Blog

A Pinkalicious Ticket Tuesday

March 27, 2017

A winner has been chosen for this giveaway from Utah Children's Theatre.  Congrats to Tomoe in SLC!

Culinary Art in the Mountains

March 21, 2017

Alta Community Enrichment, ACE, hosts year round art classes in the mountains of Alta, Utah, these classes include the culinary arts.  An Alta resident and ACE aficionado, Julie Willis, opens her home to teach many of these classes which have included, Introduction to Soup Making and Introduction to Biscotti Making.  We are thrilled to share her instructions on how to make her amazing homemade biscotti.

Intro to Biscotti Making with Julie Willis

On a snow-chilled night what better thing to do then warm up with some fresh-made biscotti!

Julie Willis- Biscotti Baker Extraordinaire provided a wonderful recipe for some of the most delicious Biscotti Cookies we have ever had.

Here is a step-by-step recipe for you to try at home! Be sure to tag #ACEBiscotti and @alta_community_enrichment on social media to share your results!

What You Will Need:

• 1/4 lbs Butter ( 1 stick)
• 3/4 Cup of Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Tsp Kirsch (Cherry Liqueur)
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract 
• 2 Cups + 2 Tsp Flour
• 1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Cup Almonds - Chopped
• 3/4 Finely Chopped Chocolate

Baking Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 325 Degrees
• As you combine the wet and dry ingredients, be quick but do not hurry.
• Mix but do not beat.
• Handle quickly so the heat from your hands does not melt the butter.
• Form three small loaves and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• Loaves should be a very light brown on the bottom when they come out.
• Place on a cooling rack and reset the oven to 300 Degrees.
• Cut the loaves into equal sizes, then bake again for 10 minutes, flip and bake again for 8-10 minutes.

Tips:

Longer time = crispy biscotti | Shorter time = softer biscotti

Please join ACE at any of our year round events soon!  www.altaarts.org/events

ACE’s mission is to create opportunities in the Little Cottonwood community for individual and group participation in arts, cultural events and education. ACE began in 1995 when community members recognized the need for professional coordination of successful grassroots community events. Since inception ACE has served as the Alta Arts Council by offering quality, diverse events and programs for free or very little cost to its attendees and strengthens our community by bringing people who live work and play in Alta together to share the arts, cultural events, and education.  

ACE currently offers 65+ year round diverse programs with the majority of events inspired by input from local artists and families. From small events, such as craft-making classes to larger events, such as the multi-day Snowflake Festival, ACE caters to the needs of our community. ACE strives to offer new events and old favorites to bring our community together.

-Sara Gibbs

Sara is the Executive Director of ACE.

Shifting and Slipping: Plan-B Theatre's NOT ONE DROP

March 20, 2017

I moved around a fair amount as a child. I was born in Scotland, lived in a few different places in England, Scotland again, England again, the east coast of the States, and now here in Salt Lake City. I’m a citizen of the United Kingdom, but now feel more American. Moving around so much as a child, it was hard for me to keep an identity straight. I felt more like I was a mix and melded into the places and people I was around, to the point that I would adopt the accent of whoever I was talking to. Something I still do, because I’m cool like that.

^{Credit: Rick Pollock}

I was a member of the LDS faith, believed in god, went on a mission – the whole shebang – and now I’m not sure what I believe. And my point in saying all of that? If there is one thing that I kind of know, that I maybe believe in, it is that people change, places change, ideas and spaces alter, and it all weaves together like a spider web.

Consequently, lines and boundaries that are liquid, elusive, and adoptive, are some of the foremost issues I play with in my play NOT ONE DROP. I also mess with the beliefs of the characters, and by way of the characters, the audience. I do this through the way language is used, the words themselves, the construction of those words, wordplay and its ultimate demise, as language proves, again and again, to fail.

^{Credit: Rick Pollock}

I wrote NOT ONE DROP as my submission to Plan-B via The David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists. I wanted to incorporate the ideas of displacement I’ve felt through my life, into a piece that may perhaps question something different. The nature of the relationship of the characters is constantly shifting and slipping – are they sisters, friends, lovers, enemies? – and ultimately it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they are so close that they slip into each other’s identities. They mirror each other, and then their identities are, at times, completely mirrored back on themselves.

