Newly-Opened Center For The Arts In Kayenta To Preserve Performance & Visual Arts In The Region

The Center for the Arts at Kayenta was formally opened to the public last Saturday. The Kayenta Arts Foundation spent the last few years focusing on the construction of the arts center, which will serve as a haven for performance and visual arts in the Southern Utah region.

The opening of the Kayenta Center of the Arts last Jan. 28 was a standing room only, free open house tour, St. George News reported. The open house gave people a glimpse of the facility's highlights once it becomes fully operational. The arts center provided live musical and dance performances from the Dixie State University Improv Dance Club and the St. George Dance Company. The locales were also given a visual treat with art exhibits, showing them what they have been missing for the past several years.

The expected displays at the Kayenta Center for the Arts are not yet complete, although the construction of the buildings itself is already finished. The open house event last weekend served as a fundraiser to buy the needed items inside the facility. The list of items that the arts center still lacks and their corresponding prices was presented to the public.

The Kayenta Arts Foundation has high expectations on their newly-built project. By the end of the year, they plan to hold their first major production in the black box theater of the arts center. Likewise, more public and private events such as art exhibits, musical and dance recitals, and lectures are expected in the coming months.

The director of the art foundation and co-chair of the Capital Campaign Committee, Matt Marten, is pleased with the developments in the Center for the Arts in Kayenta. Marten also promised bigger things to come for the arts center, as reported by the Spectrum.

"We have made remarkable progress over the past three years, and this will be the first opportunity for the public to take a peek at this amazing new facility," Marten said. "We view 2017 as a 'preview year' for the center as we experiment with some events and grow into the space."

The groundbreaking of the 11,000 square-foot art center happened in 2013, and the Kayenta Arts Foundation chair Judith Kapuscinski described the facility's construction as the "longest pregnancy in history." Kapuscinski recognized the help from private individuals and groups to sustain the center's construction over the last three years.

The community has also played a part in building Kayenta's first art facility. The profits coming from the foundation's annual projects such as the Kayenta Street Painting Festival were used to finance the construction of the arts center.

TagsCenter for the Arts in Kayenta, Kayenta Center for the Arts, Center for the Arts, Kayenta, Kayenta Arts Foundation