The festival will run from September 29 to October 1
Do you have an interest in human history and dreams for the future? Then you might find yourself on 100 N. at the Moab Arts and Recreation Center (the MARC) as the center is transformed into a celebration of present aliveness, a creative think-tank for the future, and a community art build.
Moab Arts is planning three days full of ceremony, play, and storytelling, from Friday, September 29 to Sunday, October 1. While the festival boasts a number of workshops and events (view them all at www.RedRockArtsFestival.com), we’re highlighting just a few in the Moab Sun News.
Each day of the festival, attendees can participate in a “Celebration of Aliveness” with Cecelia Foley. The celebration was a concept she created during her senior year of college, she said, when she took a class called “Power, Poverty and Privilege.” Sitting in a circle with her classmates and her sandals-and-ponytail-wearing professor, the class discussed systems of capitalism and compared it with alternate systems rooted in love and connection, inspired by books such as All About Love by bell hooks and Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown.
During each celebration (taking place on Friday at 10 a.m., Saturday at 5 p.m., and Sunday at 8 p.m., at the MARC or “independently in your own space”), participants will “cultivate a regular practice of dancing, followed by art-making,” according to the festival website.
Dance is a resource available to everyone, Foley said: you don’t need money, or even music, to “chase the feeling in your body.” Attendees to the event at the MARC will experience Foley’s collaborative playlist—she encourages everyone, young and old, to come play. There will also be a kiddy pool of paint, poetry, and drawing; Foley said she “wants everyone to leave empowered, feeling like a creator of their own future.”
Molly Gurney and Rachel Toups are “celebrating the future through a sanctuary of hope,” Gurney and Toups said, in an interactive installation called “Junkyard Reverie.” Attendees to the exhibit can expect an experience that will inspire meaning-making: Gurney and Toups promise absurdity and chaos in a way to spark conversations about adaptation, beauty, and play, they said.
The installation has been a community labor of love—while Gurney and Toups came up with the concept, they wanted to give a shoutout to locals Evan Smiley, Scott Brunmeier, and Nara Bopp for their work in building the installation over many weeks. It will be on display from 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday, 3 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and 4 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the MARC side yard.
Two events during Street Fest, the culmination of the festival that brings together art vendors, music, and food, highlight the artistic talents of local students. Brian Parkins, an English teacher at GCHS, will host a poetry booth called “Zip Odes,” in which GCHS students will share their own poetry reflecting the local zip code, 84532. The poems will each be five lines, with eight words on the first line, four on the second, five on the third, three on the fourth, and two on the fifth; attendees to the booth can also create their own poetry.
Art teachers Catherine Moore and Christa Green are hosting a collaborative drawing project—the project will combine the work of students and the community. Moore said she believes strongly in community outreach: she always plans experiences for her students to interact with people outside of the school. This project will enhance that vision, she said.
Street Fest will take place from 12 to 7 p.m. on Saturday in front of the MARC; live music artists include Josh Doss and the Cancers, Bummer Girl, Anais Chantel, and Gold Tides.
On Friday, Emily Arntsen is hosting a beginner’s podcast workshop that will explore the sounds of Moab. She’s asking participants to come prepared with a collection of sounds that remind them of this place, in a good way or a bad way, and will teach participants how to put those sounds together into a podcast that will highlight Moab’s soundscape.
The final recording combining everyone’s sounds will air on KZMU. Participants will learn basic podcasting with equipment they likely already have access to, like smartphones, and Audacity, a free audio software. Participants have to sign up—you can do so online—and the workshop runs from 12 to 2 p.m. Arntsen promises a “fun exercise learning new skills that will get you thinking about sounds in a way you may not notice.”
Moab Arts Director Kelley McInerney said she hopes to see as many people from the community as possible coming to attend and participate.
You can find a full list and schedule of events at www.RedRockArtsFestival.com.
CORRECTION: Emily Artnsen’s podcasting workshop will take place on Friday, September 29, not Saturday, as previously stated.
