All-day plein air painting workshop: Wednesday September 23 at the Devils Garden. Free to all registered painters.

Everett Ruess Chautauqua: Friday September 25, 2009 from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, on the stage in the Main Festival Plaza.

It is time to make plans for the 6th Annual Escalante Canyons Art Festival. We are looking forward to seeing you. This year’s festival dates are September 25-26, 2009 with the painting competition being held from September 20-24.

For 75 years the disappearance of Everett Ruess has posed one of the greatest mysteries in the annals of American adventure. Now, a skeleton in the desert, a Navajo tale of murder, and a battery of genetic and forensic analyses have put part of the mystery to rest. To learn more see A National Geographic Article by David Roberts. In light of this new forensic evidence, the Escalante Canyons Art Festival has decided to have an open discussion about the life, the death and more importantly, the living legacy of Everett Ruess. We are calling it the Everett Ruess Chautauqua* (sha- TAW- kwa). We named the festival for Everett Ruess because his short life’s works in poetry and art symbolizes the creative inspiration and energy the rock walls and spires of the Escalante Canyons speak to each of us. He was a young man ahead of his time.

This Chautauqua will be held Friday morning September 25, 2009 from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM at the opening of the festival on the stage in the main Festival Plaza. Invited speakers will provide personal anecdotes and insights on the disappearance, finding and impact of Everett Ruess with a concluding question and answer / roundtable discussion involving all speakers. Some of the noted guests will include: Ken Sanders, an Everett Ruess historian, an appraiser of rare American documents on “Antiques Road Show” and owner of “Ken Sanders Rare Books”; David Roberts, a freelance writer and contributing editor of National Geographic Adventure Magazine; Dennis Van Gerven, a professor of forensic anthropology in the Colorado University anthropology department and Kenneth Krauter, professor in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department at Colorado University, and also publisher Gibbs Smith, doctoral student Nathan Thompson, outdoor guide Ken Sleight, writer W.L. Rusho, and Brian Ruess, nephew of Everett Ruess. We’re sure that by September 25, this list of participants will grow. We hope you will join in on the discussion at this special event.

We also want to announce that the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, through their Field Institute program, will offer a workshop with renowned artist Linda M. Feltner “Through the Artists Eye September 26-29, 2009”. Please check out their web page at: www.gsenm.org/Education/Field%20Institute.html#ArtistEye

Join 2008 Escalante Canyons Art Festival* Winner – Oil/Acrylic Larisa Aukon for a plein air painting workshop Saturday September 26. There are more details and registration information on “Workshops and Exhibits” page.

For More Information: Click Here to Download the Acrobat Document (.pdf 97.4K)

For those competing in the plein air competition, you may sign-in and have your canvases stamped as early as Sunday, September 20. Entries must be submitted on Thursday, September 24, 3:00 to 7:00 pm. This year the competition will be judged by Vern Swenson, Curator of the Springville Art Museum and author of many books on Utah art and artists, Alan Peterson, Professor of Art at Northern Arizona University, and Larisa Aukin, winner of the oil/acrylic category of the Plein Air competition in 2008.

As we did last year, we will also be providing scholarship money to the Southern Utah University Art Department in Cedar City.

Also, many of you have asked us to plan an event where the artists can all paint together. The festival committee is excited to announce plans for an all-day workshop for students, beginners, and professionals on Wednesday, September 23 at the Devils Garden, about 15 miles south of Escalante. There will be free professional artists demonstrating their techniques throughout the day. Check out the Workshops and Demonstrations page for more information.

*Chautauqua (sha- TAW- kwa) is defined as an education movement in the United States, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day. Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America."

*For more information about the 2008 Escalante Canyons Art Festival please visit the archive page: 2008 Festival