“Ready to Venture Out? Here are Two Good Ideas”
by Mary Anne Andersen for Iron County Today
I’ve got a couple of suggestions for things that you can do as the weather warms up and we cautiously start thinking about places to go and things to see.
After a long winter hiatus, the Cedar City Arts Council is presenting another arts social. The previous one was in October as we sat outdoors on one of the last warm days of last year. This one will also be outdoors on what we hope will be the warmest day of this year so far. We will gather at the Lions Pavilion in Main Street Park on Saturday, May 8th, at 2:00 in the afternoon. Now, I’m going to say this several times: bring a lawn chair.
The program will feature Elaine Vickers discussing her newly-published book, Fadeaway. Elaine is a local author whose newest work has garnered some national attention. Besides discussing the book itself, Elaine will talk about the process of writing and how she manages to balance all the demands in her life. It sounds like it will be another addition to my books-to-read shelf.
Sarah Bearnson, a past recipient of an Arts Council mini-grant, will sing and play her guitar. Sarah is the proprietor of a music studio called Cedar Melody Music, where she gives music lessons to students of all ages. After she played for us once before, I received a request to have her return. Here is that encore.
Other music will be provided by Derek Wood, a rather shy young friend of mine. Derek is a very good violinist whom I have accompanied many times in the genre of classical music. (He is also a high school freshman taking a piano class at SUU!) So I asked him if he could fiddle, and he said yes. I wonder if he will actually tap his foot…..
Bring a lawn chair.
Mona Woolsey will be there to promote the show of women artists that is currently up in the Cedar City Offices hallway and Council chambers. That is the second suggestion I have for something to do as you get out and about. We went to the opening night reception of the show and we 1) were surprised at the number of people there, and 2) are going back when there are fewer people. We wear masks when we leave home, but most of those at the reception apparently don’t practice that habit. So we didn’t stay long, just long enough to put a couple of giant cookies on a plate and sneak away.
But we will go back, and you’ll want to go also. Many of the names of the artists we recognized: Woolsey, Marchant, Robb, Braithwaite, but there are others I was unable to get close enough to read. There was a real variety of media and styles, and some sculpture-like pieces as well. The piece titled Main Street Nocturne stood out from a lot of landscape work.
Go see that show. Come to the social. And bring a lawn chair.
