Editor’s Note: The Selective Echo will present nine days of in-depth coverage of the 34th annual Utah Arts Festival, beginning today. Previews of various events and activities will be followed by frequent updates and spotlight features during the festival. There will be more than 20 feature articles and 100 images. Each day’s coverage also will include a Did You Know micro-feature to lead the day’s events.

Coverage also will be featured at the Utah Arts Festival Web site here. Unquestionably, the Utah Arts Festival is the state’s largest and most significant event of culture in virtually every realm of the visual, creative, and performing arts. Readers also are encouraged to subscribe to the Twitter feed here.

DID YOU KNOW?

Next year is the 35th anniversary of the Utah Arts Festival and to begin the commemoration, 1977: Where It All Began Project will be available in the City Library’s Urban Room daily from noon until 7 p.m. and will include a display of photographs from the first festival held then on three blocks of Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City.

Visitors also are encouraged to share their own experiences and memorabilia from festivals throughout the event’s history. In addition to the display, images and opportunities to share recollections can be shared here.

The 2011 festival will include a major retrospective developed in conjunction with the Marriott Library Special Collections and Fine Arts Department at The University of Utah.

GRAND PREVIEW

More than 145 visual artists including 55 newcomers and 49 from Utah; an impressively diverse independent short film festival with more than 60 selections from the United States and several other nations; the first poetry team slam competition; an interactive Art Yard for budding youthful artists; mini-musical fests for bluegrass, blues, funk, jazz and world music; four world premieres of music commissioned specifically for the festival; the first-ever dance piece commission; street theater, urban art activities featuring DJ skills and graffiti, and a library concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir organist will make the 34th Utah Arts Festival unquestionably, once again, the largest cultural undertaking ever in the state’s history.

And, with a forecast of sunny days and temperatures in the upper 80s and a slate that literally has something for everyone, attendance could easily top the 80,000 mark during the festival, which runs from Thursday, June 24, through Sunday, June 27. All events will be at the City Library Square.

And … by the way … there is a festival guide app for all of this as the UAF offers its first ever iPhone application, available for free from the Apples iTunes store. It was created by Mike Crandall of EyebrowMan Interactive and Teri Mumm and Jocelyn Kearl of Third Sun Productions.

As the state’s largest arts organization, the Utah Arts Festival once again provides strong evidence about why Utah is the second-fastest growing state in the country when it comes to individuals who report their work in the visual, creative, and performing arts as their primary occupation. Figures from the most recent and most comprehensive study by the National Endowment for the Arts show that Utah has nearly 15,000 such artists, a healthy proportion when one considers the state’s population of approximately 2.8 million people.

And, festival organizers, led by executive director Lisa Sewell, are savvy to current circumstances, ensuring the events are comfortably tailored for festivalgoers’ pocketbooks and wallets and for those increasingly concerned about how individual actions have an impact upon maintaining an ecologically friendly and sustainable environment.

The celebration of Utah’s growing artists’ colonies is manifested in many ways during the festival. As in recent years where a Utah artist’s work defines the thematic logo representation, this year’s graphic elements are represented by Salt Lake City artist Leia Bell – three prints representing Utah’s diverse terrain including the cityscape, snow-capped mountains, and the red rock distinctive to the southern portion of the state. Bell’s work – symbolizing the “Where Art Lives” tag line of the 2010 festival – is the third of a series in which a state artist’s work will be added to the festival’s permanent collection to be exhibited at the festival’s office space at the downtown Artspace location.

An exhibition of the “eclectic paintings and automata” of local artist Edie Roberson, whose career spans well over a half century, is being featured in the fourth floor Library Square gallery inside the City Library. Roberson will conduct a personal tour of the 40 pieces featured in the exhibition, followed by a reception, beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 26. The works represented in the exhibition comprise quite a surprising range of styles and approaches including impressionism, sharp-eyed realism, surreal whimsical treatments, ethereal and dreamlike influences, three-dimensional treatments blurring the lines of painting and sculpture, and functioning automata creations. The exhibition continues through July 9.

ARTISTS’ MARKETPLACE

This year’s artist marketplace will not disappoint in diversity, featuring everything from pottery in both serious and whimsical forms, rich hand-made and hand-woven fibers, jewelry in glass and metal forms, oil paintings in serious and comical representations, scenic watercolors, clever toys, and photography in exceptionally executed prints and originals.

Among the invited artists – all from Salt Lake City – to be featured include Bell, Marcie Blackerby (3-D mixed media), Howie Garber (photography), and Justin Wheatley (2-D mixed media).

