Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Marc Santos’ The Spirit of Dance photographic exhibition among visual arts highlights presented at The City Library

Of all the performing arts genres, dance is the most intimidating when it comes to photographs that truly represent the individual’s artistic expression of skilled movement. Dance is an ethereal art, even in its growing story-telling power which has dominated 21st century works. Accomplished dancers create marvelous geometric spaces of lines, angles, dimensions and planes … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Record-setting Artist Marketplace evokes stories, memories, emotions, unique appeal to audiences, potential buyers

The 175 artists who comprise the Artist Marketplace for the 42nd annual Utah Arts Festival came from the largest pool of applicants in the event’s history: 649. And an expert jury, led by coordinators Matt Jacobson and his assistant Sarah Baker Taylor, recommended artists not only on the basis of technical considerations such as details … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Making friends, finding fresh twists in every festival venue

Before gates open on June 21 for the 42nd Utah Arts Festival, Karen Major, who worked as a paralegal for many years, already will have created a calendar of activities, performances, films and literary events that she and her husband, Steve Sayer, who retired after working as an executive with the Electrolux group, will hang … Read more

Salt Lake City Public Library’s Super Summer Challenge program, Strike A Chord, has recommendations, incentives for everyone, regardless of age

Libraries rock. That straightforward declaration is the guiding theme for summer reading and literacy programs in library branches across the country, as millions of families consider creative ways to combat the risk of the summer slide so that their children do not lose the learning momentum they achieved in the school year that just ended. … Read more

Forty pianists, 17 countries in next month’s 17th Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition

Next month’s 17th Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition in Salt Lake City unquestionably will be the most cosmopolitan representation of gifted pianists in the Foundation’s 42-year history. Forty pianists, ranging in age from 19 to 32, will represent 17 countries, as they compete in the quarterfinals that will lead ultimately to finalists who will … Read more

Ballet West National Choreographic Festival celebrates women

Debuting last year, Ballet West’s National Choreographic Festival introduces audiences to new works from around the country by inviting guest companies from around the nation to join Ballet West dancers. Spread over two weekends, the performances are divided into two individual programs allowing audiences to view a full six works if desired. Included in this … Read more

Utah Symphony presents an adventurous evening of Strauss

Utah Symphony’s tribute to Richard Strauss continues this evening with three pieces, all highlighting the talents of Utah Symphony’s own musicians. Presented as part of the O.C. Tanner Company Masterworks Series, the program featuring two of Strauss’ most popular tone poems and his Serenade for Winds with masterful storytelling through the voice of instrumental music. … Read more

UMFA talk to feature Spencer Finch, who created largest Pantone installation piece Great Salt Lake and Vicinity

One of the most popular stops since the Utah Museum of Fine Arts reopened last year after its comprehensive renovation is Great Salt Lake and Vicinity, an installation artwork by Spencer Finch featuring more than 1,100 Pantone color swatches in the museum’s G. W. Anderson Family Great Hall. The work constitutes a richly detailed field … Read more

Utah Film Center’s 7th Peek Award honors Dina, Sundance award-winning documentary

Dina, a documentary film about a middle-aged woman with Asperger’s Syndrome who marries her boyfriend (Scott), is a perfectly timed selection for the 7th Peek Award for Disability in Film by the Utah Film Center. The film, which took the Grand Jury Prize in documentaries at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, continues an evolving narrative … Read more

The many pillars of love in Jenifer Nii’s The Weird Play, new production of Plan-B Theatre, Sackerson

In one of opera’s most famous and most captivating arias, Tosca sings Vissi d’arte, which translates literally to “I lived for art.” The aria from this Giacomo Puccini opera is an anguished prayer because Tosca, a singer, faces the most impossible choice. To save her lover (the painter Cavaradossi) from the death sentence, she must … Read more