Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Art and Technology venue puts the ‘A’ into STEM

Late last year, it took only a few hours for a social media controversy to erupt that would force the Old Navy clothing company to pull a line of T-shirts and sweatshirts which featured the tag “Young Aspiring Artist” with the word “artist” crossed out and replaced with “astronaut” or “president”. The controversy brought a … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Urban Arts highlights graffiti, fat caps, giant 100/One community mural

Each year at the Utah Arts Festival, visitors to the Urban Arts venue try to guess early on what Mason Fetzer’s 100 Artists / 1 image community mural project will be as artists start painting 100 tiles in the 20-foot installation piece. His strategy worked as visitors unsuccessfully guess what the final image would be. … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Diversity, originality, aesthetic enterprise hallmarks of Artist Marketplace

This year’s Artist Marketplace at the Utah Arts Festival continues a trend of the last seven years as being the strongest in terms of diversity, quality, use of media and originality in aesthetics and technique. The total of 167 includes seven returning awards winners. Of the 583 artists who applied to be in this year’s … Read more

Extra!Extra! Disney’s Broadway production Newsies takes the stage

As part of the Broadway Across America ensemble, Disney’s Newsies has arrived at Capitol Theatre through June 12. Newsies was originally inspired by the 1899 Newsboys Strike in New York City that left its mark on both the city and the industry, while also illustrating the way young, struggling newspaper sellers and the heartlessness of … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: 40 in 117 exhibition celebrates Alice Merrill Horne’s legacy

Alice Merrill Horne, one of the greatest champions of local and public art in Utah’s history, had a passion especially for the output of artists who lived and worked in the state. As a feature by Laura Durham at the Utah Division of Arts and Museum notes: “In her book Devotees and Their Shrines, she … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: City Library is hub of films, hands-on workshops, random performances

A tremendously diverse, logistically solid venue, the City Library will have perhaps its most extensive presence ever at this year’s Utah Arts Festival with the 40 in 117 exhibition featuring work from Utah artists representing the last 40 years from the state’s Alice collection established in 1899, numerous visual arts and musicians’ workshops, performances of … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: 40 Years New

It becomes immediately evident that Utah’s history in arts and culture is as rich in pioneer spirit as when the settlers first descended into the Salt Lake valley nearly 170 years ago. In 1899, at the age of 30, Alice Merrill Horne was elected to the Utah Legislature (the third woman to do so) and … Read more

Forever more: Meat and Potato Theatre’s con-tem-POE-rary pays tribute to enduring American pop culture icon

Few American literary figures have levied a more durable impact on popular culture than Edgar Allan Poe. At 40, Poe, who died in 1849 shortly after he was found in a ditch in Baltimore apparently wearing someone else’s clothes, had experienced a difficult life since his earliest years, battled alcoholism, amassed enormous debt, became a … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s 26th season features plenty of past, present enigmas and mysteries

NOTE: This is Part Two of a series about Plan-B Theatre, which offers a glimpse of the four new productions for the 26th season. For Part One, see here. Enigmas and mysteries – two wrapped with music and a third with the perplexing question of whether a murder actually did happen – will comprise a … Read more

Plan-B’s 25th season gutsy, experimental but most artistically satisfying for audiences

NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series about Plan-B Theatre, which just completed its 25th anniversary. Part 2 will preview the company’s 2016-2017 season. In 25 years, Plan-B Theatre has grown into one of the most ambitious performing arts companies in Utah, regardless of size or genre. The small theatre company – with … Read more