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Photo by: Sarah Dishong
Shauna Farnell, a writer for The Denver Post, highlighted Grand Junction in the article "3 places to stroll in the fresh Colorado air and experience art sanctuaries".
"Downtown Grand Junction has always been a pleasant place to stroll, with its historic Western buildings, buzzy restaurant patios, and independently owned boutique shops. Still, the most aesthetically fascinating downtown features sit on the corners.
Celebrating 40 years back in the 1980s, Grand Junction’s Art on the Corner became America’s first outdoor sculpture program.
Over the years, the program has displayed nearly 900 original sculptures from 285 artists. The 128 permanent pieces, known as the lasting gems, are located downtown, surrounding the Mesa County Central Library, the Art Center of Western Colorado, the Grand Junction Visitors Center, and within the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens.
The artist’s subject matter and creativity run the gamut, ranging from tributes to area history and recreation–like a bus-sized mountain bike—to a handful of equine-themed pieces.
Fruita artist Jeff Bates’ imaginative “Self Reflection,” featuring the large head and neck of a horse made of chains and various recycled steel pieces from ranch and farm equipment, recently won second place in Art on the Corner’s annual exhibition.
The city adds new sculptures annually, all by Colorado artists, each with a story.
Colorful murals also abound in Grand Junction, significantly brightening otherwise drab areas of town. The aRT program, for example, Art on the Riverfront Trail, transforms “bleak underpasses” along the 28-mile Riverfront Trail into vibrant murals depicting desert landscapes, running horses, rock formations, and Colorado wildlife.
The annually changing throng of mural artists also ensures that the concrete wall of the Downtown Parking Garage is filled with dreamy, eye-catching scenes.
Even Grand Junction’s traffic signals feature hand-painted works of art.
Lastly, if you can peer into the bowls of local skateparks, you will see that they, too, are filled with mesmerizing murals. A recently completed piece at Westlake Skate Park transformed the expansive concrete pool into a landscape reminiscent of the nearby Colorado National Monument, with vibrant orange rock waves and cliffs, plus a large bull skull as its centerpiece.
Check out Grand Junction’s interactive art map to locate and learn about artwork around town, including along the Riverfront Trail and a few random, unexpected places."
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