Contact:
Anna West, Craft Lake PR, (801) 554-1614, artduh@gmail.com
Kent Rigby, UAA Gallery Director, (801) 870-2069 kent@utaharts.org
Local Artists Connect Art and Craft with Utah Arts Alliance Show
Craft Lake City artists will cross the fine line between art and craft with month-long show and Connect event
June 29, 2011 – SALT LAKE CITY – A show at the Utah Arts Alliance will explore an age old question among quilters, seamstresses, jewelry-makers and potters. Where is the line between art and craft? Is a 100-year old quilt a work of art? Is silver-smithing or broom stick lace gallery-worthy?
In an attempt to respond to these questions with a resounding “yes,” artists from Craft Lake City, Salt Lake City’s (CLC) largest alternative craft festival, will fill the Utah Arts Alliance’s (UAA) Main Street Gallery at 127 South Main Street in Salt Lake City for an exhibit called “Art vs. Craft.” The show runs July 5 through July 30, 2011, with an opening reception on July 8.
“We are excited to welcome fourteen CLC crafters to show at the UAA,” says Michelle Stark, CLC artist coordinator and Art vs. Craft curator. “The show will include print makers Claire Taylor and Travis Bone; photographers Nancy Rivera and Beau Burgess; repurposed painter Kat Martin; jewelers Steven May, Christine Fedor and Carrie Wakefield; clothing maker Trisha McBride; crochet-artists Anna West and Rachelle Smith; digital artist/screen printer Todd Powelson and furniture maker Keith McKeown. Artisan food will be offered by Megan Whittaker.”
In addition, the Utah Arts Alliance is calling on other artists and crafters to participate in their fifth monthly Connect event, to take place during the Art vs. Craft reception. Connect invites members of the public to share their work between 7 and 9 p.m. on the second Friday of the month. An established artist in the community will comment on the night’s theme at 8 p.m.
This month’s Connect commentary will be offered by crafter and blogger – Anna West of ArtDuh.com and her partner, fine artist, Todd Powelson. The couple will share their interpretation of the line between art and craft, and explain how art and craft merged when they met and began a life together.
“There was a time when craft wasn’t on my visual radar,” says Todd Powelson, painter, digital fine artist and CLC vendor. “After starting my life with the queen of handcraft, I realized that cubism wasn’t just a Picasso technique, quilters have been using it for hundreds of years. And now I paint embroidery, robes, curtains and folk dancers just as often as I reproduce ancient Greek works like Laocoon. Perhaps the line will truly be crossed when I begin to use a glue gun regularly in my art work.”
The opening reception will be held July 8, 2011 from 6 to 9 p.m. CLC crafter’s work will hang on the gallery walls, sculptural works will take up the floor, and even hand-crafted food, like macaroons, will be served. Connect artists from the community are invited to bring their work at 7 p.m. Those who would like to participate in voting can be entered into a contest for a grant to be awarded by UAA in December.
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About CLC
Craft Lake City will be held on Saturday, August 13, 2011 from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The event is free and open to the public. It is an outdoor arts festival that will showcase 180 artists, specializing in handmade goods. Affordably priced items like silk-screened posters, reconstructed clothing, knitted items and jewelry will be available. The event is sponsored by the Gallivan Center and ArtDuh.com and hosted by SLUG Magazine. Last year’s event welcomed over 8,000 visitors. For more information or to fill out an application please visit www.craftlakecity.com and follow the event on Twitter at twitter.com/craftlakecity.
About UAA
The Utah Arts Alliance is a 501c3 non-profit arts organization. Its mission is to foster the arts in its many forms, to provide venues to facilitate the arts, to provide programming and support for arts and education, to provide a central organization committed to networking and support of Utah’s non-profit arts and educational groups and to provide support and services to Utah’s artists and students. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday noon to 8 p.m.