Sometimes I think it’s hard to tweeze out our own identities, especially in relation to the people that we are closest to – to the point that it’s hard to differentiate what happened to who – especially within familial relationships. I find that in these relationships, I can sometimes take on the ideas, feelings, and emotions of that person, and beginnings and endings become unclear, and even unimportant.

-Morag Shepherd

Morag Shepherd’s NOT ONE DROP receives its world premiere at Plan-B March 23-April 2 at Plan-B Theatre, in partnership with The David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists. Featuring Colleen Baum and Latoya Cameron, directed by Jerry Rapier. Details and tickets.

Playwright Morag Shepherd makes her Plan-B debut with NOT ONE DROP, receiving its world premiere March 23-April 2. Originally from Scotland, she is the resident playwright at Sackerson, where her plays THE WORST THING I’VE EVER DONE (co-written with Matthew Ivan Bennett and Shawn Francis Saunders), BEFORE THE BEEP, BURN and POPPY’S IN THE SAND have premiered, the latter playing Great Salt Lake and San Diego International Fringe Festivals.

Ticket Tuesday with UMOCA (2)

March 14, 2017

Winners have been chosen for this week's Ticket Tuesday. Be sure to check back for future giveaways.

Ticket Tuesday with Mundi Project

March 07, 2017

Taylor Mac: Art and Social Justice

March 07, 2017

This January, UtahPresents showcased one of the most talked about theatre experiences of the year - Taylor Mac’s “A 24 Decade History of Popular Music.” The performance was part of UtahPresents’ mission to provide a diverse range of perspectives and voices in our community and world. 

^{Taylor Mac, Photo credit: Kevin Yatarola}

Mac, who has created internationally award-winning performance events that both provoke and embrace his audiences, used his 24-hour concert in New York to examine American history through the lens of popular music of each decade. The day-long concert was a critical success, evoking strong responses from audiences and media alike. Mac was named to the Out 100 2016, calling the performance, “the greatest theatrical feat ever.” Wesley Morris, critic-at-large for the New York Times hailed the performance as one “one of the great experiences of my life. I’ve slept on it and I’m sure.”

Equal parts community organizer, Elizabethan fool, and bedazzled bon vivant, judy (Mac’s preferred pronoun), brought the decades of 1956-1976 to the stage at Kingsbury Hall.  As the kickoff to MLK week at the University of Utah, these decades covered the music of the Civil Rights Movement through Stonewall Riots, and examined the struggle for equality that dominated the era. Through his vulnerability and compassion, the audience was moved by Mac’s message of how to be better, do better, work harder, and love more.

One audience member called the experience, "a social experiment and history lesson through art and music - an enlightenment that all things should be loved and appreciated by all beings.”

UtahPresents’ performers are selected for their commitment to community engagement in addition to their artistic excellence. As part of his residency in Utah, Taylor Mac and the show’s director, Niegel Smith, participated in a discussion with University of Utah diversity scholars about using art for social justice, while dissecting the experiences the students had at the performance. Mac's costume designer, Machine Dazzle, conducted a costuming master class for theatre students, exploring his work with Taylor and the 24-hour concert. The leader of Mac’s performing assistants (the dandy minions), Timothy White Eagle, also guest lectured for the Department of Theatre, teaching a class on ritual performance. Mac and Smith, along with choreographer Bill. T. Jones, joined KUER’s Doug Fabrizio for the David P. Gardner Lecture, discussing how they use their art forms for activism, which was rebroadcast on Radio West. 

^{The dandy minions with Taylor Mac}

Performances like Taylor Mac and the corresponding community engagement events are how UtahPresents brings Salt Lake County residents together to exchange ideas about important issues and strengthen understanding about the diversity right here in our community. For more information about our upcoming performances and community engagement events, visit UtahPresents.org.

-Dennis Busch

Dennis Busch is the development specialist at UtahPresents. When he’s not at the theatre, he enjoys traveling, entertaining, and playing with his dog. 

