Debate aside, giant whale makes a splash as Salt Lake City neighborhood mascot

SALT LAKE CITY — When Salt Lake City Councilman Darin Mano canvassed homes by the 9th and 9th district leading up to last year's elections, he tried to avoid seemingly the biggest question sweeping the neighborhood at the time.

Team Gnome or Team Whale?

Team Gnome formed with the installation of a roundabout at the intersection of 900 South, 1100 East and Gilmer Drive in 2019. Residents filled in a mulchy space at the center with garden gnomes to spruce it up a little. Team Whale came out victorious, however, when city art leaders picked a 23-foot tall, 40-foot wide whale sculpture dubbed "Out of the Blue" to fill in that empty space.

And as a crowd of over 100 hundred residents gathered by a coffee shop parking lot to "whalecome" the large sculpture Monday evening, Mano admits he held a strong stance the entire time.

"I feel safe enough here to tell you all that I've been Team Whale all along," he told a crowd.

Moments later, perhaps as a peace offering from the other side, two gnomes held up the red ribbon that residents and city leaders cut to celebrate the arrival of the neighborhood's interesting — and controversial — new resident.

Why a whale?

The whale's origin dates well before the roundabout, in a way. For Stephen Kesler, a whale is how he'd describe how he saw the district when he was a teen coming into Midvale for the first time. It was a completely different experience, seeing a spattering of hip businesses in a cozy neighborhood.

It was like seeing a whale in the middle of a desert.

"It was unexpected for me," he said, recalling his initial reaction to the area. "I was surprised by the culture, the art, the coffee shop, the vegetarian shop — it seemed so progressive. It was like something I had never seen before in the valley. It was out of the blue."

So when the Utah artist saw a request for art designs for the neighborhood's new roundabout, he went back to his original feeling about the area to help visually describe it. That idea also matched what neighborhood leaders wanted out of a sculpture when the Salt Lake City Arts Council first approached them about a sculpture in 2019.

Jason Stevenson, the co-chair of the East Liberty Park Community Organization, said a survey of over 100 neighborhood residents provided a trove of information, pinpointing the direction of the project. The whale and a mural on it designed by artist Mike Murdock ultimately fit the types of representation residents wanted.

He also views it as the perfect topping for the roundabout it sits on.

"(The roundabout) adds to the interestingness of this neighborhood, and a whale adds an exclamation point to that. ... I think you're always just going to find and see and do something interesting when you come to this neighborhood," he said. "It can be the people you meet, it can be the restaurants and shops you go into or it can just be a beautiful sunset that you encounter as you walk down 9th South."

The whale sculpture cost a little over $100,000 and the mural, another $7,500 through the city's Percent for Art ordinance that allocates 1% of eligible city project funds to commission artists for site-specific artwork, according to the Salt Lake City Arts Council.

A whale of a debate

There's a funny thing about art, though. It's always open to plenty of interpretations. Kesler figured it would cause some ripples when the city selected it; however, he wasn't prepared for the controversies that came.

It started with the Team Whale and Team Gnome debates on social media last year, which have only intensified since it was installed earlier this month.

And while there were several dozen people at Monday's event, on top of the countless number of people who have stopped by to snag a photo of the sculpture, at least one resident penned an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune over the weekend, blasting it as a project that "lacks creativity, a good design sense, proper placement and overall interest." Some residents have placed messages in the form of gnomes protesting against the whale over the past few months.

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall joked that even her own mother repeatedly asks why there's a giant whale now in the middle of the city.

There is also an argument to be made about whales in Salt Lake City. First, there's a folklore of whales living in the Great Salt Lake that dates all the way back to the 1800s, the city was once submerged within a giant inland sea that was Lake Bonneville and there's a children's board game that uses a whale to symbolize Salt Lake City for some reason.

But ultimately, whether people like the whale or not, the mayor contends the reactions from the first week show that the whale is serving its purpose as the new symbol of the unique neighborhood.

"(Art) can activate our imagination and it can even cause us to ask questions of ourselves," she explained. "That's the beauty of public art. (It's) not necessarily the most comforting thing you might see in your day but something that causes you to remember and feel a place."

A community mascot

Stevenson says he's aware there are probably residents still unsure about the whale or making up their mind on it, but he's confident that they will eventually come around to the idea. The next process — with the whale in place — is to find a name for it.

It also holds interesting information about the area that future generations may eventually stumble upon. Mano pointed out that there's a time capsule hidden within the whale, containing artifacts from second and third graders who attend nearby Bennion Elementary School.

Community leaders expect it to be a long-term fixture telling the story of the community.

"You need something that's immediately recognizable and fun, and you don't have to guess about what it is," Stevenson asserts. "I think the whale does just that. You can tell what it is, you know what it is and it brings a smile to your face as you go by."

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