EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 50th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 18-21, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. The curtain raiser highlights the history of the Festival which is marking its golden anniversary. BANDALOOP, among the most prominent pioneers of vertical dance, returns to UAF for the fourth time, having appeared in 2005, 2013 and 2018. Once again, the Oakland-based arts company will perform on the 240-foot-high curving glass façade of the City Library, as part of a June tour in four cities featuring a work with ecological roots that will resonate with collective concerns about the Great Salt Lake’s ecological crisis, as the dance artists perform FLOCK while integrating company repertoire pieces including Downstream and its new creation, life || lines, all with an original score featuring music by four composers. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the second time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Gaslight Zone. Make-and-take opportunities will be among the most extensive in history, with Make Salt Lake as well as Secondhand Salamander which is bringing back the classic Mad Hatter project, and, of course, the Kids’ Art Yard. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation featuring eight artists in four Festival campus locations, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. Holdman Studios, based in Lehi with an international portfolio of commissions to create stained glass in religious and civic buildings, including a recent update to the Utah State Capitol rotunda, is offering an unprecedented series of free workshops for participants to create their own stained glass artwork. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 23rd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with 84 short films on a slate of 15 programs, the second largest in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Sock Opera Dance, and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, which will feature Trash Panda Drum Group and competitions featuring Sol Tribe as part of the Salt Open Styles Battle along with the Red Bull Dance Your Style battle and a collaboration with Utah Valley University’s ESPRIT in Rep Your Set Choreo Competition, with choreographers who specialize variously in hip hop, contemporary, salsa, reggaeton, afro, popping. Headliners this year include Digable Planets, well known among jazz musicians as well as hip hop artists (June 18); Yola, six-time Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, and actor (June 19); Austin-based musician Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves, who has been cited for creating new musical experiences tailored to each fan, ranging from Bandcamp-exclusive releases to hosting interactive scavenger hunts while on tour (June 20) and Rubblebucket, a band well known for its hybrid genre blend of psychedelia and electronic dance music (June 21). For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
Photo: Holdman Studios.
HOLDMAN STUDIOS FESTIVAL WORKSHOP
“That is why I had established this art institute here down at Thanksgiving Point. So we could show people firsthand that they can experience art, they can do art. We can hold their hand a little bit and let them explore their creative side. It is so rewarding for us to see how their eyes light up and they say, “Yes I can do this. I can do something that is creative.” I think that it ties them into a part of God. We got it inside us. Let’s unbury it. We so often push it aside. We are all creators; It is in our DNA.” — Tom Holdman, 2020
The Utah Enlightenment manifests itself in many ways. A dedicated artist discovers their creative resilience in a conscious spiritual journey which tests their faith, casts shadows of doubts and rewards them with the capacity to solve problems and overcome disappointments and roadblocks. Whether it comes from religious faith or profoundly conscientious secularism, each person’s spiritual journey often encounters similar mile markers.
Tom Holdman channels the testimony of his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through a stunning portfolio of modern stained-glass work which is found throughout the world in religious and civic buildings. Among Holdman Studios’ most recent commissions for stained glass windows was the recently completed North Capitol Building in Salt Lake, composed of more than 14,000 pieces and 89 panels highlighting Utah’s greatest treasures— a project which required more than 10,000 hours of work.
In an extraordinary gesture made possible by an anonymous donor as part of the Festival’s 50th anniversary, Holdman Studios, established in 1991, is offering a series of free workshops during all four days of the Utah Arts Festival. Normally a 90-minute workshop would cost $85 for each participant. Patrons will be able to create a commemorative piece inspired by three memorable UAF patterns from both past and present. Once patrons individually select one of the designs, they will arrange their glass, learn how to assemble these pieces with a copper foil method, and solder the seams together. Participants will have a completed piece to take home. Holdman Studios will provide 16 glass colors and textures from which participants will select for their pieces.
While the workshop is free, advance registration will be required. Participants (minimum age eligibility is 15) will be asked to sign a waiver and to arrive 10 minutes in advance of their scheduled time. Those who do not arrive ahead of their scheduled workshop will forfeit their reservation. Guests without appointments are welcome to join the standby line for the next available class. Any unclaimed reservations or last-minute openings will be offered to standby participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
A Spanish-speaking team member will be available Friday-Sunday (June 19-21) between noon and 5 p.m. Twelve slots are available for each 90-minute workshop which will be offered on a staggered schedule, between 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on June 18 and between 12:15 p.m. and 11 p.m. on each of the three remaining days (June 19-21). For more information about the workshop and/or to schedule a time, see this UAF link of this Holdman Studios link.
No previous experience is required. Holdman’s background is encouraging as it is edifying. When he was denied admission to Brigham Young University, he was undeterred from studying art glass windows. He saved his earnings from work to travel to Europe and stay in hostels while he observed the art glass in some of the continent’s greatest cathedrals. As he wrote online in 2020. “I want to inspire more than is required. That was my education. I remember standing in Czechoslovakia, right after the wall had come down, in this cathedral. There was this great window that just took my breath away. It was so inspiring to me. I stood there in that church and made a commitment for myself, I said, ‘One day I will do a window like that. I will do it. I need to do that.’ That is a commitment that I made to myself and I made it to God.”
Likewise, he reiterates the elucidating point for any aspiring artist:
There is that story of Plato when a student came up to him and he said, “How can I learn as much as you?” And Plato said, “Come to the ocean with me and I will show you.” So the student comes to the ocean and they walk into the water. Then, Plato takes the student’s head and holds his head under the water almost to the point where the student cannot breathe anymore. Then he pulls the student’s head up and he is gasping for air and says, “What are you doing?”
Plato then says, “When you want to learn as much as you want air to breathe, then you will be ready. Then I can teach you all that I know.” That story has really entered my heart and my life with art. That is how bad I want to do art glass. A specific area of art. You cannot spread yourself with all different kinds of projects and aspects of art. You need to focus on something.
Followers of Holdman Studios’ social media accounts have been tracking the progress in The Sphere of Light, a magnum opus of sorts that commenced in 2016 and is targeted to be completed in 2030. The project, spanning 10,000 square feet of art glass, is the most ambitious undertaking of the Roots of Humanity Foundation, which Holdman and his wife, Gayle, founded. When completed, the Lehi, Utah installation will comprise four levels, starting with a subterranean level, which signifies creation, and then three other levels—Me, Us, Others—which constitute collective humanity.