The Utah Legislature will be in session during January and March of 2002, with a break for the Olympics. The following articles are designed to inform the public about issues that will be addressed during the 2002 Legislative session which affect the visual arts community. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Artists of Utah or 15 BYTES.

WILL WE HAVE ART IN OUR PUBLIC BUILDINGS?

Doug Snow's painting "Capitol Reef" was placed in the Scott Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City as part of the Public Art Program. Snow's work appears in many public buildings including the University of Utah's Union Building and the downtown Salt Lake Library. This 19' x 15' work created a stir, however, when it was placed in the state supreme court. The work has been called derisively both the hamburger and the clamshell.

Paintings, murals, and sculpture adorn many of our public spaces and buildings due to a bill passed by the 1985 Utah Legislature. The 1% for Art bill, passed over fifteen years ago, allocates public funds for art to be incorporated into new and/or renovated state public buildings. The Utah Arts Council was given the authority to provide leadership in this endeavor, along with the State's Division of Facilities Construction and Management. A year ago, the Legislature's Capital Facilities and Administration Services Committee, which has the right to oversee the art selection process for each building, made an unprecedented decision. It considered eliminating all funding for building projects in the year 2001.

David Ericson Gallery's New Home

If it were not for a failed business venture in the early Seventies, Salt Lake City would not have one of its premier galleries. It was after two-and-a-half years at the construction business and a business venture gone badly that Dave Ericson opened Gallery 56 in Salt Lake City in the late Seventies. Ericson, who had begun buying paintings while still in high school, purchased thirty paintings and over four hundred sketches by Alma B. Wright while at college. During these college days Ericson’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged.
When he became dissatisfied with his business ventures, he contacted his college friend Al Rounds, combined the young painter’s work with his own collection, and decided to hang out his shingle. Gallery 56, located on fourth south between Main and West Temple, was born.
The gallery grew for nineteen years until rent hikes in the nineties caused Ericson to move shop. For four years his gallery found a temporary home next to the Dolores Chase Gallery on 2nd West . Now, due to a stroke of luck, David Ericson’s gallery has found a new home.

continued on page 4

_________also in this edition_________

	The art of simple things	page 2
	Black & White in Ogden	page 2
	The Nature of Abstraction	page 4

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