In the Dirt with Wasatch Community Gardens

March 03, 2017

Fresh, spring greens and radishes: that's what March brings, no matter whether it comes in like a lion or goes out like a lamb! The ground is thawing and shoots are sprouting, so it's time to start getting our hands dirty in earnest. All of Wasatch Community Garden’s programs are already out in the dirt getting their 2017 season started.

The crew at the GREEN TEAM Farm have been marching forth into farm season, with nearly 4,500 starts in soil blocks happily growing in the nursery greenhouse.  Three inches of compost made last fall have been top dressed onto the front 3/4 acre, cool crops have been sown, and now the focus is on building the rest of the beds on the rear half of the farm.  With some mighty cold days in February hopefully behind us, we'll begin harvesting this month and hopefully declare it spring!

The School Garden Program is in full swing!  They are getting their students outside planting their gardens, are doing taste tests, and while the weather is still variable, they are doing garden inspired art projects inside.  If you have always wanted to be a part of WCG's School Garden Program, your wait is over! Head over to the School Garden Program's page on our website, and download an application.  

The Community Education program has got a slew of amazing workshops coming up and the Youth Program has opened up our summer camp registrations. Due to popular demand, we're offering most of our summer camps as full day experiences through partnering with other organizations so check out our offerings!

Finally, the Community Garden program working on starting not one, but two new community gardens this spring! Both our 9-Line Garden and our garden at Whedon Farm in Draper need lots of energy and volunteers so contact us to get involved. 

We are looking forward to another delicious gardening season with our community, and are eager to get away from the office and out in garden!

Happy planting!

-Benjamin Luks-Morgan

Benjamin Luks-Morgan is the Outreach and Volunteer Director for Wasatch Community Gardens.

A Successful Ticket Tuesday with Empress Theatre

February 28, 2017

2 winners have been chosen to win tickets to HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (March 10 - March 25) at The Empress Theatre.
The Empress Theatre is funded in part by Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks.

Cat in the Hat knows a lot about ZAP!

February 22, 2017

Springtime is filled with fun and literacy at Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum! We’re kicking off the season with a full day of reading, play, and Dr. Seuss!

Discovery Gateway will turn into Seussville on March 2, complete with Seuss-tastic classes, a Hop on Pop Jump-a-Thon, a Dr. Seuss & Friends photo booth, and more! Plus, there will be special surprise visits from the one- and- only Cat in the Hat!

Also on March 2, Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum will open the new Reading Nook to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The Reading Nook features several iconic pieces from the museum’s original location on Beck Street, including the jumbo light switch and giant chair with a pencil ladder from the Sizewise gallery. These treasured pieces from our collection have been re-imagined to create the perfect reading space. The pencil ladder is now home to the Take a Book, Leave a Book Library program, a partnership with Salt Lake City Public Library and KUED PBS Kids. We encourage families to bring in a book for another family to enjoy in exchange for a new book to take home. Through this program, it is our mission to put a book in the hands of every child and cultivate a lifelong love of reading.

The best part? It’s absolutely free! Guests can enjoy a free day in the museum thanks to the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks (ZAP) program. Don’t miss this fun day of play and literacy!

The Reading Nook also features information about Salt Lake County’s participation in the national Talking is Teaching initiative dedicated to closing the word gap and supporting families of young children to learn together in any language through talking, singing, reading, writing and playing every day! Discovery Gateway is a proud contributing partner of this initiative, and we hope to see families engaged in these activities throughout the museum and incorporate these principles at home as well!

-Kristin Jahne 

Kristin Jahne is the Marketing Coordinator at Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. When she’s not fixing member issues or analyzing data, you can find her interacting with patrons around the museum or helping plan events for DG members.  Laura Cotter, Operations Manager, is our resident wordsmith and crafted the title phrase. 

Ticket Tuesday to Treasure Island

February 21, 2017

One winner has been chosen to receive four free tickets to Treasure Island at Utah Children's Theatre. Utah Children's Theatre is partially funded through a grant from Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks.