Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: ‘Juno,’ ‘Andante,’ ‘Hang On,’ ‘And Then There’s That’ highlight music, dance commissions

A blizzard and musical inspirations from two great composers and the unique therapeutic sounds of the handpan inspire this year’s newest Utah Arts Festival commissions for music and dance. The chamber music commission is sponsored by The Mandel Foundation. Robert Honstein, Juno, June 27, 4 p.m., City Library Auditorium Robert Honstein, 35, is in the … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: An encyclopedia of dance vocabulary by four Utah companies

In addition to the premieres of two new dance works by Ballet West’s Christopher Ruud, four local pillars of Utah’s expansive dance community will present a variety of works encompassing the breadth and depth of dance movement vocabularies at this year’s Utah Arts Festival. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, June 26, 6 p.m., Festival Stage For the … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: Utah Short Film of The Year Competition is signature film event

For the last several years, the Utah Short Film of the Year competition at the Utah Arts Festival has cemented its place as a signature event, with the City Library auditorium packed. The quality of filmmaking in the state has advanced to a standard that is giving Utah its best branding option as an area … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: Fear No Film explores, deconstructs impulses in cosmopolitan slate

For the 13th annual Fear No Film portion of the Utah Arts Festival, curator Topher Horman has crafted seven sequences of presentations in the most intriguing interpretations of the various sources and origins of impulses that drive the making of and response to each film. Each program is described below. Filmmaker Impulse (June 26, 10 … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: 13th annual Fear No Film celebrates creative impulses in global form

Carl Jung had much to say about the autonomous nature of the creative impulse in humans. He acknowledged readily the social significance of the creative process. In 1922, he wrote about the psychological phenomenon of creativity: “Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthralls and overpowers, while at the same time … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: A grand preview starting with three words — big, blazing, passionate

art lives here pink logo

The three best words to describe the 39th annual Utah Arts Festival: big, blazing and passionate. And when the gates open on June 25th to Utah’s largest arts and cultural gathering in its central downtown location, festival visitors will see many artists, performers, authors, filmmakers, creative producers, and others – familiar and new – who … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: The glorious spirit of the American streets in Sean Thomas Dougherty’s poetry

Y not you, why can’t I—you in this city at closing hour, this strange going improvised ravine, summer rain among the living.  Y not towards your story, green indecipherable shadows, faces I want would, longing, to cathedral—  Y not two voices that diminuendo, the point at which what is revealed, is what leaves— Sean Thomas … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: The Bee’s ‘lovingly competitive storytelling’ events come to The Big Mouth Stage

Last February at The Leonardo for its second “lovingly competitive storytelling night,” as Giuliana Serena describes it, The Bee: True Stories from The Hive asked participants to tell stories on the theme of attachment. As customary, Serena and her co-founder, Francesca Rosa, set the contours for the theme broadly, and some stories certainly were reflecting … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: Literary Arts captures kinetic potential of 21st century creative landscape

The Italian novelist Elena Ferrante thinks of literary tradition “as a single, large depository, where anyone who wants to write goes to choose what is useful” to her, and that every ambitious writer has the duty to immerse herself in “a vast literary culture.” For this year’s Utah Arts Festival, organizers of the Literary Arts … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: From battling Sumobots to music-making Beat Bots, there’s something for every DIY enthusiast

For DIY weekend warriors in the area, Make Salt Lake is fast becoming the go-to clearinghouse for adventurous makers who believe they can learn quickly how to make anything and everything. One maker, for example, who built a cigar box guitar also designed a flux capacitor using Arduino and some welding, scrapping and soldering. Turning … Read more