The center West Valley City
Four free galleries, and an Olmec head from Mexico
The Utah Cultural Celebration Center
This is West Valley City's free arts hall, at 1355 West 3100 South on the east side of town. Four galleries inside cost nothing to walk into, the parking is free, and an eight ton basalt Olmec head that Mexico sent as a gift stands on the lawn outside. Here is what to see, when it is open, and how to get there.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
The Utah Cultural Celebration Center is a free arts hall the city owns, at 1355 West 3100 South on the east side of West Valley City. Four galleries inside are free to walk into, parking is free, and it is open Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday. On the lawn outside stands an eight ton basalt Olmec head that Mexico sent as a gift, and you can see it any hour, even when the doors are locked.
It opened in 2003 as a kind of civic hall for the arts, not a museum with a permanent collection and not a theater with a set season. Behind the galleries are a Great Hall of more than 10,000 square feet, sixteen breakout rooms, an outdoor stage and a broad festival field, which is why the building can be quietly showing art on a Tuesday and running a concert for a few thousand people that weekend.
The center in numbers
2003
the year the hall opened
74,000
square feet in the Arts and Heritage Hall
4
galleries inside, all of them free to enter
16
breakout rooms, plus a Great Hall over 10,000 square feet
Buying or selling in West Valley City?
The object outside
Eight tons of basalt that arrived from Veracruz in 2004
One thing on these grounds would be a destination anywhere in the country, and it stands outdoors where anyone can walk up to it at any hour. It is easy to drive right past, because nothing about it is signposted.
It is a replica of Colossal Olmec Head number 8, one of the giant basalt heads carved at San Lorenzo in southern Mexico roughly three thousand years ago. It stands about seven feet tall, it is cut from basalt, the same volcanic rock as the original, and it weighs around eight tons. The Mexican state of Veracruz gave it to West Valley City, and it was unveiled on 23 May 2004 with fireworks. It has stood on the center's grounds ever since.
What makes it more than a large ornament is how few there are. Only one replica was ever made of each colossal head found so far, and only three of those stand in the United States. So this is not one of many copies making the rounds of city plazas. It is one of a very small set, sitting on the grass outside a public hall on 3100 South, and almost nobody outside this city knows it is here.
In practice that means the grounds are worth a stop even on a Sunday, when the building is locked. The head is outdoors rather than inside a gallery, the parking is free, and standing in front of a three thousand year old design cut from the right stone takes about as long as you want it to. It is the most photographed thing in West Valley City that does not have a stage attached to it.
Three of these replicas exist in the country, and one of them stands on the grass beside a parking lot on 3100 South.
Inside the building
Four galleries, no admission charge, and a lineup that keeps changing
The exhibition space is split into four named galleries that run different shows at the same time, which is why the building can look completely different two months apart. All four are free, and they change on their own schedule rather than a seasonal one.
The Pilar Pobil Celebration Gallery is the main room, named for the late Pilar Pobil, a Spanish born painter who made her home in Utah. It carries the larger shows, including work that tours in from elsewhere, so it is the gallery most worth checking before a trip. The Bridge, Plaza and Crescent galleries fill out the rest of the building with shorter runs: community and specialist exhibitions, illustration and design, photography, and work submitted by local artists, much of it for sale at plain prices.
Because four rooms turn over on four different schedules, there is no single season to catch. One stretch the halls might hold a statewide sculpture show and a case of award winning model kits; a couple of months later, a costume and photography exhibition and a showcase of convention artists. If you are driving for a particular show, check what is hanging first, because it may already have come down.
This is a working hall with an event calendar, not a museum with fixed hours. Because the rooms rent out, a private booking can change what is open on a given day even inside the posted hours, and a festival on the grounds changes where you park. That is the trade for a free venue: the galleries stay open to the public while the building is also working for somebody else. A two minute call to 801-965-5100 before a long drive settles it.
The calendar
A civic calendar that moves outdoors for the summer
The center runs its own calendar rather than hosting someone else's, and most of it is free. The individual dates shift from year to year, so treat these as the regular strands rather than a fixed schedule.
The one most people know is SpringFest, the city's free Earth Day celebration, held on these grounds in the spring with music, food, crafts and a run of city and community booths. Through the warm months the program moves outdoors for WorldStage, a concert series on the campus stage, and Community First Fridays fill a recurring evening slot across the year.
Around those sit the smaller repeating strands: ARTrageous, a Plein Air Riverfest tied to the river alongside the campus, a Day of the Dead celebration in the fall, and co-lab, a program that hands the space to outside community groups for their own events. Almost all of it is free to attend. The center posts a current calendar, so it is worth a look before you plan a trip around any single date.
If you are thinking of renting a room here, start earlier than you would guess. The Great Hall, the sixteen breakout rooms and the outdoor spaces are all available to hire, and popular dates book up months ahead. Rates, room sizes and the length of a booking are set by the center, so a rental conversation starts with a call to 801-965-5100, and the sooner the better.
