The Kimball Art Center will spin out the 2023 Spiral Soiree on April 1, and that’s not a joke, said Development Specialist Jaimie Mitchell.
“It is an art party at Pendry Park City,” she said. “This event ties together so much of what we do at the Kimball Art Center.”
The Spiral Soiree will be set up as a creative and interactive evening, according to Mitchell.
“People will have the opportunity to create a collaborative clay vessel with our education department, and we’ll have multiple artists who will create works onsite,” she said.
One of those artists is Clinton Whiting, who will create quick-sketch art that captures first-hand moments from the event..
Those works will be available for purchase,” Mitchell said. “And we’ll also have custom-commemorative screen prints for sale.”
In addition, the soiree, which will include live music performed by Gold Standard, will feature art-influenced live and silent auctions, according to Mitchell.
“Items include trips to different art fairs around the world, including New York, Miami and Mexico City,” she said. “We are excited to invite people to join us in a place with (Executive Director) Aldy Milliken, where they can be engaged in learning about art and being a part of group environments in these fairs.”
Attendees will also be able to take photos in a booth, highlighted by a backdrop by Miami-based installation artist Cara Despain, Mitchell said.
“Cara is one of our past exhibiting artists, and she will have a piece in our live auction as well,” she said.
Event attendees and event those who aren’t able to join the party may purchase opportunity drawing golden tickets by visiting kimballartcenter.maxgiving.bid/tickets.
Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” and “Sun Tunnels,” another earthwork by Smithson’s wife, Nancy Holt, are the center points of the art center’s current exhibit, “Between Life and Land: Material,” said Milliken.
Smithson created the “Spiral Jetty” out of mud, salt and basalt at Rozel Point on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake in 1970. Four years later, Holt installed “Sun Tunnels,” which consists of four, 18-feet-by-9-feet concrete cylinders that would catch the sun during the solstices in the Wendover desert.
“It used to be that people in Utah didn’t really know the legacy of these works when they were first created,” Milliken said. “But there’s the fact that the whole art world talked about these installations as seminal earthworks in the 1960s and 1970s. And Utah was the foundation for them.”
That is similar to the role the Kimball Art Center has for introducing and connecting art to the local community through various programs including Elementary Visual Arts, the Young Artist Academy and exhibitions, he said.
“The focus of the fundraiser is our world-class exhibits, because they reach across our education programs,” he said. “The exhibits also reach out to the visitors and tourism in Utah, and the local community.”
Milliken has a personal connection with “Sun Tunnels,” because the installation was the destination of his first visit to Utah in 1987.
“I still carry a black-and-white picture of it in my wallet that I took from that time,” he said. “So in a way I see this fundraiser as a way to support exceptional exhibitions and educational programming for Park City residents and visitors.”