ART BUFF

is a life-sized fiberglass bison hand painted by members of Garden City Arts, previously the Southwest Arts and Humanities Council. Where most other pieces in Garden were commissioned either by the City, or the Arts Center itself, Art Buff is a rare case…

In 2002, Salt Lake City was selected to host the Winter Olympics. In order to promote this, Utah commissioned the decoration of several life size fiberglass buffaloes to be scattered at different locations throughout the Wasatch Front. Among the several people and organizations selected, was Garden City. Garden was chosen for the work Buffalo Jones had done to preserve a herd of bison in Utah’s Antelope Island, which still inhabit there today.

After the fiberglass model had been shipped, choosing the artists to decorate it for the event was the next step. Members of the art center Robin Valenzuela and Carole Geier volunteered and got to work on the sculpture. The two decided on a Kansas theme featuring state symbols, tributes to the indigenous peoples, crops, and several other well known symbols of Kansas.

After the event, the bison was returned to the arts center. Facing a lack of storage, the center decided to move him to the Home of the Buffaloes, Garden City High School. Art Buff is now attached to a moveable base and rolled out onto the field before home football games.