an eight-week guitar program for the 12 seniors who attended the class. It even featured a culminating performance, “which was fun,” Engar said. 

• The next Creative Aging eight-week course, funded by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, is a painting course that runs from March 4 to April 22. Supplies provided, cost is $25 and will be capped at 12. Must be over 55. 

• It’s newsletter reached 1,100 subscribers. 

• Across its various forms of media, Engar said Mural Fest reached 18 million views and generated over $300,000 in publicity value. 

• Engar said fundraising and development area was the “biggest opportunity to be better” highlighting sponsorship engagement, soliciting private donations and grant writing. Revenue for fundraising and development did increase from $59,016 last year to $67,181 this year. 

“Not every city has this kind of support that we do from the mayor and council and rest of the community,” Engar told the council. “We are grateful for the opportunity to do what we do. It’s been instrumental in helping us bring a mission of bringing arts to all members of our community.”  λ