When Reed Hastings first visited Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley a few decades back, his perspective on art changed. The outdoor sculpture park and its spiritual cousin Desert X were top of mind when the billionaire co-founder of Netflix recently purchased Powder Mountain, a picturesque ski resort on the slopes of Eden, UT, that he plans to transform into a multi-season destination for site-specific art with the help of firms Reed Hilderbrand and Johnston Marklee. Unlike a traditional sculpture garden with militantly neat hedgerows and babbling birdbaths, the artworks at Powder Mountain will be scattered across 12,000 acres of skiable terrain that’s open to the public. Hastings, an avid skier, is establishing a nonprofit to own the works, which will be overseen by Alex Zhang and selected by former LACMA curator Matthew Thompson.
The program kicks off this season with two pieces by Gerard & Kelly and Susan Philipsz, but more will be installed over the winter. Those include a commission by EJ Hill, who, fresh off installing a roller coaster inside MASS MoCA, plans to create site-specific work for two of the mountain’s new ski lifts. Pieces by Arthur Jafa, Davina Semo, and Raven Halfmoon are also on the books. As are a few extant installations like James Turrell’s walk-in light room Ganzfeld Apani (2011), stone engravings by Jenny Holzer, and a sculpture by Utah native Paul McCarthy. The Holt/Smithson Foundation also plans to execute a permanent ‘80s-era work by the late Nancy Holt, whose legacy of impactful land art out West—Utah is home to her Sun Tunnels (1976) and her husband Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970)—inspired Powder Mountain’s curatorial ethos.
For those interested in staying beyond ski season, Hastings also plans to open an alpine residential community called Powder Haven that comes with perks like private lift access and ski homes. “At Powder, we want every experience—from the ski resort to the residential community to the outdoor art museum—to be intentional, and the integration of art into the mountain is a manifestation of that consideration,” Hastings says. “We aim to transform Powder into a multi-season destination that blends recreation, art, and meaningful connection for our entire community.”
