Spiral Jetty News - An Obstructed View?

A request has been filed to permit oil drilling in the Great Salt Lake four miles from the Spiral Jetty. The proposed exploratory drilling, subsequent infrastructure, and staging area would all be visible from the Jetty.

The State has not yet made a decision on this application. Director of the Resource Development Coordinating Committee, Jonathan Jemming, will be taking comments from the public until Feb. 13, 2008. Please contact him and tell him about your concerns, referencing Application No. 8853.

He can be reached at:

Jonathan Jemming 801-537-9023
jjemming@utah.gov

New Moves

The curatorial staff continues to prepare the galleries for Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings. The walls have been repainted and are now being moved into place. Visitors should consider the placement of walls as they walk through the Main Gallery; Curator of Exhibitions Jay Heuman says the space definitely shapes a viewer's experience. He says: "Because Gaylen Hansen is a solo exhibition, my concept was thematic. I've arranged works addressing a common issue together, along with signage specific to that topic. Also, since the entire space is devoted to this show, I wanted an inviting diagonal that would lead people to the Projects Gallery."



The Gaylen Hansen paintings have arrived! The works are unframed and will be tacked to our walls. Here they sit, wrapped in tubes, waiting to be moved into the Main and Projects Galleries. The exhibit will also occupy the Street Level Gallery.

Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings opens Friday evening, February 15th, at 6 pm with a special reception, free and open to the public.

STRIKE!

Yesterday, the curatorial staff of the Salt Lake Art Center began to strike SF Recycled and Masters of West Coast Assemblage & Collage. The strike process involves removing artwork from the gallery and repacking it for shipment, removing vinyl signage, repainting, cleaning the gallery, and rearranging movable walls for the new exhibition.

Although the Main and Project Galleries are currently closed to the public, and will remain so until the evening of Friday, February 15th, David Kimball Anderson: To Morris Graves is still on display in the Art Center's Streel Level Gallery through this Saturday, February 2.

Last Chance ...

SF Recycled and Masters of West Coast Assemblage & Collage close this Saturday, January 26, 2008, at 6 pm. The shows have been featured in the Main and Projects Galleries of the Salt Lake Art Center since October of 2007, and hundreds of visitors have enjoyed the thought-provoking and playful works of the artists involved.

We invite you to come see the shows today, Friday, until 9 pm, and tomorrow, Saturday, from 11 am to 6 pm.

David Kimball Anderson's sculptures will be on display in the Street Level Gallery through next Saturday, February 2. Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings will open on Friday evening, February 15, at 6 pm.

A Room of One's Own

The Salt Lake Art Center features a Resource Library, complete with DVD library and player, two computers with free internet access, and a number of contemporary art periodicals and monographs to make casual browsing or more serious research accessible to our visitors. Be sure to check it out on your next visit.

New Digs at the Center

With the new year comes a new space for the staff at the Salt Lake Art Center. What was once the Education Studio, where students in our youth education programs met to work, has been transformed into a meeting room and reception area, referred to as the Staff Room. The Education Studio has been moved to a nearby room with its own entrance, bathroom, extensive shelving and sink.



A small kitchen area has been added off the Staff Room, as well. Thanks to our Curatorial Staff for making it all happen!

We Wish You an Artful 2008

The Salt Lake Art Center Interim Director Leslie Peterson shares a New Year's greeting.

Happy New Year to all! As I look forward to the challenges the New Year will bring, I know one of the things I can depend on is the ever-evolving landscape at the Salt Lake Art Center. One of the highlights of working at the Art Center is watching the galleries transform themselves into entirely different spaces for each new exhibition, and to see how the interior spaces are designed to best highlight the artwork, and, depending on the nature of the show, to create a sense of intimacy, awe, or surprise for visitors. It’s rather like setting the stage for a grand spectacle and inviting our visitors to be the players in our galleries.

Additionally, I eagerly anticipate what the students in our youth education programs will produce in response to our exhibitions. At the moment, for example, we have one of the most delightful landscapes in our education gallery created by students from Beacon Heights Elementary under the direction of artist/instructors April Daugherty and Ginna Herridge and based on our Main Gallery exhibition SF Recycled. Walking down the corridor outside our offices, we encounter a forest populated by all manner of enchanting wild life created out of recyclable materials. The imagination, tenacity and talent evident in the display are an inspiration to all of us.

You never know exactly what to expect at the Salt Lake Art Center, but you do know that you’ll find an opportunity to reflect, to celebrate, to contemplate and to discover.

I hope the New Year will provide opportunities for you to visit often, to take pleasure in the unexpected, to share your reactions with us, and to spread the word about the treasures one can find at the Salt Lake Art Center. Above all, I and my colleagues wish you peace and prosperity in 2008!

Welcome Annie Kennedy, Curator of Education

The staff and Board of Trustees of the Salt Lake Art Center are pleased to introduce our new Curator of Education, Annie Kennedy. Kennedy comes to the Art Center from the Park City Kimball Art Center, having served as its Director of Education and Volunteer Coordinator. She is also an adjunct professor at Westminster College.

In 2001, Kennedy received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. During her tenure at RISD, she spent a year studying in Rome, Italy, as part of the school’s European Honors Program. In 2004, she earned her MFA from the Parsons School of Design in New York, New York. There she received the “Graduate Student of Merit Award.”

Her career as an artist has been equally lauded: in 2004, she was awarded an Artist in Residence Grant from the Salt Lake Arts Council. The following year she received an Individual Artist Project Grant from the Utah Arts Council.

Born in Salt Lake City as the youngest of six children, Kennedy was raised Mormon. She mines this experience for inspiration in her artwork. She writes: “Though Mormons share the landscape and history of America, many Mormon customs and beliefs vary from (or are even contradictory to) what many consider modern American values. As a part of this distinctive culture, I feel we have also developed an unusual visual language and aesthetic. My artwork is an exploration of this particular visual legacy and an examination of how it interacts with the culture of America and the language of the contemporary art world.”

Our pleasure at her installation as the Art Center’s Curator of Education is matched by her
excitement. She says: “As a long-time patron, I am honored to be joining the exceptional staff here at the Salt Lake Art Center. I believe deeply in the importance of art education and fully support the Art Center in its mission to promote contemporary art that challenges and educates the public in their perceptions of civil, social and aesthetic issues. I am enthusiastic about the many opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to further development in the wonderful education programming here at the Salt Lake Art Center.”

Happy New Year!

We'd like to wish all our friends (and friends we've yet to make) a very happy new year. We've got great things planned for 2008 and we hope to see you at the Art Center for Art Talks, Gallery Strolls and exhibition visits in the coming months.