1TH Page 2 Park City It Happens Every Year By Tina Lewis It happens every year in Park City. The anticipation grows as the summer lengthens. The excitement ex-citement mounts as the artists receive their notices of acceptance, acceptan-ce, as preparations are made and banners are hoisted into place. Then in August, thousands of people from across the country, artists and art observers alike, converge on historic Main Street for two days to see, to hear, to participate, and to experience the Park City Arts Festival. This year marks the 10th anniversary an-niversary of the festival, making it the oldest arts festival in the state of Utah. The festival has become a special part of many people's lives since Park City local Jim Patterson and friends planned the first festival because "there was a lack of culture in Utah and we all felt Park City was a perfect place to get something going." Patterson had seen a festival in Nevada and liked the contrast of the "colorful artists displaying their work against the background of the rustic buildings of an old mining town." Although he was not an artist and had no art background, the idea of being able to see and buy fine art in his own town appealed to him. Park City's sleepy summer community lacked tourist-oriented tourist-oriented events and forced many small businesses to close. Merchants Mer-chants were interested in any ideas that would create activity, especially outside their front doors along Main Street. Patterson assembled a small group of local artists and businessmen who volunteered their talents and energy to make the first Park City Arts Festival a success. About 150 artists and craftsmen responded to the posters and ads. The entry fee was minimal and the only criteria was that all work must be original. Patterson, who had serious doubts about the festival's success, was astounded by the large, enthusiastic crowds that attended at-tended and plans were soon underway un-derway for the next year. People enjoying seeing and buying art close to home plus the background of Park City's uniquely beautiful setting created a perfect situation for a lively exchange ex-change of the arts. The Park City Arts Festival is now synonymous with the town itself, and is recognized throughout the country coun-try as one of the finest and most successful festivals of its kind. Patterson and his friends were involved with the festival until 1973 when the newly organized Park City Chamber of Commerce emerged as its first sponsor. The chamber guided the festival as it matured and grew until 1978. By charging artists a small application ap-plication IVe and collecting a per- " "0 1 4- tTW jrV .1 4 L"- " if f H<ev. 41- centage of their sales, the chamber cham-ber raised funds to benefit their community projects. Each year the festival was coordinated by a director and backed by an executive committee comprised of a cross-section of local artists and businessmen. As word spread throughout the West of the festival's success and the number of artists wanting to exhibit increased it was agreed that control was needed. One year Main Street bulged with over 400 exhibitors! The present system of jurying was adopted and effectively effec-tively reduced the number of artists ar-tists on the street to a more manageable size of about 200. A formal application form was created in 1976 that listed criteria, regulations and unacceptable categories in addition to letting the artists know what to expect. The festival's mailing list of interested in-terested artists has grown through the years. This year, over 3,500 applications were mailed to artists and craftsmen in 43 states. Every festival becomes a reunion for many of the "regular" artists who come from as far away as Virginia and Florida. The festival has become the community's greatest sales tool as a first introduction to Park City for many out-of-towners. Lots of Park City residents, including artists, ar-tists, trace their love affair with the town back to the first Park City Arts Festival they experien ced. Vacations and family reunions are now planned around festival dates and many festival-goers festival-goers have become acquaintances of regular artists and look forward for-ward to seeing their favorites each year. After 10 years the festival has created colorful memorabilia including in-cluding posters, visors and special editions of the local newspapers that have become collector's items. Traveling Parkites have been seen in many parts of the world wearing their Arts Festival T-shirts. When a special shirt was printed in 1978 labeled "Park City Arts Festival Official," it mysteriously disappeared disap-peared by the dozens. The festival's now-familiar logo, a woodcut of the Silver King Coalition building, created by local artist Pat Smith, has been retained for the past several years and is now easily identifiable with the festival. In 1978 the Arts Festival expanded expand-ed its name to the Park City Arts and Bluegrass Festival and organized its first try at bringing bluegrass to the area with the Shupe Family of Ogden. The Bluegrass Festival, staged in Treasure Hollow at the resort, presented nationally known groups to appreciative, if not huge, audiences. The festival tried a new method of collecting a flat fee from the artists ar-tists for the use of their space rather than collecting a percentage percen-tage of their income as in previous years. One hundred and ninety artists ar-tists on Main Street (20 of them were from Park City) represented 15 states and many commented that word had spread among artist's ar-tist's network that the Park City Festival was one of the best in the country. One could see hot air balloons floating along the Victorian Vic-torian rooftops, join in the colorful folkdancing, watch a weaver spinning wool into yarn, . taste a fresh shrimp cocktail and listen to a regiment of bagpippers. The '78 festival was called the biggest and best ever. The Kimball Art Center and the newly formed Park City Arts Council are this year's festival sponsors and for the 10th anniversary anniver-sary will carry on the town's long tradition. The sponsorship transfer was voted on by the boards of directors of the Chamber, the Art Center and the Arts Council, with the festival's executive committee commit-tee retained as a guarantee of community input in future years. The transfer gives the festival a new home at the Kimball Art Center Cen-ter among artists and with an organization that deals with art and artists on a daily basis. As this year's director, I plan to create a special celebration for the festival's 10th anniversary and want to recognize with appreciation ap-preciation all of the people in the Arts Festival's past who cared so deeply about its success and the future of Park City. An embossed seal, which incorporates the number "10" with the traditional Arts Festival woodcut, was developed by Patricia Smith to be used as the logo this year. Summer activities surrounding the festival will be extensive. Plans were completed to revive the workshops concept during the weekdays preceeding the street festival and to highlight the evenings with performing arts. Many of them will be sponsored by the University of Utah's Summer Sum-mer Arts Institute. The second annual Bluegrass Festival opened the Arts Festival festivities on the weekend of July 28th and 29th. And finally, the Arts Festival has applied for a grant this year from the Utah Arts Council which will insure seed money for future festivals and put the event on its own feet. The personalities involved with the festival may fade in and out over the years, the surrounding activities may expand and develop, the sponsorship may change. But the festival itself still owes its success to the idea that started it all colorful artists presenting handcrafted work along Park City's charming streets with a backdrop of alpine beauty. An unbeatable combination com-bination that is difficult for anyone to resist.