Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Chad Farnes’ artistic transformation of humble tape materials

Local artist Chad Farnes is one of the 55 new artists at this year’s Utah Arts Festival and he is one of the 34 who have never before shown at any juried festival exhibition. The California native discovered the artistic possibilities of painter’s tape when a college roommate in Utah used it to decorate a … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Day 2 Headliners will include Beats Antique, Red Rock Rondo, Silent Sorcerer, Candy’s River House, Slow Magic

Day 2 Headliners for the Utah Arts Festival, once again, will cover music interests for all ages and types. The Amphitheater Stage becomes the destination for world-class electronic music, first with the enigmatic Slow Magic (8:30 p.m.), who is wholly focused and invested in creating and presenting music that is truly boundless and attuned to … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Lee Hendrickson’s photography captures transient beauty of crystals in realms of art, science

When Lee Hendrickson is creating his fine photographic art images from precisely what he is seeing under the microscope, the research biologist-cum-artist has no way to go back. “Crystals don’t last so I have only one chance,” he explains. Hendrickson’s photographic art with crystals, which he grows from a solution, is the culmination of a … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Opening day headliners highlight acoustic folk punk, electronic music, Sinatra, Celtic rock, Chapman Stick virtuosity

Opening night Utah Arts Festival headliners cover the gamut of musical influence — from acoustic folk punk rock to the versatile virtuosity of the Chapman Stick to the original arrangements of classic Frank Sinatra songs and a savvy electronic music duo. And, of course, The Young Dubliners (9:45 p.m., Amphitheater Stage), one of the best … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Tyler Voorhees’ collage paintings pay tribute to history of manual labor

Tyler Voorhees, 32, remembers plenty of tree forts and fishing poles during his childhood days on the flatlands of eastern South Dakota, which would help formulate his later creative development on his current collaging technique for his paintings. Today, he and his wife, Ashley and son, Ivan, live in Fort Collins, Colorado, where Voorhees now … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: ‘Five Grand Micro-Adventures,’ ‘A Shift West,’ ‘Networked’ highlight music, dance commissions

Two musical works inspired by autobiographical transitions – one the news of an impending birth of a child and the other relocating from the Midwest to Salt Lake City – and a new dance composition about conformity and the age of social media mark this year’s newest Utah Arts Festival commissions for music and dance. … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: A closer look at some of the nationally known Literary Arts performers, poets, songwriters

This year’s Literary Arts venue at the 40th annual Utah Arts Festival brings numerous literary figures from the country in a series of performances slated for The Big Mouth Stage. The Utah Review had the gracious honor of interviewing several who will be appearing as part of the largest program offering ever at the festival’s … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: 14th annual Fear No Film presents Transitions theme in record international slate

The conclusion of Autumn Testament, Pablo Neruda (as translated by Alastair Reid) from Extravagaria (1957-58): From having been born so often I have salty experience like creatures of the sea with a passion for stars and an earthly destination. And so I move without knowing to which world I’ll be returning or if I’ll go … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: 40 Years New for festival city

Each year, the Utah Arts Festival is the most effective barometer of the strength, impact and potential of arts in the state. At 40, the festival is really a cosmopolitan miniature city in which more than 80,000 people will sample from the largest slate of programming, artists and performers ever presented at one time in … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: Utah’s historically significant dance companies to perform

In addition to the premiere of a dance composition by Ballet West’s Adrian Fry and performances by Christopher Ruud’s Stars of Ballet West (watch for a preview next week), three historically significant Utah dance companies will present performances to help commemorate the festival’s 40th anniversary. Many of the works were given either world or Utah … Read more