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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
Tell you about this tree, please. It was a three-foot-diameter, rock-solid oak with an intricately interwoven skin of bark that was strangely both coarse and forgiving to the fingers. The trunk was magnificently embossed in rich grey tones, set in deep relief. The ash truly belongs to the olive family but was created by nature to rise 70 feet in the air. The centre trunk of this specific tree was severed about 15 feet up, and the remaining branches wrapped like a massive green chalice, hiding the power lines. It was allowed to grow no higher than 30 feet. Nevertheless, the thick, luxuriant canopy stretched nearly as far as the height. It was really beautiful, and as a result
In her 17 years as the Utah Arts Festival’s Art Yard coordinator, Margaret Willis has cultivated a devoted group of regional arts, cultural, and community organisations that enrich the programming and provide make-and-take projects that relate to the venue’s yearly theme. Willis then extends an invitation to a local group with a close connection to the theme.
Willis selected Tree Utah to serve as the anchor for the creative impulse for activities and projects for the Art Yard’s Forest and Trees theme this year. Thousands of native trees and woody perennials are being planted by volunteers as part of ongoing TreeUtah efforts along riparian corridors like the Jordan River, including community tree planting and ecological restoration. On properties managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood Canyons, they also focus on reforestation initiatives. They have planted more than 400,000 trees in the previous 35 years.
The Art Yard’s emphasis on the value of repurposed materials, which explodes with amazing bursts of do-it-yourself and creative take-home projects, is its most enduring feature. Many parents are ecstatic to learn that these activities don’t put an undue financial strain on their families. Reiterating a theme from prior years, artistic pursuits don’t have to be expensive and can also be considerate of environmental prudence. Parents and children can simply recreate these crafts at home as well.
The location will contain trees and forests made from recycled materials that young festival attendees can decorate with paint, leaves, and bark. Upcycled materials such as cans, bottles, cereal boxes, soda bottles, and newspapers are used to make tree sculptures. Fabric scraps and glue work well for embellishing these sculptures. And yes, there will be Bigfoot (Sasquatch) as well as deer and other forest creatures.
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Common climate zones, such as temperate, tropical, boreal, and desert, are all covered by the forests. Additionally, festival attendees will be able to customise sculptures of forest animals made by seventh-grade Wasatch Charter School art students. Toilet paper rolls will also be available from the Art Yard personnel so that kids can make trees for their very own miniature forest.
A tree could theoretically start from any object. For instance, old tomato cages can be transformed into palm, deciduous, or evergreen trees depending on how they are viewed—straight, upside-down, or from another angle. Willis advises parents and children to do this while making a DIY art project using any ordinary product. Willis says that she particularly enjoys the subject of forests and trees this year because she and family members have worked as backcountry firefighters.
There will also be make-and-take crafts available. The local nonprofit What’s Ya Vibe? will have supplies for making flowers and masks in the Art Yard as part of the festival’s Emerging Artists programme. The organization’s team, led by Shalandrea Houchen, will offer festival attendees flowers, branches, paints, oil, pastels, jewels, and other supplies so they can create their own flower or a tribal mask representing Oshun, a goddess of love significant to Yoruba-based religions, which originated in West Africa and spread to the Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian cultures.
Craft Lake City, Make Salt Lake, Utah Film Centre, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and Visual Arts Institute are just a few of the organisations that will have booths for activities. For instance, Craft Lake City will provide a make-and-take craft project called rock painting.
The construction of bee habitats for solitary bees (Mason Bees, Leaf Cutter Bees, etc.) will be demonstrated by Make Salt Lake volunteers. To make sure they would have enough supplies, Beth Sallay put out a call for empty soup cans (of any size). She also uses mailing tubes that are 3′′ x 4′′ in addition to provided PVC pipe materials. She says, “I painted an entire gallon can’s worth of yellow.” When that ran out, the Utah Arts Alliance contributed different colours.
Black vinyl is used to cover the outside centre, which is then twine-hung. Biodegradable paper straws and wood mulch are contained there. Volunteers, according to Sallay, will show attendees how to construct paper straws out of copy paper. She says, “I’ve asked for bee drawings from all the kids I know (plus adults),” and the tent will be decked with them. Any festival attendees are encouraged to bring their own bee drawings to add to the Make Salt Lake tent.
The Utah Film Centre will show off methods for creating stop-motion computer animation, set design, green screens, and paper craft animation in addition to short animated films and animation toys. Young painters can create their own ecology poster at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) with the use of resources, including butterflies, tissue-paper flowers, and pen and paint drawings. Children can make their own leaf stamps and print trees with information about their family and/or friends using tools available at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Children can design and make leaf pendants and earth buttons with the help of the Visual Art Institute.
Instrument Petting Zoo at Summerhays Music Centre, a hallmark of the Art Yard, is back. The first family-run music business in the state, Summerhays, opened its doors in 1936. Additionally, screenings of Fear No Film KIDS! will be available for children on June 23 and 24, at 2 p.m., and June 25, at 12:15 p.m. at the City Library Auditorium.
Download the free Utah Arts Festival app for Android or iOS to learn more and purchase tickets. Links are also provided to the UAF’s main webpage.