Salt Lake City-based artist Sophie Nebeker hosted a ceramic tile workshop at the studio Iron Desert Arts on Sunday, July 5, to involve the community in a local art project.
At the workshop, attendees designed their own tile with clay, tools and other materials she provided. Nebeker gave a brief overview of her vision for the mosaic, then demonstrated ways to texture the clay using stamps. The project is funded by the Salt Lake City Arts Council and the Sugar House Community Council. “I think people really want an experience right now,” said Nebeker. “They want to touch things with their hands and talk to somebody in real life and make something together.”
Nebeker has been making art since her childhood and has been a full-time artist for nearly two years. She said she looks for what is missing in the local art scene. “I haven’t really seen a lot of mosaic murals in Salt Lake City,” she said.
Community artwork
Nebeker said she wants to foster community connection and artistic material experiences through this project. “I want people to walk past it and say ‘I helped make that,’” she said. “I want anyone else walking by to have a moment of pleasure in their daily life.”
The tiles will be fired and glazed by Nebeker, and the finished mosaic will be installed and unveiled at The Neighborhood Hive in Sugar House in the coming months. “Ceramic lasts forever,” she said. “I like the idea of legacy and what we are leaving behind for our community.”
Nebeker said she loves seeing artists create community spaces in Salt Lake City and abroad. She wants to bring different forms of art to the area. “I want to make things that I don’t see, things that have an absence here,” she said.
She thinks art needs a place in communities and cities. “People are creating ornamentation and decoration for urban spaces, and I want to contribute to that,” she said. “This tile mural is a design on a wall that is there to beautify or enhance and give us an experience.”
Local support
In an interview with the Chronicle, Nebeker said she appreciated all the local support she received. She said the grants for the arts and cultural institutions are unique in Utah. “I went to school in California, and granting programs [for artists] don’t really exist at the same level where there are these arts councils and open calls in Salt Lake,” she said.
She said Salt Lake City is a place for artists like herself to embrace the opportunities provided by the cultural vibrancy of its atmosphere. “Utah creates that space so people can have art and be all that they can be,” Nebeker said. “Utah wants to support arts and culture.”
