2024 Will Be a Big Year for Arts & Culture
Performers at the 2023 Latino Arts Festival lit up the main stage
We’re nearly a month into 2024, and the Arts Council anticipates it will be a year of positive growth for the local Arts & Culture sector as well as our local artists! See a few things of note that we have in store for the coming year.
The alebrije sculpture at 2023 LAF brought delight to attendees of all ages
This year will be the Arts Council’s second year fully producing the Festival, and our second year hosting it at Canyons Village. 2023 saw us take on sole production of the Latino Arts Festival (LAF) for the first time, and the venue partnership with Canyons Village proved an enormous success, with over 8,000 people showing up to celebrate Hispanic and Latino art, food, performance, and culture. We have big dreams for LAF, and in 2024 those dreams will be supported in part by a new grant from the National Endowment for the Arts! This means LAF is gaining national recognition, in addition to receiving continued acknowledgement locally and state-wide as an important Summit County event. Our goal is to make 2024’s LAF more expansive, inclusive, and vibrant than ever with the addition of a Youth Program and increased support for artists. The Arts Council will engage a local Latin education coordinator to develop a Youth Program that will engage kids throughout Summit County with the Festival. With increased financial backing we can also provide more support to visual and performing artists, such as increased artist stipends and Festival production needs such as tent and equipment rentals.
Art on the Trails 2023 brought high art to Summit County
This year will also see the Arts Council release results from our 6th national Arts & Economic Prosperity study, produced in partnership with Americans for the Arts, which outlines the economic impact of Arts & Culture events and organizations in Summit County. This will aid in the Arts Council’s advocacy efforts on behalf of our creative community. According to Arts Council Executive Director Jocelyn Scudder, “Arts & Culture is a driving economic force in Summit County, and [our region] is a leader in the State. We finally have data that points to this, and we are excited to release this information for the general public to help educate people on the importance of Arts & Culture, and the need to continue to support it.”
Another of the Arts Council’s 2024 goals is to engage the community through our Summit County Arts & Culture Master Planning. “Through the planning process, we aim to galvanize the Arts & Culture community, bring people together around Arts & Culture development, and advocate for increased investment in Arts & Culture countywide,” explains Scudder, “the result of the process will be a community-informed plan and roadmap for the future of Art & Culture.” This exciting process will launch this year thanks to our major funding partners Park City Municipal, Summit County, and the Park City Chamber.
The Arts Council will step up efforts to support the Summit County Arts & Culture community in 2024, piloting a professional development program for local creatives and strengthening our resource work on behalf of local artists. We will listen to the local creative community to learn more about what they want out of their local Arts Council, all while building our resources for creatives. This could take the form of educational material that walks artists through the process of applying for public Requests for Proposals, or marketing their artwork on social media and strengthening their artistic brand. The goal, as Scudder puts it, is “creating a culture of learning [and] support, and fostering growth in the creative sector.” Another support plan, being implemented this year, is to provide local artists with gallery and studio space in which they can sell and share their work.
Join us for CREATE PC Launch Party on February 1st where guests can mix and mingle with the artists and see brand new work - RSVP here!
The Arts Council has secured space for the CREATE PC Local Artist Collective, which is located at 1500 Kearns Blvd (space F110 and F210). Formerly a pop-up program, the new space offers a more stable platform to showcase Summit County artists; Scudder says the Arts Council’s goal is still to “start planning for a long-term future brick-and-mortar space centered around building a home for local artists.” Relevant to this is the Arts Council’s goal to “create more gathering spaces for our community through Arts & Culture. We are all in need of more 'third places'—it's something that has suffered as a result of the pandemic.” Fostering events and places, such as some of the Arts Council’s signature programming Latino Arts Festival, Art on the Trails, and CREATE PC, helps to fill the vacancies created by these missing third places.
As 2024 unfolds, there will be plenty of opportunities for those passionate about Arts & Culture to get involved, including the chance to join the Culture Club, volunteer at the Latino Arts Festival, or join the Arts Council as a sponsor. If you believe that Summit County deserves an Arts & Culture community that is robust, vibrant, and inclusive, we hope you will lend your voice to our cause and make this year one to remember!