As a child, Anthony Barbano dreamed of being in the Utah Arts Festival.
“The Utah Arts Festival really hits home to me because I grew up in Murray, and I remember … my father would bring me to the (festival),” he said. “And my mind would just run wild with ideas and inspiration … so it’s always been a big goal of mine to be in there.”
It’s a goal that Barbano will be achieving for the third time this year.
The local glass blower, who specializes in fumed glass (where 24-karat gold and pure silver are blown into glass to achieve various colors), will be at booth 16 for all four days of the festival. His work — marbles, bottle stoppers and jewelry — will run from $85 up to $2,250, though Barbano said his average price point for the Utah Arts Festival will probably be $145.
But glass isn’t the only item festivalgoers will find. Now in its 41st year, the annual Utah Arts Festival is bringing more music, dance and visual art than ever before to the 80,000-plus participants it attracts each summer.
Held June 22-25 with the theme "United in Art," the festival will be at Library Square in Salt Lake City and will feature over 160 visual artists and over 100 performing arts groups across six stages. Other highlights include the Utah High School Fine Arts Traveling Exhibition, the Fear No Film program, a children's section, a range of hands-on workshops and an extraordinary lineup of singers, dancers, poets and more.
Executive Director Lisa Sewell said this variety of performances and artwork makes the Utah Arts Festival different from other festivals around the country. She believes art festivals fulfill people’s craving to come together and enjoy what artists create.
“I think art has such a role to play in individuals’ lives … as well as a place in the larger community where (artists) share their artistic experiences with others,” Sewell said.
For local jazz musician Alex Heitlinger, sharing his music is the most direct way he can communicate.
Heitlinger, who was born in Minneapolis and raised in Tucson, came to Utah two years ago to become assistant professor of music and director of jazz and contemporary performance at Utah Valley University. His commission, “For Patrick,” will be played June 23 at 7:45 p.m. on the Festival Stage and was inspired by his son’s birth.
“I decided to use his birthday as a musical device that would get things going writing the piece,” Heitlinger said. “So he was born on Jan. 18, 2017, so the numbers are 1-18-17, and the musical scale as you might know has seven notes. … So you can sort of turn numbers into sounds that way. So 1-1-8-1-7 (is) the root, the root, the octave, back to the root, and then open to the leading tone, so that’s the musical version of my son’s birthday.”
While Heitlinger was inspired by numbers for his commission, Chicago-based painter Laura Junge takes her inspiration from “energy and movement,” according to her website. For Junge, the Utah Arts Festival is an opportunity to share her work with a wider audience.
“The Utah Arts Festival is … worth it to travel to because in Utah there’s not a lot of (art sellers) … so when people come to the show, they’re really hungry (for art),” Junge said.
Junge started painting in a community college class and went on to graduate from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to being the proprietor and in-house artist at the Jackson Junge Gallery in Chicago, she sells her work at art festivals all over the country and will be at booth 21 at the Utah Arts Festival for all four days. Junge will sell paintings that have 3-D qualities sculpted onto the canvas, as well as mixed-media paintings and some reproductions of her work. Original works will run from $500 to $4,500, while reproductions will go from $25 to $1,500.
To Junge, art is a teacher, an entertainer and “basically who I am,” she said. “I think (art) matters to other people because it’s a launching pad for thought, it’s a way to start conversation (and) it helps (people) think in different ways."
Sewell agreed art is an important connector.
"I think more and more, (because) there is so much going on with social media and electronics and videos and things like that, (people) need to have (artistic) experiences," she said.
“(And) it’s always really great to see that, regardless of what’s going on in the country … people are still creating art.”
If you go …
What: The Utah Arts Festival
When: June 22-25
Where: Library Square in Salt Lake City
How much: Adults $12 at the gate, $8 in advance; $10 at the gate on opening day, $6 lunchtime special (noon-3 p.m.) on Friday; seniors 65 and up $6; children 12 and under free.
Web: uaf.org
Kaitlyn Bancroft is a communications major in the News Media emphasis at Brigham Young University. Currently she interns at the Deseret News in the Arts and Entertainment section. Email her at kbancroft@deseretnews.com