Josh Scheuerman, 44, is a well known and well loved local artist and advocate. On the outside, he seems like an eccentric free spirit without a care in the world, but within minutes of talking to him, it’s clear that he cares about the well-being of his community, the environment and the happiness of others far more than most.

This past weekend, Scheuerman teamed up with the University of Utah’s Dark Sky Studies Minor capstone course to create a one-of-a-kind art rendition of how constellations are perceived by cultures around the world — aiming to shed light on the often underappreciated dangers and destruction of light pollution.

Josh Scheuerman: A Jack of All Trades

Scheuerman was born and raised in West Valley, Utah by a single mother who worked six days a week to support her four children, yet still made time to help neighbors and community members.

Growing up without much money, Scheuerman and his siblings learned that they could collect aluminum cans and sell them to earn cash for Slurpees, so on Saturday mornings, that’s what they did. As Scheuerman grew up, he realized the severity of littering and thoughtless disposal, and he wanted to make a change.

On runs through neighborhoods, he would grab garbage from the gutters. He would jog down Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon, collecting around 40 pounds of trash each time. Once he ran the Moab half-marathon, crossing the finish line with an extra 70 pounds of litter.

In 2013, Scheuerman created the Four Corners Project, where, in one month, he ran across Utah, cleaning the streets, visiting landfills, and speaking to rural government representatives about their recycling initiatives.

He collected a total of 500 pounds of trash and turned it into an art exhibit, showcasing it at the Salt Lake City farmers market and at multiple fundraisers. He also teamed up with Recycle Utah in Park City to push city council members to reevaluate their use of plastic bags in retail stores.

Scheuerman continued to run marathons and gather garbage, soon collecting another 1000 pounds. From that, he sold what he could to a recycling plant and gave the earnings directly back to members of his community.

Becoming a Muralist

Now one of Salt Lake City’s most famous muralists, Scheuerman didn’t start painting until he was 30. He invested $500 into canvases and paint, and within a year had created his first art show, painted his first mural and shown in his first gallery.

“I thought I would just get some beer, have my friend’s band play, get some artists together and sell some art,” Scheuerman said, remembering his first art show. They sold a total of $400 in art that night.

Thirteen years later, he continues to gather with his friends, drink beer and sell some art, but his shows have now become a community-wide event. Last December, Scheuerman held his bi-annual Art Adoption gallery, where 40 local artists sold their art and hundreds of community members came to shop. This time they sold $14,000.

Scheuerman refuses to take a cent from the other artists selling at his galleries. He does it purely for his love and dedication to the power of local art. His shows feature artists who have never shown their work before and some of the best in the state. “It makes it a level playing field,” Scheuerman said. “Art is just art.”

West Valley Skate Park

What Scheuerman is most proud of, he says, was his role in the creation of West Valley Skate Park.

Growing up in West Valley, it wasn’t uncommon for him to get kicked out or ticketed when he skated in public areas. So, when he was 21 years old, he began lobbying local politicians to build a skate park. He went to city council meetings month after month, asking the mayor how the skate park was coming along. He wanted to make sure the children to come had a safe place to skateboard, be creative, push themselves and develop a community.

After he was told “no” for years and his petition failed, Scheuerman took it to the next level. He compiled statistics on how much money skateboarding brings into the community. He went through public records and found that, according to Scheuerman, West Valley had four golf courses, 24 tennis courts, 16 ball fields, 14 soccer fields, a public pool, an ice rink and a slew of other parks paid for with tax-payers money.

He took his data to elected officials, and after 15 years of consistent pressure, West Valley City, the second-largest city in Utah, finally built a skate park — one of the best in the state.

“Skateboarding gave me the confidence to go there for 15 years and say that I want the next generation to have this opportunity to build themselves up in their community,” Scheuerman said. “That’s why I’m involved in our councils. That’s why I’m involved in the community — to make sure that we’re all represented.”

Teaming Up with The University of Utah

In 2019 the Dark Sky Studies Minor Program was created at the University of Utah as the first-ever academic program focusing solely on the damaging effects of artificial lights at night, such as migratory bird confusion, disruptions in human health and wasting of energy.

The capstone course, taught by Daniel Mendoza, the co-director of the U’s Consortium for Dark Sky Studies, contains a requirement for a creative expression project to graduate the program. In 2020 Scheuerman and Jorge Arellano, another local artist, helped the capstone students create a mural at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education depicting the bortal scale, which shows light pollution levels in different areas.

This year, Scheuerman is helping Mendoza’s two capstone students create a mural of how constellation perception varies between cultures, and how we all see the night sky in our own way. They will be working with The Natural History Museum’s Youth Teaching Youth program to paint the mural at Glendale Middle School with the help of 40 local middle school and high school students.

According to Mendoza, art is something that everybody can understand, which is why the creative expression aspect of the capstone is so important. Everybody can look at art and take something away, but not everybody can read and understand a scientific paper. “Josh is very generous with his time and has been a huge help,” Mendoza said. “And he especially likes projects that make a difference.”

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@gentry_ hale

This article was written by guest writer Gentry Hale who is a master’s candidate in journalism at the University of Montana. Gentry is a Salt Lake City-raised, University of Utah alumni with close ties to the arts and environmental activism scene here in the valley. 

This article was updated on April 25, 2022, to clarify Scheuerman’s first art show sold $400 in art, not $40, and Scheuerman’s bi-annual Art Adoption gallery held last December sold $14,000 in art, not $1,400.