- Utah Arts Council
The Utah Arts Council is an agency of the state government of
Utah , responsible for the promotion of the arts.The Utah Arts Council was established in 1899 as the Utah Art Institute through the passage of the "Art Bill," legislation drafted by
Alice Merrill Horne (an artist, art patron, and the first woman elected to the Utah State House of Representatives) and fellow artistGeorge Ottinger .Today, the Utah Arts Council is the primary agency in Utah through which state and national funds combine to stimulate and encourage the arts. The Utah Arts Council distributes funds appropriated directly for the arts by both the Utah State Legislature and the
National Endowment for the Arts . It acts as a state coordinator and adviser, having an awareness of various programs that might be underway at any given time around the state. The Utah Arts Council assists with professional development where needed and provides direct matching grants to more than 200 nonprofit organizations statewide.The Utah Arts Council conducts programs which provide more than 500 outreach services to schools, local arts councils and organizations, community centers, performing groups and individual artists. These programs include folk arts, arts education, public art, literary arts, community development, public art, design arts, and visual arts. Financial assistance is available through several programs including grants to individual artists, funding to schools through arts education, creative communities initiative funds, visual arts fellowships, and apprenticeships for folk and ethnic artists. Overall the Council serves as a catalyst for arts programming throughout the state, assisting arts organizations, groups and individuals in bringing the arts to the people of Utah.
Its primary offices are located in the Glendinning Home in Salt Lake City. The folk arts program is housed in the Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts. The visual, public, and design arts programs are based out of offices in the Rio Grande Depot in Salt Lake City. The Utah Arts Council operates two free, public galleries: the Alice Gallery at the Glendinning Home, which exhibits artwork from Utah's State Fine Art Collection and Traveling Exhibition Program, as well as the Rio Gallery, located at the Rio Grande Depot. The Rio Gallery is dedicated to exhibiting the artwork of Utah's contemporary artists.
As of November, 2007, the current director is
Margaret Hunt .ee also
*
State of Utah External links
* [http://arts.utah.gov/ Utah Arts Council website]
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