Utah women artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were formidable: they traveled the world, led art movements and artist societies, and advocated for the importance of artmaking and collecting to a broader Utah public. These women were not wallflowers. They were actively engaged in creating community, meaning and transformation through the visual arts.
SONDERimmersive’s Thank You Theobromine, in collaboration with The Chocolate Conspiracy, is an interactive dance theater production built around the story of a chocolatier who may have poisoned people. Groups of audience members tour downtown shop The Chocolate Conspiracy, guided by performers but allowed the freedom to explore within […]
On December 21, the sun set in Salt Lake City at 5:03 p.m. Normally, this, the shortest day of the year, reminds me of my desperate need for more sunlight (if you’re like me, you may want to check out a seasonal affective disorder light, which helps to […]
Is it possible to make sense of a large, statewide exhibition constructed on little more than common mediums and the tastes of one or two jurors? Possibly, but it’s not easy; or always advisable. So, for the Utah Division of Arts and Museum’s 2019 statewide annual at the […]
Dan Higgins’ new work Speak, which opened Dec. 12 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, looks like it might have been made for his employer, Repertory Dance Theatre (it was sponsored by RDT, as part of the company’s Link Series for independent choreographers). The seventy-minute dance, in […]
Attempts to gentrify south Provo have been quietly underway for decades. The area around 500 South just west of University Avenue is one of the few industrial areas from the early 20th century in Provo, and developers have recently started to capitalize on the industrial aesthetic fetish, turning […]
With Temporary Configurations of Earth’s Matter, Collin Bradford has organized a space to contemplate our relationship with the land. This question is a difficult one, in part, because the relationship we have with the land is as unique as each individual; but the questions that arise from it are particularly germane […]
The poems in Maximilian Werner’s collection Cold Blessings seem to come from another time, when the only screen we had was television and our conversations were held either in person or by phone; when we spent time loafing and inviting our souls. Remember what it was like to […]
It’s a situation that will ring true for many of the artists who make their living as arts professionals: “I spend a lot of time helping other artists show their work and have opportunities, and I love my job,” says Lydia Gravis, director of Weber State University’s Mary […]
On Saturday, Nov. 23, a small group formed in a Salt Lake City backyard filled with chairs and an outdoor heater. After socializing and viewing an art exhibition in the backyard’s small gallery/shed, the group listened to a 20-minute lecture by artist Patrick Durka before time was opened […]
READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you Heidi Hart. Hart teaches German and English at Weber State University. She is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a […]
Going out into the big world: that’s Sam Walker’s paintings in this exhibit called SOIL SAND SURFACE. Danielle Susi, the fiber artist whose work appears like crafted landmasses between Walker’s large paintings, tells us with her embroideries that all our life continues due to continents, continents which hold […]
If it weren’t for art galleries, Shon Taylor might never have met his wife. It was Kayo Gallery, 13 years ago. “Wouldn’t have happened if that gallery didn’t exist,” he says. “Wouldn’t have happened if we all just sat at home and clicked ‘like’ on Instagram.” The social […]
ILLUMINATE, advertised as “Utah’s Light Art and Creative Technology Festival,” graced the interior and exterior of The Gateway during the evenings on Nov. 8 and 9. Charged with both a religious and cultural connotation and often celebrated at the beginning of the winter, light festivals can be a […]
This year marks Dance Theatre of Harlem’s fiftieth anniversary. The company was founded by the inimitable New York City Ballet principal dancer Arthur Mitchell alongside ballet teacher Karel Shook at the height of the civil rights movement, in 1969, shortly after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King […]
“Inter Action,” a repertoire performance presented by Weber State University’s Orchesis Dance Theater, features the work of five student choreographers in addition to a special duet performance by Dance Professor Erik Stern with jazz musician and Assistant Professor of Music, Dan Jonas. The evening culminates with the choreographic […]
At the conclusion of Julie Jensen’s wrenching, two-person play Two-Headed on Sunday afternoon at the Rose Wagner, my companion wept while describing the scars an event like the massacre at Mountain Meadow can leave on people’s souls; this writer pondered plural marriage and how it was so vividly portrayed here […]
Axis Dance Company aims to change the face of dance and disability. The company of disabled and non-disabled dancers recently spent a week at the University of Utah, hosting master classes and discussions on fostering inclusivity within dance pedagogy and performance. On November 8, the company performed at […]