Returning award-winning artists include Cat Palmer (2-D mixed media), Marilyn and Chris Sunderland (3-D mixed media), Shawn Harris (digital, pictured), Lisa Kattenbraker (fiber), Julie Stutznegger (glass), Fred Conlon (metalwork), and King Wu (photography).

Festival organizers, working with SLC Mayor Ralph Becker, also will present the Mayor’s Artist Awards:

This year’s winners comprise Teresa Flowers (Visual Arts), an award-winning Salt-Lake City painter and photographer whose work is known internationally and who founded the nonprofit Women’s Art Center in 2004; Richard Scott (Performing Arts), a long-time participant in the Utah theater scene who is the executive and artistic director for the Grand Theater and the Grand Theater Community Institute; Dan Miller (Service to the Arts-Individual), the local owner of Mills Publishing who has worked with virtually every major nonprofit arts organization in the city for more than three decades; Jeff Lambson (Service to the Arts-Individual), contemporary art curator for Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art who also has worked with the Hirshhorn Museum at the Smithsonian Institution and with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; and the Saltgrass Printmakers (Service to the Arts-Organization), a nonprofit open printmaking studio located in the city’s Sugarhouse district whose steamroller prints and public demonstrations were a major highlight of the 2009 Utah Arts Festival.

MUSIC AND DANCE COMMISSIONS

Along with the new artists will be the premiere performances of four musical commissions including a jazz commissions, started in 2008 to supplement the classical composer commission, which was started in 1991, and the chamber music commission, established in 2006 and sponsored by the Mandel Foundation.

Winners include Peter Knell (far left, pictured) for “Touching Red” for chamber orchestra (Thursday, June 24, at 8 p.m. on the Festival Stage); Eric Moe will present the chamber composition premiere, “Strenuous Pleasures” (Saturday, June 26, at 4 p.m. in the City Library Auditorium), and Joseph Chisholm, a trombonist and member of the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra and John Henry Band, and Dr. Shannon Roberts, who performs with the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra, the Great Basin Street Band, and his own ensembles, are the third recipients of the festival’s jazz commissions (Friday, June 25, at 8 p.m. on the Festival Stage).

A new commission is dance and Ballet West soloist Tom Mattingly with a trio of choreographed pieces titled “Prone” is the inaugural recipient. Representing the first time in 10 years that Ballet West has performed on a UAF stage, the world premiere commission by Mattingly features dancers from his company as well as the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. The performance, including other works by Mattingly and Marius Petipa, will be Friday, June 25, at 6 p.m. on the Festival Stage.

MUSIC AND PERFORMERS’ HIGHLIGHTS

Michelle Shocked and Cowboy Junkies: This year’s opening headliners on June 24 include Michelle Shocked, who performed in 1997 at the Utah Arts Festival, and the Cowboy Junkies, whose new album Renmin Park, Vol. 1 of The Nomad Series dropped just a week ago. A Texas native, Shocked, whose folk genealogical music influences include Joni Mitchell and Spider John Koerner, will go on at 8:45 p.m. on the Amphitheater Stage.

Hailing from Toronto, Cowboy Junkies is marking its 25th anniversary. This Canadian band, perhaps best known for its Trinity Session album recorded in one day using a single microphone inside a church, goes on the Amphitheater Stage at 9:45 p.m.

Fareed Haque and The Flat Earth Ensemble: A fusion guitar virtuoso with Pakistani and Chilean roots, he stretches the traditional genres to fresh explorations integrating classical, jazz, and jam band styles. He has worked with many of the best known names in contemporary music including Dave Holland, Sting, Arturo Sandoval, Ramsey Lewis, Gabe Noel, George Brooks and others. His ensemble will perform Sunday, June 27, at 9:45 p.m. on the main festival stage.

Richard Elliott: One of three full-time organists with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Elliott, who normally plays on a 206-rank Aeolian-Skinner organ in the Tabernacle, will turn the City Library’s unique open spaces, with the help of a digital organ and 30 speakers, into a truly memorable cathedral of resonating sound in several performances throughout the festival. And, no better way to test the aural possibilities than with the organ transcription of Modest Mussorgsky’s incredibly popular “Pictures at An Exhibition.” The free, public performances will be held in the library Thursday, June 24, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 25, at 7:15 p.m., and Saturday, June 26, at 3:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.

Seth Walker: This poet and performer, who has electrified the Houston poetry slam scene since 2007, returns to the Utah Arts Festival after wildly popular performances in 2009. Just 25, he’s been winding his way through the West, taking no prisoners in slam competitions at virtually every venue. He often wins or places second and is known for an unrelentingly honest, raw stream of emotion, revolutionary spirit, unabashed spirituality, and make-no-excuse sense of politics. He’ll perform five times at various stages throughout the festival.

