14 hours Ago
On a typical game day — whether for the Utah Jazz or Utah Hockey Club — the concourse at the Delta Center is filled with frenetic energy. Fans rush by, on their way to grab food or a T-shirt before finding their seats. But at last week’s Jazz game against the Washington Wizards and Utah Hockey Club’s game against the Buffalo Sabres — fans had a chance to stumble upon something different: artists cordoned off in V-shaped areas, stationed in front of canvases, mixing paints on palettes with a sharp focus on their work.
The 16 artists — eight at the basketball game and eight at the hockey game — are part of “En Plein Air,” a sports and arts collaboration between the Smith Entertainment Group Foundation and The Blocks , the name given by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to a stretch of downtown that serves as the cultural core of Utah’s capital. The artists’ works are inspired by the teams, the game day atmosphere and the creators’ own connections to the sports, and will be on display and available for purchase this week. “These events were designed as a fun, impactful way for the SEG Foundation to celebrate that synergy and support the great talents of Utah-based artists,” Smith Entertainment Group co-founder Ashley Smith said in a statement, “and we are glad to open Delta Center for this cause.
” (Palak Jayswal | The Salt Lake Tribune) The artistic station of Alethia Rodriguez, also known as Lunares, at the Delta Center on Thursday, March 20, 2025. As hockey fans shuffled by on Thursday, artist Lunares (Alethia Rodriguez) created a beaded piece. She used to figure skate and wanted to capture an image of what “hockey feels like.
” That image is a rendition of skates mid-hockey stop — a move that allows players to quickly come to a stop and exude, as Lunares describes it, a “wave of snowflakes.” “I’m going to mix a bunch of different blues together to kind of give an illusion of the blue,” she explained, referencing how she planned to nail down that perfect Utah Hockey Club hue. Denyse R Davis , an artist at the Jazz game a day earlier, was painting an action shot of two players, one shooting a basket while the other attempted to block it.
The final product was a vibrant exposition of color and brushwork, both part of her signature style. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Denyse Davis's palette during a Utah Jazz game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Merinda Starnes, the program manager at The Blocks, said “en plein air” is French for “in the open air.
” “In the open air, plein air, is really a way to captivate the environment [and] energy,” Starnes said. “It’s a live piece happening right in front of your eyes.” Some artists, like Clinton Whitling, created outlines or sketches before getting to the arena.
When he arrived at the basketball game, Whitling had to pivot his plans, changing his original idea for a black background to something more dynamic so the basketball team’s violet uniforms could stand out more. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Clinton Whiting paints during a Utah Jazz game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Shaandiin Powell, on the other hand, decided to freestyle her artwork.
All she knew before starting was that she wanted to capture the experience of being at the game and essence of hockey culture. “I am very inspired by all of the experiences that I am going through,” she said. “I just wanted to come and take it all in.
” By the end of the first period of Thursday’s hockey game, Powell has come up with a coloring book outline of a hockey player, stick, puck and the main jumbotron. (Palak Jayswal | The Salt Lake Tribune) Shaandiin Powell works on her art piece inspired by Utah Hockey Club on the Delta Center's main concourse on March 20, 2024. Other artists, like Trevor Dahl , tried to capture the energy of the Jazz.
At Wednesday’s game, while wearing a blue jumpsuit embellished with paint strokes, Dahl painted away at his purple canvas. The characters on his painting tie back to some of the recurring characters in his other work: “a conscious flower” and a saxophone — a nod to the instrument Dahl has played his whole life. His plan called for topping the painting off with a caricature of a basketball with legs — a sketch he did with his nephew over the weekend before the game.
“To me, it’s the spirit of jazz,” Dahl said of his work. He, like many of the other artists, had never done a live painting at a sports event before, but this collaboration between arts and sports is something he’s wanted to “see for a while.” “This is a really normal thing in other cities.
You always see arts and sports and downtown culture combined, and we’re just barely starting to see it in the last few years,” he said. “To be the first group of artists that gets to paint here at the Jazz game is really exciting, and I hope that we get to keep doing it.” (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Eddy Ekpo paints during a Utah Jazz game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
SEG’s participation in “En Plein Air” follows a couple of brushes with the arts community over the past year. Last May, the entertainment group announced it would purchase a Sandy mall to make room for its NHL franchise’s practice facility, requiring an art exhibit to return to its former home at The Gateway in Salt Lake City. As SEG embarked on its plan to transform a portion of downtown into a sports, entertainment, culture and convention district, fears swirled that the overhaul would displace Abravanel Hall.
The county has committed to keeping the storied venue in its place. Starnes, The Blocks program manager, said both the arts and sports communities can benefit Utahns if they collaborate. “There’s a way for both to coexist,” she said.
“This opens some doors, especially with this partnership we’ve created with SEG.” All the art from “En Plein Air” will be on display and for sale at a pop-up gallery Wednesday at the Delta Center from 6 p.m.
to 8 p.m. Starnes said artists will also bring other artworks they’ve created, and any proceeds from sales will go directly to artists.
The gallery is free to view..
