Spiro Arts in Park City

A good idea is not enough. And while blood, sweat and tears go a long way, sometimes it takes a case of serendipity — and the willingness to embrace it — to make something happen. Take Spiro Arts as an example.

Spiro Arts, a 501 (c) 3 arts organization in Park City, began when Paladin Development Partners (Rory Murphy and Chris Conabee) had a good idea. In 2004, inspired by Anderson Ranch in Aspen, Paladin decided they wanted to develop the parcel of land they owned on the former Silver King mine in Park City to include a cultural element; and they wanted to utilize what remained of the mining buildings to do it. So, they decided to build a series of high-end condominiums and subsidize the cultural programming of the neighborhood, at least in a modest way, with dues from the homeowners’ association. Which was a good idea. Silver Star Resort was conceived. The condos sold quickly, the Sundance Institute decided to move into the neighborhood and last month an artist residency program, under the title of Spiro Arts, began. This last part was possible because Kathryn Stedham likes to ski, and some people out there like to eavesdrop.

Painter Kathryn Stedham came to Utah for the recreation …

… but now finds herself Executive Director of Spiro Arts

A native of West Virginia and professional artist for the past decade, Stedham came to Utah for the recreation. |1|A little over a year ago she was in a restaurant talking with a friend about wanting to participate in an artist residency program when an eavesdropping patron at another table interrupted and suggested she might check out the residency program at Silver Star resort. Which Stedham did; but what she found was a framed building with no walls and an organization with no leader. Stedham was offered a residency, but as the organization’s executive director rather than as an artist. Stedham laughs a bit at the title. “Executive director means a lot of things including office manager, pencil sharpener, chauffeur, maid. ” She does work with an assistant, but as in the case with most fledgling nonprofits, Stedham has had to do a great deal of work on a limited budget to make the wall-less, artist residency idea into Spiro Arts.

Spiro Arts now has walls, a whole series of them that form one and two-bedroom apartments for visiting artists and writers (designated as affordable living spaces, they serve as housing for seasonal workers in the winter, Spiro’s offseason). Visiting artists have 24-hour access to the facilities, a workspace, room for visiting family or assistants and receive a $600 stipend. Spiro Arts can accommodate up to 16 artists, but have limited the initial residencies out of budgetary considerations. And the mine’s renovated mill works serves as a large common studio space.|0| The first group of resident artists — all painters — spent the month of April at Spiro. The last bunch, three artists and two writers, arrived last week. The writers were locked away in their spare bedrooms, which serve as working space, when we visited but in the communal studio space we found Sarah Hewitt, a textile artist, Joshua Reiman, a filmmaker and performance artist, and Duane McDiarmid, who well, is a little hard to put into a box, but we imagine he likes it that way.

Sarah Hewitt in her work space at Spiro Arts

Hewitt is a soft-spoken, deliberate individual. Accompanied by her dog, Buster, she drove up to Park City from New Mexico. A native of Texas, she went to New Mexico first to study philosophy at St. John’s College; she switched to Fine Arts (painting and photography), first at RISDI and later at SMU. She returned to New Mexico, where a longtime friend taught her how to weave. In addition to running her own design company and pursuing her art, Hewitt teaches fiber arts at workshops every year. She chose the Spiro Arts residency as a chance to concentrate on her art, away from the distractions of home or teaching at workshops.

Rope from Gulf Coast shrimpers ready to be unraveled

Hewitt brought with her materials and inspiration from across the country and the world. She says her creative process can sometimes have a long gestation period. A trip to Australia and time spent with its Aboriginal population last year is now starting to surface in the forms she weaves. Before coming to Park City, she traveled to the Gulf Coast to get rope from Louisiana shrimp farmers. Now, after carrying the rope a couple thousand miles and 10,000 feet up, she will untangle and dismantle it for use in her fiber art. Much of the hiking Hewitt had planned to do while here — intimately linked to the themes in her works — has been derailed by a recent ligament injury. She has faith, though, that something unique will come of the experience here; and she looks forward to a trip to visit the Great Salt Lake, where she plans on submerging her Gulf Coast rope, adding the salt of an ancient inland ocean with that of the modern Gulf to create a unique material with which to weave.

Reiman’s choice of Park City is more deliberate. A visual anthropologist who explores and deconstructs the visual apparatus Americans use to define themselves, he came West from his New York home to explore American stereotypes of Native Americans. He comes to Park City after a monthlong residency in Wyoming, where he began his current film project. A Native American (half Creek, half Navajo) he met there played out the role Reiman had scripted of an individual working through, against and around stereotypes placed on Native Americans. In Park City, Reiman will be shooting additional material and editing the work. He has opened himself to the possibilities this month will present to him and hasn’t given himself any sort of deadline with the project. “There’s a point where dreaming ends, reality comes in and you have to roll with the punches,” he says.

Joshua Reiman in his workspace at Spiro arts

Artifacts to inspire Joshua Reiman

McDiarmid also came West on purpose, mostly because Ohio, where he is from, is very short on desert and the desert is crucial to the Trickster, a piece he has been working on for more than twenty years. When he was 18, McDiarmid too went and spent time with the Australian Aborigines. He describes it as a magical, if eye-opening, experience. He had the rare opportunity to live in the desert, hunting by spear with his “brethren.” But he found couldn’t stop thinking about ice cream. Twenty years later we have Trickster, an Arabian-nights-styled moon-lander and Popsicle-dispenser McDiarmid plans on launching into desert environments to allow the lucky visitors who stumble upon it a refreshing treat and the chance to be on both ends of a system of surveillance, and contribute to Trickster lore through an interactive, web-connected computer system.

Duane McDiarmid works on Trickster

Part of the Spiro Arts residency program requires the participants to interact with the local community. Hewitt has already arranged to meet and talk with weavers in the area (to participate contact Kathryn Stedham). Reiman will be presenting a working version of his film to the public on Main Street. And McDiarmid will be hauling the Trickster into a location in Utah, after which he will recede into the distance and allow serendipity to guide hikers or travelers to encounter it on their own. To maintain the spontaneous aspect of the interaction, McDiarmid won’t be disclosing the location, but volunteers who are willing to help him haul materials can go along for the ride and see what happens (contact Kathryn Stedham).

Trickster fills the Spiro Arts workspace

After the residencies are completed in May, Spiro Arts will begin its summerlong series of workshops, which include workshops in June by Doug Braithwaite and Mitch Lyons, July workshops with Court Bennett, Mike Hamby, Daniella Woolf and Kathryn Stedham and a Kid’s ArtLab in August.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.