For most, art acts as a pathway to a new way of thinking, inspiration, understanding, and self-discovery. Visual, auditory, and even sensory art can stimulate audiences enough to transport them to a different place, shepherding them into unexplored areas of their mind. Now, imagine a labyrinth of art especially designed to create this immersive, transformative, and all-encapsulating experience, designed by a cornucopia of local artists, that contains a storyline posing you as the hero within this dreamland.
Dreamscapes, a project by nonprofit Utah Arts Alliance (UAA), has created such a reality. In their third and newest version of the Dreamscapes art installation, the UAA has moved the project from The Gateway to the Shops at South Town. “We are always looking for opportunities to fill gaps within our arts community,” Derek Dyer, Executive Director of the UAA and Creative Director of Dreamscapes says. “We found that there is a new business model that could work where artists are able to put in an installation that is not just for a weekend. Where the installation could be a longer, more ongoing thing.”
Dreamscapes' History
Inspired by this concept, Dyer dove into his research and met with leadership of other large-scale and interactive, immersive art experiences such as Meow Wolf in Las Vegas and TeamLab in Japan. With his research and inspiration in tow, Dyer set out to test this new approach to art during the 2018 Illuminate event (a UAA light show) at the Urban Arts Gallery. “We decided to do this two-day pop-up immersive arts space and call it Dreamscapes.” Dyer says. “We had a week to build it out. It was next to the Urban Arts Gallery. We had about 7,000 people who came through in those two days.” Dreamscapes occupied that space for another year before moving into a larger space at The Gateway from Feb. 2021 to Nov. 2021.
An Interactive Immersive Art Experience
Today, Dreamscapes and the UAA are preparing to open an entirely new approach to this interactive immersive art experience. Instead of creating a maze of unique (but seemingly unrelated) vignettes, Dyer and his team worked along with local artists to build a narrative for their audience. This puts the visitor in the driver’s seat through “choose your own adventure” prompts and curated characters that serve as guides throughout the experience. Participants will meet “Dreamies” like Magus or Faellus, members of “Happyton,” the land that visitors will witness the downfall and resurgence of through their journey. As the hero, the visitor and their evolution and growth will occur alongside Happyton’s, all culminating to reveal a new, reimagined version of themselves and Happyton in the end.
Environmentally Sustainable Art
The venture is materially sustainable, too. Dreamscapes is fully built by recycled, donated, and upcycled materials, giving the objects that create Dreamscapes a reimagined life as well. Dreamscapes partners with organizations such as Salt Lake County, Salt Palace Convention Center, 3form, and Mountain America Expo Center in order to source their materials. “You get a lot of these conferences that come through town that build large props, and at the end of the conference they don’t have any use for it,” Dyer says. UAA connected with the county in order to obtain useful materials that would have otherwise been trashed in a landfill. In that vein, they also have a relationship with the landfill for all the paint that’s sent to be recycled, saving all the resources it would take to have it be recycled. “I would say we save tens of thousands of tons of materials,” Dyer says. In actuality, Dreamscapes has salvaged 68,112 pounds of material from Salt Palace and Mountain America Expo Center which is equivalent to 252,532 pounds of carbon saved, 268,584 car miles off the road, and 3,154 trees planted over 10 years.
Accessible to All
Each detail of Dreamscapes is intended to be accessible to all abilities. “The floor plan is really open and wide so that wheelchairs, strollers or personal motorized vehicles can get around the space really easily,” Dyer says. Video screens have prompts that include QR codes so that visitors can choose the format that works best for them, whether that is audio or video. “That’s been a big priority to us to get the Breaking Barriers Disability Training and have members from different communities offer tips and tricks to make the space as accessible as possible,” Dyer says.
The Bizarre Bazaar Arts Boutique
While the 25,000-square-foot labyrinth could seem like the main draw to this new iteration of Dreamscapes, it is only a portion of their new home. Bizarre Bazaar, an arts boutique placed in the lobby of Dreamscapes offers a large collection of different artworks from local artists. In line with the UAA’s mission to create space for artists of all backgrounds and all forms, the Bizarre Bazaar aims to further local artists’ exposure and opportunity through their platform.
Grand Re-opening July 29th
As Dyer and his team prepare for their grand re-opening on Friday, July 29th, 2022, they urge the public to make time to see the installation while they still can. “We might only be here for a year or two and might have to move on. So I encourage people to come see it now since it might not be around forever,” Dyer says. “We’re excited to just open. We hope to stay here as long as we can.”
How to get tickets for Dreamscapes
To experience Dreamscapes, visit dreamscapes.art to purchase tickets that range from $14.99–$19.99. The Bizarre Bazaar is open to the public free of charge Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.– 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.–9 p.m., and Sunday Noon–6 p.m.
To combine your trip to Dreamscapes with up to 16 other Salt Lake attractions and save to 60%+ on admissions, check out the Salt Lake Connect Attractions Pass.