Wake the Great Salt Lake unveils new temporary audio installation by artist Stefan Lesueur
(PRUnderground) September 30th, 2025
The Salt Lake City Arts Council and Wake the Great Salt Lake are proud to announce Watershed Stories, a temporary public art installation by Salt Lake native and Germany-based artist Stefan Lesueur, on view October 13–18, 2025, at the newly reimagined Seven Canyons Refuge in Liberty Park.
The immersive sound installation will transform the historic Seven Canyons Fountain with a network of fourteen speakers, each playing recordings of streams and creeks from across the Salt Lake Valley. Blending the natural sounds of flowing water with voices and stories gathered from the community during a series of public workshops earlier this year, the piece reawakens the fountain — once a beloved site of play for generations of children — with memory, sound, and collective imagination.
“What excites me about Watershed Stories is how it shifts our perspective. Instead of looking at art, we listen — and in listening, we remember,” said Andrew Shaw, the Program Lead for Wake the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake City Arts Council. “By using sound rather than sight, it calls up memory in ways that visual art cannot. The fountain becomes alive again through echoes of water, reminding us of what once was and what we must preserve; memories that tie us to this place and to the Great Salt Lake itself.”
For Lesueur, the work is deeply personal, “This idea has been with me for a long time. I have significant memories as a child playing in the Seven Canyons Fountain that shaped my sense of Salt Lake City and its connection to water. When the opportunity came through Wake the Great Salt Lake, it felt serendipitous: a chance to bring an idea I had carried for years into the place where it first began.” Lesueur added, “At first, the concept was only about the fountain and water itself, but we expanded its scope. By emphasizing the lake and the community, the project invited me to weave in stories and voices from people across the valley. That collaboration transformed the piece into something much richer, where the sound of water mingles with the sound of memory. For me, living far from Utah now, this has been a meaningful way to stay connected — to give back to the place I grew up and to inspire others to recognize their own relationship with water and the Great Salt Lake.”
Watershed Stories runs October 13–17 from 4–7 p.m. each evening, culminating in a full-day presentation on Saturday, October 18, from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to linger, listen, and reflect as the sounds shift and unfold over time — an experience that is at once simple and profoundly layered.
The project builds on the workshops Lesueur led in April 2025 across Sugar House Park, Memory Grove, Liberty Park, and Three Creeks Confluence Park, where participants sketched, recorded, and shared reflections on their relationship to water. Those voices now form an integral part of the final installation.
This presentation also coincides with the opening of the Seven Canyons Refuge, a new vision for the beloved fountain created in collaboration with artist Stephen Goldsmith, further underscoring the role of art in shaping the city’s ecological and cultural future.
Watershed Stories is part of Wake the Great Salt Lake, a citywide temporary public art initiative presented by the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge. Over the past 18 months, WakeGSL has commissioned more than a dozen projects by local and international artists, all aimed at inspiring care, creativity, and action for the future of the Great Salt Lake.
EVENT DETAILS
When: October 13–17, 2025 | 4–7 p.m. daily
Special all-day event: October 18, 2025, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Where: Seven Canyons Refuge (formerly Seven Canyons Fountain), Liberty Park, Salt Lake City (approximately 650 East 1100 South)
Cost: Free and open to the public
About Stefan Lesueur
Stefan Lesueur is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work focuses on participative public art that transforms shared spaces through elemental forces like water and light. A native of Salt Lake City, he grew up playing at the Seven Canyons Fountain, an experience that continues to inform his artistic vision. His installations invite communities to reflect, connect, and communicate through immersive sensory experiences. Stefan currently lives and works in Weimar, Germany, where he also teaches art, while maintaining strong creative ties to his home in Utah. For more information about Stefan, please visit watershedstories.com/about.
About Wake the Great Salt Lake
Wake the Great Salt Lake is a temporary public art project that aims to educate and inspire residents and visitors to understand and prevent the further decline of the Great Salt Lake. The project is a partnership of the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge with additional support from Kem and Carolyn Gardner, the Marcia and John Price Family Foundation, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Zions Bank, Shaelene Gee, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, Lawrence T. Janet T. Dee Foundation, Delta Air Lines, GFiber, and other funders. For more information, please visit wakegsl.org.
About Salt Lake City Arts Council
The Salt Lake City Arts Council promotes, presents, and supports artists, arts organizations, and arts activities in order to further the development of the arts community and to benefit the public by expanding awareness, access, and participation. For more information, please visit saltlakearts.org.
About the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office
Mayor Erin Mendenhall is the mayor of Salt Lake City, the capital and most populous city in Utah, the fastest-growing state in the country. As the hub of the economy, the arts, and sports for the region, Salt Lake City is committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative, and sustainable community. With a focus on quality of life, Salt Lake City continues to be a destination for both residents and visitors alike, having hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and welcoming the world again for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. An elected mayor, who serves as the chief executive, and seven part-time City Council members govern the City. For more information, visit slc.gov.
About the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge
The Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge brings together cities and their leaders, residents, and artists to develop temporary public art projects that address important civic issues in their communities. In 2022, Bloomberg Philanthropies invited U.S. cities with 30,000 residents or more to apply for up to $1 million in funding to create temporary public art projects that address important civic issues and demonstrate an ability to generate public-private collaborations, celebrate creativity and urban identity, and strengthen local economies. More than 150 cities from 40 U.S. states applied. Bloomberg Philanthropies selected eight winning cities, including Atlanta, to develop projects focused on challenges related to climate change, food insecurity, gun violence, homelessness, public health, and revitalization. Since launching in 2014, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge has spurred more than $100 million in economic benefits for participating cities and action across a range of civic issues. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org.
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