Mini-Music Fests: Going with a clever and fresh way to organize the numerous music options to be sampled during the four-day festival, UAF organizers have hit on a cool scheduling approach.

Bluegrass Fest on Friday, June 25, features Head for the Hills (left) (8:30 p.m., Park Stage), Ridin’ the Faultline (9 p.m., Earth Garden Café), and headliner Cadillac Sky (9:45 p.m., Festival Stage).

Blues Fest on Saturday, June 26, features Blues on First (8:15 p.m., Amphitheater Stage), The Huckleberries (9 p.m., Park Stage), and headliner Café R&B (above, far left) (9:45 p.m., Amphitheater Stage).

Funk Fest on Sunday, June 27, features Funk Fu (7:45 p.m., Park Stage), The Soulistics (8:15 p.m., Park Stage), headliner The Joe Jordan Experiment (9 p.m., Park Stage), and headliner RonKat Freekbass Connect (far right) (9:45 p.m., Amphitheater Stage).

Jazz/World Fest on Sunday, June 27, features Desecration of the Johnny People (8 p.m., Festival Stage), Daniel Day Trio (9:15 p.m., Earth Garden Café), and Fareed Haque and The Flat Earth Ensemble (9:45 p.m., Festival Stage).

OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

The Target Art Yard, open every day for children during the festival until 9 p.m., with a theme of “Beneath The Surface” and exploration areas named “Color Caverns,” “Coral Reef Kingdoms,” “Ants, Plants, and Worms, Oh My!,” and “Your Inner Self.” Also, returning is the Instrument Petting Zoo coordinated by the Summerhays Music Center.

More than 60 independent short films from directors across the country and the world will mark the Fear No Film festival, rich in innovative programming under the simple yet highly creative and effective categories named after the Seven Dwarves. Eight films will compete in the 2010 Utah Short Film of the Year Competition and there will be a screening of five films considered the “best of other fests” (the Sleepy category). A major coup is the screening of Rory Kennedy’s “The Fence,” (photo) a documentary about the immigration debate that premiered at this year’s Sundance festival and will be aired on HBO this fall. Kennedy is the daughter of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Total attendance pushed 7,000 for Fear No Film screenings last year.

Back for a third year, wine and tapas offerings once again will be available at the festival’s Epicuriosity Tent, designed by Robert “Sully” Sullivan of Utah Food Services and prepared by student chefs from the Art Institute of Salt Lake City. Twenty other culinary vendors will provide a wide variety of foods during the festival. Of particular note is the return of Gastronomy’s Market Street Grill and the first-time appearance of Element 7, which uses liquid nitrogen to produce flash-frozen ice cream and Lucky 13 BBQ, which will offer a variety of kabobs.

Art Attack 5K run will be held Saturday, June 26, at 7:30 a.m. at Sugarhouse Park. The event, now in its 17th year, is expected to raise at least $15,000. More than 450 runners participated last year.

The festival also will feature numerous acts for its street theater, including a few surprises not on the official program. Performers include Outlaw Entertainers (whip cracking and lasso twirling Western-style show), Blue Lotus Dance Company (exotic dance), Mister Tim (one-man show), No Blood to Spare (traditional, tribal and fusion troupe of belly dancers and drummers), Magic Century (family-oriented magic show), and SLAPercussions (junkyard drumming).

And, the Big Mouth Café will be in force, hosting poets and storytellers. Also to be featured later this week will be the new slam poetry team competition featuring groups from Salt Lake City, Arizona, and Colorado and UAF’s first Utah Youth Rock Ensemble featuring members from various local bands. The Wasatch IronPen and Ultra IronPen competitions will be held as well.

And … along the more intriguing lines of sustainability … All portable toilet units will have flushing capabilities, similar to what one would find on planes. All cooking oils are being recycled as well.

The Salt Lake City chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is returning with the Revinylize Project where participants can make handbags, satchels, wallets, and tote bags from reclaimed billboard and vinyl material. These and other environmentally sustainable initiatives will be in force throughout the festival and look for the blog’s festival coverage later in the week that will focus on these practices.

TICKET INFORMATION

Festival gates open at noon and close at 11 p.m. each day. Admission rates are the same as last year. Adult admission is $10 at the gate and $7 in advance. Adults 65 and over are admitted at $5. Children 12 and under are admitted free.

For those going to the festival Thursday and Friday between noon and 3 p.m., admission is $5. Discounts are available for bulk ticket purchases as well as for those who ride their bikes to the festival.

Detailed schedules are available here.

And, look to The Selective Echo and to the Utah Arts Festival Web site throughout the week for daily features and announcements about festival events.

TOMORROW: Focus on marketplace artists

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