Logan, Utah’s 34th annual Summerfest Arts Faire features a new traditional arts component.
“This is not something that’s been featured in the past," said Adrienne Decker, a folk arts specialist for the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, "That festival has been kind of a juried, visual arts faire. We have a traditional blacksmith. We have Shoshone bead workers. We have a master saddle maker."
Elaine Thatcher, the festival's executive director of three years, said "by participating in this festival it kind of widens the patrons scope of what art can be, art is not just 2D works on canvas or paper, but it is those very old, traditional forms that are done by hand, are very time intensive - sometimes have a functional purpose, sometimes have a ceremonial purpose in the case of the Shoshone bead work - but they are just as much art as anything else featured at that particular event.”
Thatcher said "working with folk artists is a different field than working with some of the fine arts and crafts people that we usually work with. What we did was create this partnership with Utah Division of Arts and Museums to invite some of the folk artists who have been in their programs. Their quality is high and they are from Northern Utah, so it’s appropriate for them to share their work at Summerfest. And so it’s just an enrichment, it’s just one little extra thing that we are doing this year to share all of the arts with the public.”
The festival runs through Saturday at the Tabernacle on Main Street.
