Image: Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts will partner with Powder Art Foundation to launch the first Land Art Week, a three-day program of talks, tours and site visits set for October 1-3, 2026. The museum says the event will celebrate Utah’s landscape and its legacy of Land art, with activities taking place across multiple sites including Powder Mountain and UMFA galleries.
Announced in the museum’s August newsletter and on its website, Land Art Week is presented by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and Powder Art Foundation. The program is described as an invitation to explore iconic artworks, meet artists working in the field today and experience art in dialogue with place. The UMFA also frames the event as a way to connect conversations with artists and scholars to guided exploration of Land art sites and hands-on experiences across Utah’s landscape.
The museum’s site situates the new program within a broader history of artistic responses to Utah and the American West, pointing to ancient petroglyphs, early photography and the state’s 1970s Land art landmarks. Those landmarks include Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ and Nancy Holt’s ‘Sun Tunnels’, which the museum says continue to inspire artists today. Powder Art Foundation is identified as part of that continuing legacy through its open-air museum at Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah.
The three-day schedule opens on Thursday, October 1, with ‘Land Art Week Artist Talk: Lita Albuquerque’ at 6 pm. The UMFA says the talk will address questions including what Land art is and why Utah is such an important destination for artists and art lovers to experience and create it. The event listing adds that visitors will also explore art in the UMFA galleries inspired by Utah’s landscape.
On Friday, October 2, the program continues with the ‘Powder Art Foundation Fall Open House’ from 11 am to 3 pm. According to the museum, the open house will offer lift-accessed art walks and self-guided discovery of newly installed artworks across Powder Mountain, while introducing visitors to the foundation’s evolving outdoor sculpture program in the Wasatch Mountains.
The final day, Saturday, October 3, centers on the ‘Spiral Jetty Community Meet-up’ from 1 pm to 4 pm at Rozel Point. The UMFA describes the outing as a day of art and science at the Great Salt Lake, inviting members, families, teachers and students of all ages to explore Robert Smithson’s monumental earthwork ‘Spiral Jetty’, listen to music, create art and learn about the environment of the lake.
The museum’s event page also notes that Land Art Week is intended to be explored in a self-guided way as well as through scheduled programming. It points visitors to the STQRY Guide app for the ‘Spiral Jetty’ and ‘Sun Tunnels’ self-guides, and says Family Backpacks for those sites are available for checkout at the UMFA, the Salt Lake City Library and the Brigham City Museum.
