Utah Museum of Fine Art

If you are looking for something free to do that’s indoors, but still gets some exercise in, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts is an amazing activity to do! This museum is in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is actually found on University of Utah’s campus. Every third Saturday of the month, it is completely free to anyone. Students can visit for free with their student ID cards.

This museum is pretty big! I am not one to stand around and read the signs about art for long, maybe a minute or so, and it took me 2 hours to get through the entire museum. There are lots of cool paintings, sculptures, cultural artifacts, and digital art to see.

A grand staircase is the first thing you will see after walking through the entrance. If you go to your right before going up the staircase, there is a massive room with nothing in it. It literally looks like a giant white walled room with some dots in a straight line. As you walk towards the dots, you will realize that this is actually a work of art. A local artist has provided every color of the Utah lake from sunrise to sunshine and walking around the entire lake. It is pretty cool to get up close and see what each color represents. There is a fun giant staircase to climb up to get upstairs after you finish admiring this work of art. Upstairs is where all of the unique and newer art forms are. There is a giant sculpture stature thing of a man over 8 feet tall that is made out of stained glass and melted glass.

My favorite part was the amazing digital art that is found in a small corner of the museum. This amazing artist took hundreds of films and photographs and cut them into tiny fragments and layered them on top of Chinese nature scenes like the Chinese mountains and waterfalls scenes. If you get close enough, you will notice that this is actually a video. You can see the tiny waterfalls actually falling, the rivers with the wind flowing through them.

There are even tiny people walking around the city and in the building windows. I even noticed some small cars moving up and down within the mountain and the city.

The next room is full of Asia Pacific art, African art, and other cultural art forms. I really liked seeing the ceremonial clothing art pieces from Asia Pacific regions. Some of these suits are bigger than me! They have lots of exquisite detail, beads, and straw grass decorating the suits. There are also weapons which are cool to see as well. If you bring kids, they have a “kiddie corner” with coloring, toys, games, and an interactive table to entertain and give them a chance to sit down.

The bottom floor of the museum has an ACME lab where you can create your own art and learn about art “tolerance.” It is hidden behind paintings from Utah. Be sure to stop by the art museum for a visit! They also have a gift shop and café.