Sure, last December’s Zoom meetups, driveway cocktail parties and live-streamed performances did an OK job of preserving holiday cheer. But what those pandemic-necessitated substitutes also accomplished is an off-the-charts excitement for this season’s return to live and in-person holiday events. (Can I get a hallelujah to that?!) Over the next month, THE BLOCKS will be […]
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Jared Oaks speaks deliberately, with long pauses between sentences, as if he’s turning over each thought carefully in his mind before articulating it. But when in the pit, as conductor of the Ballet West Orchestra, Oaks makes countless rapid-fire decisions in service of what’s likely his biggest his role as the ballet company’s music director: […]
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“Let’s meet downtown for a drink” is the opening line in an endless number of stories about friendship, business ventures, and romantic partnerships. Tonight, downtown Salt Lake City bars are alive and buzzing with people beginning their next great story. Following are some of our favorite downtown sippers and the bars and restaurants serving them. […]
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Like many immigrants to the United States, Nataly Welch has had to get creative to achieve a sense of community within their adopted home country. “In the Philippines, I was the same as everyone else,” Welch says. “But since we moved to the U.S. [at six years old], I’ve felt perpetually out of place.” To […]
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There is no snooze button for downtown Salt Lake. A steady and exciting stream of restaurants are on the cusp of opening their doors, keeping food folks busy through the fall. Scott Evans’ impressive culinary empire expands. The savvy restaurateur put the SLC resto scene on the map in 2010 when The New York Times […]
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After one glimpse at Mollie Hosmer-Dillard’s prismatically textural series of paintings, titled Morning Hours: Experiments in Moving Images and on display now within THE BLOCKS Exhibitions on Main kiosks, how this woman from Missouri found herself in Utah begins to make sense. “Where I live in the Dammeron Valley (St. George area), I’m just 10 minutes from Snow Canyon,” […]
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Part of the thought process that Jared Steffenson, curator of exhibitions at UMOCA, engaged in when developing the museum’s current ALL WALL exhibition was considering where and how many people experience art for the first time. “I grew up in the Bay Area where I spent a lot of time skateboarding in places with graffiti […]
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“I’d really like Utah to be viewed as an arts hot spot,” explained Nick Rees. “There are so many great artists here, but Salt Lake City is still not considered an artistic hub. I think events like Urban Plein Air help give this area some justified exposure.” THE BLOCKS Urban Plein Air has been […]
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The July 4th holiday is in the rearview and the first day of school is still on the distant horizon. In other words, we’re deep in the dog days of summer. If you’re like many parents and are looking for a way to tear your kids away from their screens and just DO something, look […]
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Earlier this spring, as I pedaled my way down one of the many foothill trails east of downtown, I came upon a young mother with a toddler in a backpack carrier. As I stopped to let them pass, the mother smiled and said, “Have a nice day,” which was immediately repeated in her baby’s tiny […]
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