“Big as them and twice as smart.” In Jenifer Nii’s Ruff!, a short play (30 minutes) about two dogs in a shelter which is geared toward children in K-3, Axel and Buddy become friends, sharing experiences that offer plenty of lessons about bullying, identity, self-esteem and confidence, and the challenge of stepping forward without fear. … Read more
Whatever their differences in family, religion, school interests, or even musical tastes, three Utah teens have come together in an extraordinarily rewarding and productive way in Spy Hop Productions’ musicology program. The only students who have completed one of Spy Hop’s rigorous year-long programs in music and media arts, the three teens who comprise the … Read more
A team of nine teenagers played a large role in crafting the vision for what will be the Intermountain West’s first media arts and film festival exclusively for teens. The TiltShift Festival highlights a slate of five feature-length films selected by nine teen coordinators, along with nearly 40 short films submitted by students between the … Read more
For math, science economics and more recently art history, the Khan Academy changed the rules by flipping the classroom and offering hundreds of videos online to students in more than 40 languages. Something similar and just as exciting is happening in music education, an area that has been especially vulnerable to budget cutting by school … Read more
As memorable as the premieres of the PitchNic films are for the Spy Hop Productions students each year, what becomes the most satisfying bonus for their creative efforts is the opportunity to see their new short films screen at film festivals across the country. More than 90 percent of the PitchNic films produced in the … Read more
The breeze has a bit of a crispness to it, the sun sets a little sooner each day, and the farmers’ markets are brimming with fresh produce. Yep, it’s officially fall. And that means one thing and one thing only: it’s football season! For those of us dwelling in Salt Lake City, our closest contact … Read more
The Natural History Museum of Utah’s newest exhibit, The Horse, will be galloping around the University of Utah foothills through January 4, 2015. The exhibit is meant to explore the enduring bond between humans and horses across cultures and throughout time, with much of it on loan from the American Museum of Natural History in … Read more
It’s still August but you can feel fall in the air. Usually it’s in the morning when the lows have moved into the 60s and there seems to actually be dew on the grass. Though, in this dry climate it’s probably just unevaporated moisture from the night-running sprinklers. This change in seasons means one thing; … Read more
NOTE: This preview of the Literary Arts venue for this year’s Utah Arts Festival is written by Amy Childress, one of the well-connected young individuals in Salt Lake City’s literary arts scene. Since Melissa Bond organized the Big Mouth Stage in 1995, the Literary Arts program at the Utah Arts Festival has expanded into a venue of … Read more
Not just a re-engineered concept of a traditional do-it-yourself culture of arts and craft, the ‘maker’ movement has catapulted to new ways of seeing how art equals technology, even in lifting mundane consumer products to aesthetically mesmerizing possibilities. Thanks to members of Salt Lake City’s EnjiGo Makerspace Foundation, this year’s Utah Arts Festival’s patrons will … Read more