Why One Resort Is Debuting Skiable Art This Season

Art installations integrated into ski resorts aren’t a completely novel idea—last season, Winter Park showcased the work of Indigenous artists and Vail turned its gondolas into moving art exhibits—but Utah’s Powder Mountain might be the first to unveil works of art that skiers can actively experience. Starting this winter, Pow Mow, loved for its deep stashes of natural snow, old-school vibe, and expansive terrain, has teamed up with renowned artists to rethink how ski areas look, feel, and even sound.

The man behind it all is Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who bought a controlling stake in Powder Mountain in September 2023. Within months the ski area started doing things differently—in some cases, dramatically.

It started with a December 2023 announcement that Powder would move to the semi-private resort model, where those who own on-mountain real estate and pay a hefty membership fee get access to a private portion of the mountain. They also announced plans to expand lift access into part of the mountain already owned by Powder and acquired an additional 2,390 acres in March 2024, bringing their terrain total to 12,850 skiable acres, some of which is served by a free snowcat operation.

The move made the largest ski area in North America even bigger. (For reference, Whistler Blackcomb, the second largest, has 8,171 skiable acres and Park City Mountain has 7,300.) However, most of those 12,850 acres will be private.

In addition to rethinking the traditional ski area model—and expanding dramatically—Powder announced that they’re completely rethinking the way ski areas could look and feel by asking artists to reimagine the concept of a ski resort altogether. A newly established nonprofit, Powder Art Foundation, is teaming up with artists to create an on-mountain, open-air museum. The initiative will establish art all over the mountain, many of which will be skiable.

“Fusing art and development isn’t necessarily a new idea, but the way we’re doing it is,” said Alex Zhang, the chief creative officer at Powder Mountain, told SKI. “Integrating art into the landscape and infrastructure allows artists to react to the scale, site, and environment, and to also have a seat at the table of development and construction. Whether it’s new ski lifts, bridges, towers, tunnels—the idea of artists contributing to and manipulating infrastructure into objects is really interesting to us.”

Powder’s Sun Tunnel, which used to be a simple magic carpet inside a clear tube is reimagined by artists Gerard & Kelly. Their take on the surface lift included the addition of rainbow stripes on the tube so skiers are treated to a swirling colored light show as they ride up the carpet.

“Relay (Powder Mountain) is a site-specific installation in which the glass segments of the mountain’s surface lift are clad with a rainbow pattern of filters, creating a spiraling colored light that magically pulls the skier up the hill,” artists Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly shared with SKI. “The ride takes about 90 seconds and you have the experience of moving through a kaleidoscope with breaks at which you can look out through the glass and discover the landscape anew. The piece is constantly changing depending on the weather, the sunlight, the time of day.”

The magic carpet is one of the first skiable art installations on Powder, but there are many more to come. One piece that the resort is particularly excited about is artist EJ Hill’s reimagining of the Timberline replacement lift and the new Lightning Ridge lift, which are both on the public side of the resort and will be open this winter.

“We are working on using elements of reclaimed carousel horses and roller coaster cars to operate as a sculptural element on the lift system, with the lift becoming a kind of inverted pedestal for an alpine pegasus,” said artist EJ Hill in an interview with The New York Times. “Something to help elevate, quite literally, these bygone beings and vehicles. Give them a new life and renewed purpose.”

Visual-based interactive art installations are one thing, but artist Susan Philipsz’s “We’ll All Go Together takes things to another level. Using speakers mounted in the trees, this installation harnesses the power and intimacy of the raw human voice bellowing out into nature to create a sense of intimacy.

Additional artists who are collaborating with Powder to reimagine what a ski area could look, feel, and sound like include Calif.-based James Turrell, known for art installations that play with space and light, and  N.Y.-based Jenny Holzer, whose illuminated electronic displays have been seen in Times Square and the Guggenheim Museum.

Most, if not all, of the land art and sculptures will be on the public side of the resort. Many will be on view for the coming 2024-’25 ski season, with a grand opening of the open-air museum slated for 2026. You can also check out the sculptures by foot or by bike in the summer and fall. Read more about the artists and the overall plans here.