Dreamscapes enters final weekend at The Gateway, eyes move to new location

SALT LAKE CITY — As “Illuminate, Utah’s Light Art and Creative Tech Fest” kicked off at The Gateway Friday, the feeling was surreal a few doors down.

“It’s come complete circle,” said Derek Dyer, executive director of the Utah Arts Alliance. “It was a two-day experiment as part of Illuminate to see what it would be like to create an immersive art experience here in Salt Lake City.”

Dyer was standing in the middle of what that two-day experiment became — Dreamscapes, an immersive art “experience” that has now welcomed over 150,000 visitors in its time at The Gateway, including over 60,000 from out of state.

It’s the shared creation of over 100 artists and other workers, who used over 95% repurposed materials to entirely re-imagine what used to be a clothing store.

“Sometimes it’s beautiful, sometimes it’s confusing,” Dyer chuckled. “Each room, you kind of have a different experience or different emotion is what we’re trying to create.”

Many customers are now repeats, including Jasline Williams.

“The artists really worked hard on it, and I really love that because I can see the dedication and all the things that have gone into it,” Williams said.

All dreams eventually come to an end and Dreamscapes’ current location is now scheduled to close after Sunday’s business.

Dyer said, though, it was just part of the process of evolving Dreamscapes into a yet-to-be disclosed new location.

“We’re going to be moving,” Dyer said. “The next version of Dreamscapes is going to be about three-times as big as this space, so excited about that, but it will be completely different.”

Dyer declined to say yet where the new location would be, but noted that he hoped it would be open by spring.

Regardless of what the new Dreamscapes looks like, he hoped it would continue to inspire the community.

“We do believe that art makes the world a better place and we’re trying to actively do that,” Dyer said. “Get back in touch with the magic of life a little bit, I think.”