margaret willis

Backstage at the 2024 Utah Arts Festival: Kids’ Art Yard to feature impressive array of hands-on activities focusing on the Great Salt Lake

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In recent years, many artists and creative producers have been building a critical mass of public awareness about the Great Salt Lake and its existential crisis. In 2023, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company premiered an evening-length dance theater piece, To See Beyond Our Time. Earlier this year, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art presented an impressive multidisciplinary … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: With Tree Utah as thematic anchor, Kids’ Art Yard will be a beehive of creative projects celebrating forests and trees

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ART YARD (June 23-25, noon-9 p.m.) ‘Let me tell you about this tree. It was a rock-solid hardwood, three feet in diameter with a trunk magnificently embossed in rich gray tones, set in deep relief with an exquisitely interconnected skin of bark that was somehow both coarse and forgiving to the hand. The ash is … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2022: A sure winner in this year’s Art Yard for kids: Dinosaurs!

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When it comes to facts about dinosaurs, kids seem to know enough to suggest that they have already started down the bath of becoming budding paleontologists. In Utah, dinosaurs always are a trending topic. Geologists and paleontologists have developed a timeline spanning many millions of years while documenting the existence of more than 115 species. … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2021: Creative Zone, Art & Technology, Urban Arts venues set for three full days of activities

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Although a bit scaled back this year, the Utah Arts Festival’s Art & Technology, Creative Zone and Urban Art venues will have plenty of activities for patrons and their families. Creative Zone Open all three days between noon and 8 p.m., the Creative Zone this year temporarily replaces the Kids’ Art Yard, out of prudence … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2019: It’s all about insects at Kids’ Art Yard this year

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Upcycling continues to deepen its impact in the visual arts. In late 2018, artist and educator Kyle Browne recalled how living and working in a remote New Zealand town changed his perspective: “Art supplies could not easily be purchased and I quickly realized that working within the limitations of what I had was the only … Read more