SALT LAKE CITY — A pink phone booth has been showing up around Salt Lake City, encouraging callers to leave a message of hope for Great Salt Lake.
The interactive art pop-up is called the Great Salt Lake Hopeline. It was created by Han Calder, Nick Carpenter and Ben Doxey in an effort to change the messaging around the lake.
“A lot of the messages around the Great Salt Lake are doom and gloom,” Calder said. “… We thought, if someone is sick, you can give them hope and hopefully that can help them get better by just inspiring them.”
Calder said the goal is that hope will translate into action.
The Great Salt Lake Hopeline has traveled to local businesses, rallies and other events to spread the message of hope.
Visitors to the pink phone booth can leave a message to Great Salt Lake, listen to the sounds of the lake or listen to messages other people have left.
“I think I would just want the lake to know how unique and special it is and how vital and important it is. I think a big part of our project is the lake is an active participant. She is listening to us and we want to involve her in our whole project,” Calder said.
The Hopeline can also be reached online or by calling (979) GSL-HOPE. The Hopeline also has a podcast to share the voicemails people have left.
“A big part of what we’re trying to do is to lift and raise community voices,” Calder said.
‘Where does art come into an issue like this?’
The Hopeline was created through the Wake the Great Salt Lake project.
Andrew Shaw, Wake the Great Salt Lake program lead from the Salt Lake City Arts Council, said the project came through a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant.
“They ask cities to use temporary public art to address pressing civic issues. And so, in our grant application, we got to choose what our pressing civic issue was, and we chose the decline of the Great Salt Lake.”
Salt Lake City was one of eight cities given the $1 million grant. Shaw said it was the largest grant the SLC Arts Council had ever received.
The Great Salt Lake Hopeline is one of 12 local installations curated by the Wake the Great Salt Lake project.
“You’ll start to continue to see more of these Great Salt Lake-related art projects from local artists pop up throughout the rest of the year,” Shaw said.
The project will also commission an “internationally renowned” artist to come to Salt Lake City and create a piece to educate the world at large.
“A big focus of us and what we’re doing with Wake the Great Salt Lake (that) we’ve thought a lot and talked with our artists a lot about (is) where does art come into an issue like this? How do we add to the conversation?”
Shaw said artists bring hope and can create unity over difficult issues.
“People can really become very fatigued about issues like this and art comes in and gives you a different way of looking at it, gives you a way of envisioning a hopeful future. And I think that’s something that the Hopeline is doing just so well.”
Jessica Lowell contributed to this story.
