On Saturday, April 9, the Beverley Center for the Arts is holding its first ever Arts Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will be free and open to the public and is taking place at the center on the grounds of the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Southern Utah Museum of Art.
The aim of the festival is to celebrate the culture and atmosphere of Southern Utah University’s campus and Cedar City and will present elements of literary, performing and visual arts.
One large feature of the festival will be a performance that was created through the collaboration of Larry Keigwin from the dance group Keigwin + Company and visual artist Jason Hackenwerth. Keigwin created the choreography while Hackenweth created wearable sculpture costumes for the dancers to perform in.
Keigwin and Hackenweth have previously worked together on projects for the Green Box Arts Festival in Colorado and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
The festival will also include readings from the SUU literary and art magazine “Kolob Canyon Review,” which will be held at SUMA. Back issues of “KCR” will be available for purchase.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival Playmakers will be doing a performance of “Honk!” and leading a workshop.
“We have a variety of local and regional artists that will be selling original works of art,” Jessica Farling, executive director of SUMA, said about the festival. “We also have campus and community partners who will be set up to engage in a variety of activities. These partners include artsFUSION, Animal Ambassadors, Frontier Homestead Museum and State Park.”
There will be an art market with photography, paintings, prints, glass, jewelry, ceramics, home decor and more forms of art from SUU alumni, students, staff and local artisans.
Throughout the day there will be live music by local musicians including Madi Barth, Mountaintop Sound Duo, Jon Yerby-guitar and Sara Penny-string quartet.
The Hearty Beet, Bubby’s and the Corndog Company food trucks will be at the festival.
There will be a chalk art exhibit going on through the festival at the Sam & Diane Stewart Family Foundation Plaza and attendees can vote for their favorite pieces at SUMA. Interested attendees can sign up for any remaining available spots and pastels will be provided. There will also be spots available along the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Avenue for anyone to create chalk art.
The Arts Center at the Beverley is made possible by the sponsorship of SUU; Visit Cedar City ᐧBrian Head; the SUU Department of Theatre, Dance and Arts Administration; Leavitt Group; the SUU Department of Kinesiology and Outdoor Recreation; SUMA; the SUU Animal Ambassadors; Arts Fusion and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
More information about the arts festival can be found here.
Article by: Callie King-Stevens
accent@suunews.net
Photos courtesy of Arts Festival at The Beverley | SUU
