The festival welcomes artists of all abilities and provides those beginning their careers an opportunity to interact with those who are more experienced. Scholarship funds allow students from Southern Utah University’s Art Department to participate in the Plein Air Competition and vie for the opportunity to win the Student Artist Award that includes a two-month solo exhibit at the Dixie National Forest - Red Canyon Visitor Center.

A Plein Air Paint-Out is scheduled for Wednesday, September 21, where registered artists can spend the day painting in and around Slot Canyons Inn Bed and Breakfast along the upper stretches of the Escalante River. All those participating in the event vote for their favorite painting with a cash award going to the winner.

The Everett Ruess Chautauqua is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, September 24. This event anticipates lively conversation about the mysteries associated with Everett Ruess, the young artist wanderer that disappeared in canyon country in the 1930s. Chautauqua participants include Ken Sanders (owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City), Phillip Frandkin (author of the recently published Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife), and Gibb Smith (owner of Gibb Smith Publishing).

The Speaker Series, scheduled for both Friday and Saturday, features speakers primarily selected from the Utah Humanities Council’s recommended list, supplemented by local experts on history, geology, and archeology. The line-up includes the following speakers and topics:

• Joel C. Janetski (Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Brigham Young University)

“Archaeology and the Early Human History of Utah”

• Jerry Roundy, Ph. D. (Ph.D., Western American History, Brigham Young University)

“The Incredible Journey: The Hole-in-the-Rock Route to the San Juan 1879-1880”

• Dr. Bonnie J. Buratti (Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

“The Canyon Lands of Utah, Mars, and Titan: Explorers from Everett Ruess to Future Astronauts”

• Ken Sanders (Owner, Ken Sanders Rare Books)

“Books and Authors Met On and Off the Trail”

• Dr. James R. Swenson (Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University)

“Photographing a Staircase: A History of Imaging Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument”

This year’s featured artist is Valerie Orlemann, a realistic landscape painter from Cedar City who has won numerous art awards throughout the southwest region. A program focused on Orlemann’s work is included in the Speaker Series on Saturday, September 24.

The Festival Plaza and Festival Hall are packed on Friday and Saturday with vendors selling everything from original art to high-quality crafts, and from wood-fired pizza to homemade pies. Performers from near and far fill the Festival Plaza with song, dance, and poetry for two days of entertainment.

All festival events are free.

Speakers at the Escalante Canyons Art Festival for 2011

This page is from the 2011 Escalante Canyons Art Festival. As soon as we finalize plans for the 2012 festival, the information will be updated.

• 2:00 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
  Escalante Interagency Visitor Center

JOEL C. JANETSKI
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Brigham Young University

“Archaeology and the Early Human History of Utah”

Presentation Funded by the Utah Humanities Council Public Square Program

Archaeology and history narrate the past using different, but complementary, data sets: material remains for the former, texts for the latter. Archaeological research in Utah has discovered human presence beginning at least 10,000 years ago, providing tantalizing glimpses into the lives of ancient peoples.

Many questions emerge from such research: Did people hunt mammoths in Utah? When and why did they start farming? Is there evidence for conflict? Answering such questions and understanding how people solved life’s challenges has motivated archaeologists for decades in Utah, an exciting region for exploring the past.

• 3:30 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
  Escalante Interagency Visitor Center

JERRY ROUNDY, Ph. D.
Ph.D. in Western American History, Brigham Young University

“The Incredible Journey: The Hole-in-the-Rock Route to the San Juan 1879-1880”

Presentation Funded by the Utah Humanities Council

In the annals of western pioneering, no wagon road was blazed over more rugged broken terrain than the 200 miles cut by the San Juan Colonizers. One member of the colonizing party described it as “. . .the roughest country you or anybody else ever saw. It’s nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hills and hollows.” (Elizabeth Decker) What was thought would be a six weeks journey, turned into six months of grueling hardships that were enough to try the faith of the hardiest pioneer.

• 7:00 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
  Escalante High School Auditorium

Keynote Prelude: A prelude program will be presented with a variety of music, some instrumental, some vocal, and a little poetry, set to music by Curtis and Diane Oberhansly, Sage Sorenson, and others.

