Grants for artists; Museum seeks30 Artists

CULTURE » Arts

Calling all artists! St. George Arts Commission accepting grant applications
Calling all artists! St. George Arts Commission accepting grant applications
| Thursday, June 25, 2015, 9:00 am |

2014 Art Festival – John Koch, Arts Commission Choice Award
John Koch receives the 2014 Arts Commission Choice Award
The Independent

To help support local artists, the St. George Arts Commission is accepting grant applications for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. on July 9.

The St. George Arts Commission mission statement is as follows: “To foster, encourage, and promote the arts in the City of St. George for the purpose of enriching and improving the lives of its residents and visitors. This will be accomplished through the creation, advocacy, and facilitation of arts programming.”

Before she passed, Beverley Taylor Sorenson--for whom the new center for the arts at Southern Utah University has been named--lauded the art scene in the southern part of the state.

"I had no idea that so many great and exciting things in the arts were happening here in St. George," she said. "There are opportunities just as great as we have along the Wasatch Front right here in southern Utah."

In addition to the grants, the Arts Commission Choice Award is selected each spring at the annual St. George Art Festival by members of the St. George Arts Commission. The availability of funds will be contingent upon approval of the St. George City Council.

Grant applications are available online at sgcity.org/departments/leisureservices/arts/artscommission, under the “Arts Grant Application” tab. Completed applications can be mailed to or turned in at the following address: St. George Arts Commission, c/o Community Arts Division, 47 E 200 N, St. George, UT 84770. For additional information please call (435) 627-4510.

----------------------------------------
Behringer-Crawford Museum Looking for 30 Best Artists

Behringer-Crawford Museum is looking for 30 artists willing to accept a challenge.

The occasion is the museum’s 23rd annual freshART en plein air art event. Participating artists will spend Saturday, September 12 in Covington’s Devou Park creating original works to be auctioned that evening at a gala dinner benefiting children via BCM’s educational programs.

freshART participation will be limited to 30 of the region’s finest artists, selected from a pool of applicants. All art media are welcome – watercolors, oils, charcoal, ceramics, sculpture et al. The only requirements are that artists must be age 18 or older and that all art must be completed on September 12 and ready for display by 4 p.m. that afternoon.

A portion of the sale price of each auctioned piece will go to the artist; the balance will be donated to the museum. Submitted artworks will be judged by a panel of experts with cash prizes awarded to the first, second and third-place entries.

To apply, interested artists should contact the museum at 859-491-4003 and/or download the application forms from bcmuseum.org. There is a $50 registration fee which entitles the artist to admission to the gala, dinner and auction, plus the opportunity to purchase an additional guest ticket at half-price.

In addition to the live freshART auction, the gala will feature a “Next-Gen” classification showcasing high school and college-age artists and their works for sale, plus a silent auction of art and art-related packages. Applications for both of these additional categories are available from the museum and on bcmuseum.org.

The freshART gala will take place in the museum’s elegant outdoor amphitheater beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception, art preview, silent auction and dinner catered by McHale’s Events and Catering followed by the live art auction. Tickets to freshART 2015 are $100, available online at bcmuseum.org or by calling 859-491-4003.

Since the inception of freshART, more than a half million dollars has been raised, bringing educational and cultural activities to nearly a quarter of a million area children.

From Behringer-Crawford Museum/Photo: Volunteers display last year's blue-ribbon winner, "The Apple Tree" by Billy Tackett