Hello everybody!
I started thinking about this show way back in 2004 when I did my first painting in Zoar Valley. After talking with Julie Broyles (Director of Zoar Valley Nature Society) and several other artists, I contacted the Springville Center for the Arts in Spring of 2006. We have been working on this show ever since then. Launching the website (www.theartofzoarvalley.com) gave the world the first look at all the work we had pulled together. This past Saturday we hung the show, and it is amazing. The show opens this Thursday, July 5th, and there will be a reception on Friday, July 13th, from 7-9PM.
"The Art of Zoar of Zoar Valley" includes more than ninety works by twenty-six different artists. As you can imagine, getting all those different frames to work together took a lot of time and thought. The works span almost all the different artistic mediums (although we are still looking for dance and theater pieces), and eventually all the videos and movies will be on the website. The oldest original works in the show are Ellis Ball's photographs, depicting Zoar in the 1920s through 1950s. Our goal was to honor Zoar by telling as much of the story of the artists of Zoar as we could. We hung the show in an organic salon style. Hanging the works this way allowed us both to reference the canyon environment (with its giant trees, waterfalls, plants, animals, and its huge canyon walls) and to utilize the entire wall from top to bottom, which is critical when you are including that many works. The show is accompanied by a full slate of gallery talks and guided hikes through Zoar Valley that start at the Springville Center for the Arts. Please see the events page on the website for more information.
Special thanks go out to Julie Broyles, Rich Federowicz, Robert Holland, and Jeffrey McMullen for helping to hang the show. It was a herculean effort (over 12 hours) and we could not have done it without them.

Thank you and enjoy,
Thomas Annear, Curator