Interactive Art, Workshops, Demonstrations Fuel Creativity At 2015 Utah Art Festival
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – June 24, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – The Utah Arts Festival continues to expand its interactive workshops and demonstrations throughout the four days of the annual Festival June 25-28 at Library Square.
Daily visual art workshops in the Library Special Collections Room provide in-depth, hands-on opportunities for Festival patrons to engage in the artistic process under the guidance of professional artists. No artistic is experience necessary. Featured artists include Ingrid Hersman – Pysanky Egg Dyeing, Carrie Trenholm – Fused Glass, Donna Pence – Glass Mosaic, Cat Palmer – Vision Boards and Marcee Blackerby – 3-D Shadow Boxes. Pre-registration required. Adults only. Classes limited. Small materials fee charged. Visit uaf.org/workshops for details and registration.
En plein air, a French term meaning roughly, “to be out in the open air,” describes outdoor painting by those who gain inspiration and understanding of their chosen subject by painting on location. Members of the Plein Air Painters of Utah will set up on the east side of the City & County Building in the circle to paint on Saturday from 3-6 p.m.
Join artists from Art at the Main as they demonstrate special art techniques. The demonstrations are free and will take place in the Urban Room of the Main Library. Visit artatthemain.com for details.
The Intermountain Acoustic Music Association (IAMA) and the Festival have once again teamed up to expand opportunities for songwriters and acoustic musicians. Musicians will learn the art of songwriting from John Gorka and Kate MacLeod, renowned folk music artists and instructors at the two-day IAMA Songwriter Academy, June 26-27. Visit uaf.org/iama for details.
Come explore Salt Lake City’s rapidly growing “Foodie Culture” with the newly expanded culinary arts programming. The Downtown SLC Farmers Market will host demonstrations and tastings of specialty foods crafted by local artisans during the Festival daily from 12 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Visitors can make their mark on the bigger picture in the “100 Artists / 1 Image” by painting a piece of a 20-foot puzzle mural. This year’s mural will be housed in the atrium of the new Volunteers of America Homeless Resource Center, which is expected to open in January. Youth from the center will add their own piece to the work of 100 artists.
Spy Hop Productions and their Beat Bots bring engineering and music together to make a collaborative experience for everyone. Using MaKey MaKey technology, Spy Hop has built three musical robots that you can control using props, objects, and your own body to trigger sounds, melodies, and beats to create one awesome, unique song.
As the festival explores the collision of art with technology for the second year, visitors are invited to thematically “reevaluate materials and their meaning.” Take your personal data and generate art, upcycle spare parts into little sculptures, and take regular, everyday materials and explore their artistic uses through Art and Technology workshops and demonstrations with Make Salt Lake. With the use of Google Cardboard, Virtual Reality becomes reality for everyone as participants will demo Apple or Android smartphones turned into Virtual Reality goggles. Make Salt Lake demonstrators will also use inexpensive web cameras and micro-controllers to reproduce the technically challenging “Bullet Time” special effect by filming participants in hyper-slow-motion from a continuously shifting viewpoint.
In addition to the demonstrations, Make Salt Lake will offer free workshops throughout the four days of the Festival. Patrons can make a laser cut LED tea lamp, a custom duct tape design or a color changing LED magic wand while supplies last. Learn knitting using just your fingers and yarn or create your own small piece of art with bathroom tiles and sharpies.
The SLCC Community Writing Center will host more than a dozen workshops for kids and adults, including workshops on how to create your own comic book, how to write about food, and much more. Special characters will come to life in the steampunk comic book workshop from Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan. Ongoing interactive activities at the SLCC Community Writing Center include Have Your Say!: Gigantic Magnetic Poetry Walls and the Utah Race Card Project: Write Your Six Word Sentence.
During the Festival visit The Leonardo for free hands-on activities on the main floor in addition to offering Festival patrons access to the special exhibit SPARK!, for just $5. Visitors can make technical crafts with a master engineer, balloon crafts and more. See the creative process come to life with local artists who have never worked together pair off in the battle of the canvasses with CoLAB or ART or cultivate and circulate “Ideas Worth Pollinating” during TED-X Salon.
Visit theleonardo.org for more info for hours and details.
The 39th Utah Arts Festival runs Thursday, June 25 through Sunday, June 28, from noon to 11 p.m. on Library Square, 400 South and 200 East in downtown Salt Lake City, uaf.org. Follow the Utah Arts Festival on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @utahartsfest #artliveshere
Adult admission is $12 at the gate, $8 in advance. Reduced adult admission is available for opening day at $10, with a $6 lunchtime special on Thursday and Friday. Seniors 65 and above are $6. Children 12 and under are free. A four-day pass is just $30, a savings of $16 over the single-day admission.
