Spring City Arts Art Gallery

With the number of artists in the small Sanpete County town of Spring City — over 30 out of a population of about 800 — you’d think this rural town’s reputation as an art destination was planned: by the city council, looking for economic development, or by artists looking to set up an art colony. Talk to some of the “locals” (a title, as more recent transplants will tell you, given only to those whose families have lived here for at least 5 generations) and they’re likely to complain it’s the latter. But talk to most of the artists who have moved here and, it seems, things just sort of happened, organically. An individual artist would decide to move in and a few years later another, until, now, the small rural town is known more for its art than for the wool it once thrived on or the spring that gave it its name.

Spring City owes its present charms to an omission. When Utah route 89 was put down through Sanpete County, it plunged through the main streets of neighboring communities — Fairview, Mt. Pleasant, Ephraim, Manti — but bypassed Spring City by a mile; which meant that the town was relatively untouched by development for much of the 20th century. Consequently, lots have not been subdivided, large stores have not moved in, and the town retains a number of its original 19th-century buildings.

Horseshoe Mountain Pottery

A few artists in town can claim to be locals. Osral Allred, longtime professor at Snow College, and his artist sons, Scott and Paul, can trace their lineage to the first white settlers, the Allreds, who came in 1852. The rest of the artists in town, however, are much more recent transplants. Joe and Lee Bennion (potter and painter, respectively) came here over thirty years ago. “We hadn’t a clue what we were doing,” Joe says. “We were totally going by our guts.” He says that at the time the decision seemed counterintuitive for a young couple embarking on careers as artists. Both artists, however, wanted a simpler life and were more concerned with having time than money. They have managed to do what they want, have raised their family here and created successful careers for themselves. Their home, children, and animals frequently appear in Lee’s paintings, and though he started out with high-end galleries across the country, Joe says he now sells 99% of his work right out of his shop on Main Street. Though their children are now gone, the Bennions plan on spending the rest of their lives here, under the gaze of Horseshoe Mountain, the local landmark for which Joe’s studio (see page 2) is named.

Lee is currently working on building a studio, a portion of which will be dedicated to a printmaking studio she will share with another local artist, Kathleen Peterson. Peterson came to Spring City with her husband Steve, when Ephraim, their previous home, succumbed to the rural version of urban sprawl — Walmart moved in. They have built a light filled home/studio on the eastern edge of town. John and Cassandria Parsons, an artist couple who also have a home in Salt Lake, live nearby, as do Douglas Fryer and his family, who came to Spring City six years ago after living in rural Vermont.

Douglas Fryer in his studio

Though the artists in Spring City may share an obvious passion for art, they are as much neighbors and friends as they are fellow artists. Kathleen Peterson and Lee Bennion share a studio but they also love to ride horses together. Fryer can be found hanging out with fellow painters Michael Workman and Brad Overton, but as Workman points out, they’re more likely to play tennis together than they are to paint together.

Michael Workman in front of his studio

In fact, though a number of artists have been here for well over a decade — Workman moved here fifteen years ago and Overton has lived in neighboring Moroni for the past thirteen years, the whole while looking for property in Spring City — they have been slow to form any formal arts organization. That required the serendipitous arrival of another artist, John Stevens.

Stevens and his wife, a horse trainer, had lived in Draper for a decade before they were squeezed out by urban sprawl. With their children grown, they began looking at various locations, mostly out of the state, where they could relocate. A son-in-law who lives in the Sanpete Valley found a piece of property for them in Spring City and invited them to come take a look. The rural community was a perfect fit for his wife, and because Stevens is an artist and graphic designer, he can work from anywhere. “We had never thought about moving to Spring City. It just sort of happened,” he says.

Lee Bennion and John Stevens inside the Spring City Arts Gallery

Stevens’ arrival 4 years ago was the catalyst for the formation of Spring City Arts, a nonprofit organization that serves artists all over Sanpete County. He says Workman, Joe Bennion, and Susan Gallacher (a Salt Lake City artist who owns a second home in the town where she organizes art workshops) came to him with the idea for an artist organization, and they began work on Spring City Arts.

Stevens had experience running his own design and marketing businesses. “I work with the two halves of my brain more than some of the others,” he jokes about his qualifications. Stevens, the only abstract artist in the group, is unassuming, but also an eager promoter of his fellow artists and their organization. He is excited about what the group has already accomplished and about what they have planned for the future.

Spring City Arts is an artist-based membership nonprofit designed to nurture both the artists they serve and the community they are a part of. The group has a gallery space located on Main Street |0| where they show work by all of its forty plus members. They will soon be moving to a building next door, a former garage that will provide even more space for exhibitions, workshops, lectures and classes.

What is striking about the group, funded solely by the members and their fundraising activities, is that the artists who needed it least spurred it. Many of the artists behind Spring City Arts have very successful careers, selling work in galleries across the country. They don’t need the gallery to make a living or establish a reputation. But the artists have an obvious commitment to the community they have chosen to live in and they see the formation of the arts organization as an aid to that community.

Stevens feels the organization can help spur activity that will benefit the entire community. He would like to see more cottage industries find a home on Main Street. These would provide more tax revenues for the city and jobs for local residents. Spring City Arts embraces all artists, including folk artists and craftsmen, performing and literary artists as well as fine artists. Stevens says that before the group came into being there were “lots of little combinations [of artists] but now they all get together.” Local knife maker Jerry Johnson, |5| who retired to Spring City ten years ago, says the group has been both fun and profitable. He is currently collaborating with local silversmith Vivian Jepperson on new designs.

In addition to the work it has been doing to build links within the local arts community, Spring City Arts has also developed events to bring people to Spring City and experience the arts here. The Spring City Arts Plein Air Painting Competition and the Spring City Artist Studio Tour and Arts Festival both happen later this month. The plein-air competition, September 17 -20 is an opportunity for artists to paint Spring City, a National Historic District, and the surrounding countryside and vie for over $5000 in cash prizes. The Studio Tour, on the 20th, will allow visitors to visit the studios of over 30 local artists, including painters, sculptors, potters, metal workers, weavers and more.

Knife maker Jerry Johnson in his studio

For more information on Spring City Arts, their artist members and their upcoming events, visit their website. In September, the gallery will feature an exhibition of works by Cassandria Parsons.

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.