Salt Lake’s Ballpark community lost its anchor. These 10 new murals highlight how it’s still ‘unified’

As a Ballpark resident, Alli VanKleeck jumped at the opportunity when she heard Salt Lake City wanted artists to paint new murals all across her neighborhood.

She and Caroline Kane, who make up the mural artist group Smock and Roll, were selected and soon paired with a local business and worked to design a piece that tells a story of Ballpark’s baseball roots and beyond.

Their piece and nine others emerged over the past few months, which city officials and neighborhood leaders celebrated with a get-together with all the artists Thursday night.

“The Ballpark mural program has turned the Ballpark neighborhood into an open-air gallery,” said Renato Olmedo-González, public art program manager for the Salt Lake City Arts Council, in a packed room at Big Willies, a Ballpark sports bar now spo