Utah’s newest art location is actually located in Montana. Just north of the Idaho border, in the isolated splendor of Southwest Montana’s Centennial Valley, the University of Utah’s College of Humanities has established The Environmental Humanities Education Center (EHEC). Its programs focus the lens of the arts and humanities on environmental study, enhancing and expanding education for the protection of wildlife and wild lands. After a succesfull summer full of workshops — including Terry Tempest William’s Ecology of Residency masters course, Eco-spirituality with George Handley and Tom Goldsmith, Stephen Trimble’s Tutored by the Land workshop, and the Re-imagining the Western Landscape symposium — the EHEC is hosting the first annual Centennial Valley Arts Celebration at the end of September.

“The event is an invitation to visual artists, photographers, composers, and multi-disciplinary folks of all sorts to converge in Centennial Valley in the beauty of the fall season,” says Mary Tull, Director of the EHEC and local Salt Lake City artist. The EHEC campus is the lovingly restored former ghost town of Lakeview, the original stagecoach stop for 19th century travelers into Yellowstone. Camping and cabins are available to visitors, as well as a large conference room, dining hall (with first-rate vegetarian cuisine), laundry and fitness facilities. “Centennial Valley is also the location of the Red Rock Lakes Wildlife Refuge, home of the trumpeter Swan and over 260 species of birds,” says Tull. “Viewing wildlife from bear to sand hill cranes – as well as the night sky – is a major activity.”

This year’s event will include the dedication of EHEC’s Art Studio as the Francis H. Zimbeaux Art Studio in honor of the renowned Salt Lake City artist. The event will also introduce the EHEC’s Artist-in-Residence program. “We are looking forward to expanding this annual Arts Celebration in a variety of ways,” says Tull, “including additional residency opportunities, publications, and music performances. This is but the beginning.”

The EHEC’s programs run seasonally from mid July to the end of October. For more information check out www.ehec.utah.edu, where you can register for the September 25-October 1 Arts Celebration.

15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.