On the same side of the city
Three more stops in the eastern half, within a few minutes
This campus sits in the part of the city that has both the rail line and the river in it, and three of the other things worth doing here are close enough to pair with it on the same morning.
The boundary
The river and its trailhead
A dock park, a platform named for the trail, and the ford this whole city grew from.
The river pageA few minutes west
The Maverik Center
The city's own arena, free to park at, with a light rail platform immediately beside it.
The arenaAcross the freeway
Decker Lake and its loop
A paved mile and a third around thirty acres of water, with 184 bird species recorded on it.
The ranked listThe next center north
Downtown Salt Lake
What the nearest big cultural center holds, a city eleven miles and one rail line to the north.
Read the guideKeep reading
More of West Valley City on The Local
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
An Olympic arena, an eight ton stone head, and a lake a freeway excavation left behind.
Read the guideThe arena
The Maverik Center
Olympic ice in 2002, figure skating in 2034, and a hockey team that left in April 2026.
Read the guideThe big outdoor stage
Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
The state's largest outdoor stage, renamed in 2024, with free parking and a clear bag policy.
Read the guideThe river
The Jordan River crossing
A rail platform named for a trail, a dock park beside it, and the ford the city began at.
Read the guideMoving here
Utah's second largest city
Second largest in Utah, forty six years old, and still assembling a downtown on purpose.
Read the guideThe companion
West Valley City, the whole picture
The arena, the amphitheater, the free galleries, the river crossing and the address, together.
Read the pageQuick answers
The center, answered
Yes. All four galleries are free to walk into, there is no ticket desk and nothing to book, and parking on site is free too. Most of the events on the calendar are free as well, including the city's spring Earth Day celebration. The one thing that costs money here is renting a room: the Great Hall, the breakout rooms and the outdoor spaces are all available to hire at rates the center sets.
The building is open Monday through Thursday from 8am to 6pm, and Friday and Saturday from 9am to 4pm, and it is closed on Sunday. Gallery hours can run a little shorter than the building's, so if you are driving a long way for a specific show, call 801-965-5100 first. It is a working civic building with an event calendar, so a private booking can also change what is open on a given day.
Because the Mexican state of Veracruz gave the city one. It is a replica of Colossal Olmec Head number 8 from San Lorenzo, carved from basalt, the same volcanic rock as the roughly three thousand year old original, and it stands about seven feet tall and weighs around eight tons. It was unveiled on 23 May 2004 with fireworks, and it has stood on the center's grounds ever since.
Three, and one of them is here. Only a single replica was made of each colossal head found so far, so these are not copies turned out in quantity for city plazas. Each one is one of a kind, and only three stand in this country, which is why a large stone head on the grass beside a parking lot on 3100 South is worth stopping for.
The Arts and Heritage Hall is about 74,000 square feet, including a Great Hall of more than 10,000 square feet and sixteen breakout rooms, plus an outdoor amphitheater that seats somewhere between 1,200 and 2,000 people. Behind the building is a broad festival field of about 28 acres, part of which the city also counts as a small neighborhood park.
Four. The Pilar Pobil Celebration Gallery is the main room, named for the late Spanish born painter who made her home in Utah, and it carries the larger shows, including touring work. The Bridge, Plaza and Crescent galleries run shorter community and specialist exhibitions alongside it, which is why the building can look completely different two months apart. All four are free, and they change on their own schedule rather than a seasonal one.
The center runs its own calendar rather than hosting someone else's. Regular strands include SpringFest, the city's free Earth Day celebration; the WorldStage outdoor concert series through the summer; Community First Fridays; ARTrageous; a Plein Air Riverfest; a Day of the Dead celebration; and co-lab, a program that hands the space to outside community groups. The individual dates move from year to year, so check the current calendar before you go.
Yes, and it is one of the busier event venues on this side of the valley. The Great Hall, the sixteen breakout rooms and the outdoor spaces are all available to hire, and popular dates book up months ahead. Rates, room sizes and the length of a booking are set by the center, so a rental conversation starts with a call to 801-965-5100, and it pays to start it early.
It sits at 1355 West 3100 South on the east side of West Valley City, with its own free parking lot. UTA bus routes 35 and 217 pass nearby, and the TRAX Green Line's Redwood Junction station is under a mile away, which makes it one of the easier cultural stops in the city to reach without a car. It is also close to the Jordan River trail on the city's eastern edge, so it pairs well with a walk.
A free hall with four galleries in it is a quieter kind of draw than an arena, and it still counts
A building that costs nothing to walk into, keeps a calendar six days a week and has a three thousand year old design carved in basalt on the lawn is the sort of thing that never shows up in a listing photo, yet it shapes what living a few streets away feels like. Tell me which part of West Valley City you are weighing, and I will connect you with a Salt Lake County partner agent I trust who knows the east side well, and stay on the file to help with the buying and the financing.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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