If we were betting people we’d be willing to stake our fundraiser funds that attendance records at Utah’s art festivals will be broken this year. With the longest, coldest, and wettest winter and spring in recent memory finally over, we can only imagine how eager everyone is to flock outside. Sweeten the deal with art and you’ll see droves.

The first opportunity to get in the sun and see some art happens in Ogden, June 10th and 11th. The Ogden Arts Festival has been getting bigger and better every year since its inception in 2003. And for those whose pocketbooks are a little light from paying for all that extra heat this winter, the Ogden Arts festival offers a can’t-be-beat ticket price: $0. Works by more than 60 local and regional artists anchor the festival, which includes live music, a high school art competition, professional plein air competition and auction, great food from the restaurants on Historic 25th Street and screenings by the Foursite Film Institute. New this year, the Festival has partnered with Weber State’s art department to bring in several artists will provide a wide array of demonstrations including painting, facial casting and leather working similar to works featured in movies like Lord of the Rings and Sleepy Hollow. Movie buffs will also have a chance to watch the outdoor adventure film One Revolution in the Browning Theatre.

With 150+ visual artists, 100+ performing artists, and 18+ culinary artists Utah’s biggest multi-media event is the Utah Arts Festival. Recently ranked the 14th best art festival in the country, UAF will celebrate its 35th anniversary June 23-26 at Salt Lake’s Library Square.

The Gallery at Library Square, the city library’s premier, fourth-floor gallery, organizes a special exhibit every year to coincide with the festival. Generally the featured artist is one of Utah’s best-known. Last year Edie Roberson unveiled a new body of work, and past years have seen exhibits by V. Douglas Snow and Jann Haworth. This year, however, the exhibit will feature work by emerging artists. Artists of Utah’s own Shawn Rossiter has curated a show by six young artists entitled 35. “Lisa Sewell, the Festival director, wanted to celebrate the youth and energy of the festival, and also give a chance for emerging artists to be exposed to the large crowds the festival brings in,” Rossiter explains. The artists — Ashley Knudsen Baker, Namon Bills, Michael Handley, Rosi Hayes, Jared Latimer and Chadwick Tolley — were all born at the same time as the festival; they will be exhibiting works in a variety of media, including video, sound, printmaking, mixed media and painting. “At the festival you spend a lot of time ducking into booths to look at small works that will fit in the trunk of your car,” Rossiter says. “I think the library exhibit – where most of the works are measured in feet rather than inches – will be a welcome change and show the public what Utah artists are capable of when they are given venues.” The gallery’s outer walls will include an exhibit tracing the history of the festival, curated by the Marriott Library.

The UAF’s only competition as far as size and crowds is Park City’s annual arts festival, held in August (5-7). What the Sundance Film Festival does for Park City in the winter, the Park City Kimball Arts Festival does for it in the summer, bringing in 40,000 visitors to the resort town as Park City’s Main Street fills with artists, artisans, vendors and musicians.

Thinking of Utah’s art festivals it would be a mistake to only consider the big-name festivals. Almost every town of some size in Utah has a festival with an art component. The Ogden area also hosts the North Ogden Arts Festival and the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival. Salt Lake gets festive throughout the summer, with the Sugarhouse Arts Festival in July and Avenues Street Fair in September. Bountiful hosts Summerfest International and Utah County celebrates the Fourth of July with Freedom Festival.

You’ll also find art festivals in rural Utah. These smaller towns don’t have the capacity to put on the extravaganzas the Wasatch Front sees, but they have a different resource that’s equally valuable: their scenery. You’ll find some of the best (and most lucrative) plein air competitions in towns barely big enough to justify a stop light. Midway’s combination of beautiful scenery and easy access to Utah’s metropolitan areas has made its Wasatch Plein Air Paradise one of the more sought after competitions. With its variety of artist workshops, Carbon County’s Helper has been attracting artists for years, and in August its festival and plein air competition adds patrons to the mix. In September Spring City hosts its own festival and plein air competition — which with Heritage Days in May serves as a frame to the perfect artful summer. You’ll find festivals even further afield, like Everett Ruess Days in Escalante. And in northern Utah if you’re willing to skirt the state line a bit the Minerva Teichert Art Show in Cokeville, Wyoming gives you an intimate look into the life of one unique artist and a plein air competition with artists from the entire region.

Utah’s many outdoor splendors already provide ample excuse to get in your car and drive. Its festivals are good reason for organizing the timing of the trips.

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.