Giant mural tells story of Santa Clara settlement

SANTA CLARA, Washington County — Earlier this month, artist Julie Rogers rolled out a canvas, 27 feet wide by 7 feet tall, at the Santa Clara Town Hall.

The sketched-out mural was placed on a wall in the town hall, the beginning of what will be an onsite paint job that will be completed in April.

Kathleen Nielson, spokeswoman for Santa Clara City, said the concept city officials wanted behind the painting was the immigration of the Swiss to Santa Clara.

"They're (Swiss) so deeply rooted here that we needed to have some memorialization of that event," she said.

Rogers described the mural from left to right as it was being smoothed on the wall. At the beginning is the immigrants in their homeland of Switzerland. It merges into them waiting for the boat with all their luggage, then continues on to the trek across the West.

"What I wanted you to really feel was when they immigrated from their beautiful land in Switzerland to Santa Clara — going into a desert and turning it into a prosperous land," Rogers said.

The mural ends with the Hafen home, a historical site in Santa Clara.

Jane Juber, Rogers' agent and owner of two local art galleries, said last year officials from Santa Clara wanted her opinion on how to make Santa Clara an art destination city.

"I told them to feature Utah artists," she said.

Last May, Santa Clara put on the New Visions Art Show, which featured 18 Utah artists, including Rogers, known nationally and internationally. A committee was formed to pick which artist would paint the mural.

Juber said it was whittled down to three finalists who submitted scale versions of their paintings.

"They (the committee) chose Julie because of her amazing ability to bring the past experiences and people to life," she said.

Nielson agreed.

"We liked all of the paintings but hers (Rogers') had an emotion attached to it," she said. "Any artist would've done a great job but hers just carried the emotion."

What also makes this mural special for the city is Rogers has decided to paint it onsite.

"Today murals are painted in studios, but Julie called me and told me she wanted the people of Santa Clara to feel connected to this piece and watch it grow," Nielson said. "She (Rogers) feels inspired and I feel the entire project came together like it was supposed to be."

Rogers said she did the undercoating of the painting at Orderville High School.