KEYNOTE

• 7:30 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
  Escalante High School Auditorium

DR. BONNIE J. BURATTI
Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“The Canyon Lands of Utah, Mars, and Titan: Explorers from Everett Ruess to Future Astronauts”

Presentation Funded by NASA

Schedule

This page is from the 2011 Escalante Canyons Art Festival. As soon as we finalize plans for the 2012 festival, the information will be updated.

The Eighth Annual Escalante Canyons Art Festival will be held on September 23th & 25th, 2011 in Escalante, Utah. Festival events feature the Plein Air painting competition, a fine arts and crafts exhibition and sale, lectures, poetry and discussions about Everett Ruess, exhibits, workshops, gallery open houses, walking tours of nearby historic buildings, and performances by cowboy poets, dance groups and musicians. You can View, Print or Save the 2011 Schedule below.

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For more information please contact:
Escalante Canyons Art Festival/ Everett Ruess Days
PO Box 40
Escalante, UT 84726
Tel: (435) 826-4199 or (435) 826-4810
info@envisionescalante.org

About Us | Contact Us | ©2007 Escalante Canyons Art Festival

The beauty of the canyon lands has served as an inspiration for artists and poets. The planet Mars and Titan, the giant moon of Saturn (sometimes called an “Earth in deep freeze”), have their own systems of canyons, formed in ways similar to those of Utah. Now we are remotely exploring those areas as scientists, but in the future, astronauts and space tourists on foot will ponder the splendor of the canyon lands of Mars, Titan, and perhaps other bodies in space, just as Everett Ruess was one of the first non- Native persons to appreciate this area of Utah simply for its beauty. The presentation will show photos from recent NASA missions to draw comparisons between landforms in southern Utah and those on other planets and moons. Talk funded by NASA.

• 9:00 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
  Escalante High School Environs

Keynote Nocturne: After the keynote, join Bonnie Buratti for an introduction to the night sky.

DR. BONNIE J. BURATTI
Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“An Introduction to the Night Sky”

Find out which planets and constellations appear in the sky in September, and hear about the legends they tell. If you have binoculars bring them - we will look at clusters of blue and red stars, galaxies, and planets. If we're lucky we will see a shooting star and the glowing dust known as zodiacal light. Geared to adults and children 7 and older.

• 11:00 AM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2011
  Escalante Interagency Visitor Center Auditorium

PAULA L. MCNEILL, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Art, Valdosta State University

“Inspired by Grandeur: The Art and Life of Western Landscape Painter Valerie Orlemann”

Presentation Funded by Utah Humanities Council

Inspired by artists Edgar Payne, William Wendt, and Maynard Dixon, Valerie Orlemann paints landscapes that express the vastness, color, and drama of the American Southwest. She is a realist landscape painter who paints Western landscapes, but does not try to recreate the Old West. Unlike the great Western painters of the last century, she focuses on landscape rather than figures and believes that the grandeur and emptiness of modern landscapes are inspiring on their own terms.

Orlemann studied art at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Since then she has received numerous awards throughout the Southwest for her paintings: first place at the River Runner’s Art Show in Green River, Utah (2008); plein air painting awards at the Escalante Canyons Art Festival (2006, 2007 and 2008); juried into the 22nd Annual Robert N. and Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational, the St. George Art Festival, Cedar City Arts Committee’s 65th Annual Art Exhibit, the Provo Freedom Festival, and the Outdoor Painters’ Society Plein Air Southwest (2009). Orlemann was also chosen to be Artist in Residence in the San Juan Public Lands Center’s Aspen Guard Station program (2006) and at Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado (2008). This presentation, Inspired by Grandeur: the Art and Life of Western Landscape Painter Valerie Orlemann, will focus on the life and art of Orlemann and her development as an artist.

• 2:00 PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2011
  Escalante Interagency Visitor Center Auditorium

KEN SANDERS
Ken Sanders Rare Books, Salt Lake City, Utah

“Books and Authors Met On and Off the Trail”

Presentation Funded by Utah Humanities Council

Escalante Canyons Art Festival
P.O. Box 40
Escalante UT 84726