Plan-B Theatre’s new play, “Just Add Water,” which opens this week in Salt Lake City (see here), is part of a dozen temporary installations by local, national, and international artists commissioned for Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Wake the Great Salt Lake initiative. The innovative public art project was funded via a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, one of eight grants awarded in the country.

The title of the project—Wake the Great Salt Lake—considers multiple meanings of the word “wake,” and aims to create ripples of awareness throughout the city, says Felicia Baca, executive director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council.

For Utahns, over the past few years, it has been easy to feel assaulted, then numbed, by the drumbeat of news headlines about our shrinking saline sea. Some weeks bring waves of hope, such as the recent announcement by Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox of the Great Salt Lake 2034 Charter, including a $200 million philanthropic investment, as a promise to revive the lake in time for the Salt Lake City-Utah Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. “We will not let the Great Salt Lake fail,” the governor proclaimed.

Beyond the headlines, Salt Lake arts administrators are hoping the lineup of temporary installations will help create a community of residents—joining with scientists, activists, and elected officials—who feel invested in saving the lake. “The more different ways you can engage people, the better,” says Siri Vlasic, Wake the Great Salt Lake Coordinator.

The initiative has commissioned installations to take place in every council district throughout Salt Lake City, from Trevor Dahl’s public mural, “Watchers of the Shore”  (936 W. 1000 North, Rose Park), to the pop-up pink Great Salt Lake Hopeline—979-GSL-HOPE (find locations for the work of artists Han Calder, Nick Carpenter, and Ben Doxey on Instagram @gslhopeline). A recent hopeline residency near Post Office Place prompted bartender to create the “What Remains” cocktail, crafted of local ingredients to create a drinkable lake story.

Other artworks have included a dance performance, photography and visual art exhibitions, and zines and videos created by Spy Hop students. Stefan Lesueur’s sound installation, “Watershed Stories,” can be experienced Oct. 13-18 at Liberty Park’s dry fountain, the Seven Canyons Refuge. (Learn more about all the artists and their works here.)

The biggest art headline of Wake the Great Salt Lake is the announcement of an upcoming work by renowned  Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, his first installation in the Intermountain West. “A symphony of disappearing sounds for the Great Salt Lake,” will premiere next spring in a city park. “It’s big,” says Laurel Cannon Alder, deputy director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council. “We’re thrilled that we are able to pull this off. Anytime you can bring something of that caliber to a project, it elevates everybody.”

In the business of marketing, it’s easy to question if art can make a difference in addressing local issues.

That’s why, as part of the Wake the Great Salt Lake initiative, organizers asked arts patrons to answer a question about the impact of art. Here are some responses to this question: What role do you think art can play in addressing local civic issues?

• As a science-based person who also has an appreciation for art, I was still a bit skeptical about the role of art in addressing something like the decline of the GSL, but over the last year-plus have come to see the benefits of bringing more ideas and philosophies into the mix. This event reinforces that approach!

• Art has a tremendous impact on local issues. People relate to beautiful images, to creative expression and to meaningful ideas. We bought some of the cards that were created for tonight’s GSL Hopeline event. We loved the music and lighting — it was a tremendous success.

• Art is able to evoke emotions on a deeper and more spiritual level. When people connect with art, inspired by the Great Salt Lake, they never lose memory of a piece they empathized with. But if you tell someone facts, they forget it the next day.

• It attracts a different crowd, helping a wider variety of people become part of the solution.

• The approach makes difficult and heavy subjects easier to understand and less overwhelming.

• It brings the community together and allows the artist to express their true feelings.

• I think it can help provide a different entry way for folks that might not have engaged in this conversation. Art can seem less intimidating than political conversations or direct activism if someone isn’t sure how to get involved. Art can also allow for expression of emotions around atopic, create community, and spark conversation.

• Art is vital to effecting change! Facts help change minds, art changes hearts!

• Helpful to catch the eye of people, spark a conversation and hopefully increase public awareness.

• I heard some say that they wish artists were sent to space because scientists have not really done well at describing the experience. I feel this is the same. Science can tell us what is happening, why, and how we might fix it. Artists can tell us what’s really at stake.

• It creates a permanent reminder of the discussions we need to have.

• Art is something that motivates us to do things purely for the love of art itself. If we can act selflessly for our community, culture, and those around us we can create something sustainable for all.

• Art brings awareness to issues, spreads information in an accessible, thought-provoking manner. Art is capable of transcending political rhetoric and creating pathways to understanding the issues that matter in contemporary society.

• Like a photo, one piece of art can be worth 1,000 words. Humanity has a wide array of intelligences and modes of learning, expression, and civic engagement. Art can facilitate and amplify this.

• Art can provide an eye catching and intuitive way to engage members of a community towards a shared issue and often can transcend the issues that come up with addressing issues through text or news. Public art specifically has always been a way to reach people that might not share a common language or common unrest towards a cause or movement.

• The role of art, public art specifically, is critical to healthy culture and community. Public projects are able to disseminate a message to a wider demographic than traditional means.

• Displaying a large exhibit — especially an interactive one — in a common area can raise questions and get people interested without the pressure of force and allows people to explore their interest in it on their time.

Responses to Wake the Great Salt Lake art installations and events; survey conducted by Pathway Group.

You can add your own comments about the project by commenting below.

Ellen Weist

Ellen Fagg Weist, a former arts and theater reporter, promotes Utah culture as the public information officer for the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement. She is the editor of a collection of fiction,“The Way We Live: Stories by Utah Women.”