Community Voices

About the Cover

We are the Roots Art Kollective, a group of artists with lived experience and commitment to the west side of Salt Lake City. Our mission is to expand public art to create a colorful environment that allows people to learn about the cultures that enrich our communities. We live in a time where the human spirit desperately needs to be seen and felt, and we believe that using art can redefine the cultural space that we embody using symbols, calligraphy, colors, and traditional patterns as ways to represent the cultural quilt of Salt Lake City. Our passion for art is what inspires us. Our backgrounds and our roots are what keep us together; they are what keep us grounded.

The Roots Art Kollective focuses on producing murals with the intention of public engagement and participation to foster a stronger sense of community pride. We recognize that the power of art is not only in the result but also in the experience of building relationships and community as part of the process. Our goal is to translate neighborhood values and interests into public art that leaves a lasting impression, not only for the members of the community but visitors as well. Art and art-making have the power to change the way we interact with our environment and each other, to create a positive identity, and deepen the capacity for cultural values.

The Hope Mural was a part of the Pain and Possibility series in partnership with Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts and Sugar Space Foundation. Our intention with this mural is to send a message of HOPE to our communities as we deal with COVID-19, along with the fight for social and racial equality. We have also been working on a series of mandalas to represent the complexity of our times. An important aspect of this mural is the concept behind the colors, which celebrate the different skin tones that encompass the human race. We have also incorporated a world to stand in solidarity with the different social movements that strive for equality and system change. Something meaningful that we learned while painting this mural is that hope has a way of unveiling itself in our communities with the help of art. Hope can be relative to the viewer’s experience no matter the challenges we have been experiencing through the pandemic. The community still came out to show gratitude for the public art that affected their lives. As artists, we understand art has the power to influence and help us reflect on what’s happening and where we want to go.

To see more of our work, please visit our website at www.rootsartkollective.com and follow us on Instagram.