Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: New three-day schedule, easy-to-use festival app, free fares with Utah Transit Authority at top of list

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 46th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held June 23-25  (noon to 11 p.m. on June 23-24 and noon to 9 p.m. on June 25) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary arts and … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: With successful launch last year, Emerging Artists initiative returns on an expanded scale

After last year’s successful launch of its Emerging Artists program for the Utah Arts Festival, Aimée Dunsmore, UAF’s executive director says UAF once again has opened the jury process to members of the community to help select artists and performers who will be in the festival this year. This year’s listings comprise perhaps the festival’s … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2022: 46th Utah Arts Festival set to return at full strength, fresh with innovative examples of creative expression

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 46th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held June 23-26 (noon to 11 p.m. on June 23-25 and noon to 9 p.m. on June 26) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary arts and … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2021: Slimmer, shorter but still state’s most comprehensive arts and cultural celebration of the year

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 45th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held Aug. 27-29 (noon to 11 p.m. on Aug. 27 and 28 and noon to 9 p.m. on Aug. 29) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2019: What’s the new vibe for the 43rd edition? Many new faces, events at all venues

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 43rd Utah Arts Festival, which will be held June 20-23, noon to 11 p.m. daily, on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary arts and cultural gathering each year, The Utah Review considers the Utah … 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

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

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2015: ‘Art Lives Here’ takes shape in many forms

Somehow managing always to remain calm, cool, good-humored and eternally organized, the staff and coordinators for the 39th Utah Arts Festival could run clinics for organizations on how to conduct effective, concise, fast-paced meetings where every participant can walk away at the end feeling something notable has been accomplished. In April, two months before the … Read more

Backstage at Utah Arts Festival 2014: Making the best community space so art fans can unite at the 38th Utah Arts Festival

In explaining how the staff, board, venue coordinators, volunteers, sponsors, and, most certainly, the participating performers and artists of the 38th annual Utah Arts Festival (UAF) design the spaces of Library Square and Washington Square so that art fans can unite, the metaphors of magnets and oysters, as Doug Borwick, a long-time arts administrator explains … Read more