David Linn
LouAnn Wilde
Clog America
Carol Esterreicher
Suzanne Hudson
Blue Sage Band
Utah Sacred Harp
Utah Tour Guides AssociationUtah Pioneer Heritage Arts Chosen by Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area as Programming Affiliate
Monte Bona worked for six years to bring to pass his dream of creating a National Heritage Area along Highway 89 in Utah. He loved the stories of dedication, ingenuity, perseverence, faith, and tragedy and triumph that were represented by the structures and landscapes all along Highway 89 as it winds through Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne, Paiute, Garfield and Kane counties. Wilson Martin, Utah State Historical Preservation Officer, and Brad Shafer, from the Governor's office, joined with Monte and Senator Bob Bennett sponsored the legislation and led the multi-year battle for its passage.
Finally, on July 24th, 2006, on the third attempt, the bill creating the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area passed the U.S. House of Representatives. And on October 6, 2006 it was signed into law.
But then Monte had to create and gain approval of a Management Plan for the national heritage area, which took another three years. That plan was just recently approved, and the work now begins to preserve, restore, interpret, and promote the stories of the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area (MPNHA).
Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts has been named the Interpretive Affiliate of the MPNHA. Now our work begins. As UPHA joins forces with MPNHA, there is an incredible challenge and opportunity ahead. Come to our quarterly social Saturday, May 29th, at 9 a.m. at the Lion's Club Breakfast at the Scandinavian Heritage Festival in Ephraim to hear the plan and what you can do to be involved. Better yet, give yourself two great reasons to be at the Scandinavian Heritage Festival, and enter an original song or story or poem, based on an account from Sanpete County's history, in our contests described in the "Events" page. See you there!
How to Tell a Great Story
Last week I was fortunate to hear Ken Verdoia, Director of Production at KUED Channel 7 TV, address the Sons of Utah Pioneers. I knew Ken for the quality of his documentaries, but I was amazed and delighted to find that in person he is also a master storyteller.
For an hour he kept us spellbound as he told compelling stories from pioneer Utah - Henry Bigler, Melissa Coray, Martha Spence Heywood, William McCormick - names most of us do not recognize, but gripping stories told with obvious affection and reverence. Ken believes that though the names we hear frequently - Brigham Young, Leland Stanford, John C. Fremont and others - certainly had great impact on the western movement, it was the common people such as those whose stories he told that really built the west. I'm inclined to agree.
And Ken shared some powerful thoughts with me over lunch yesterday:
1 - By your own efforts you shape what comes next.
2 - The big themes of history rrepeat themselves.
3 - The minute we say "the struggle is over" we endanger the world for our children.
4 - Invest yourself in finding out everything you can about the story.
5 - To find the drama in a story, go back to the point where the protagonist doesn't know what the future holds.
6 - Allow the historic figure to speak in his/her own words - draw from public records
7 - All the story to emerge on its own - don't force it.
8 - Find differing points of view - they enrich the drama
9 - Establish the context within which the story took place
10 - Get young people to tell these stories. Most of the protagonists were young when they experienced their stories!
And Ken is making available to UPHA some great media embodying Utah pioneer stories. Thank you, Ken, for mentoring us!
Woodstock's Got Heart (of a Pioneer)!
We're getting taught lots of lessons this year about what it takes to be a pioneer. The 4th graders at Woodstock Elementary School showed us they know what it's all about. This young lady in the wheel chair can cut a rug with the best dancers-showing that our limitations are only in our minds.
Thanks, Woodstock! We salute you!
Intermountain Living History Re-enactors Conference
The ILHRC committee met at the American West Heritage Center to finalize the course offerings, check out possible classrooms, and sample David Sidwell's Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls. You should be so lucky!
Check our "Events" page for more info!
We Are Taught About the Heart of a Pioneer
We assume we are to teach these school children what it means to have the heart of a pioneer. But February 3rd we were taught the meaning of that phrase by a 4th-grade student at Horizon Elementary, Max. Daily he overcomes challenges we cannot imagine to participate fully in school and in life. May you live long and well, Max. We salute you and the students and teachers who support you so well in your quest!
Max dances the Virginia Reel
Max Conquers the Milking Bear
Max, Intent on Mastering Yet Another Skill
Hob-nobbing and Networking
Quarterly Socials give your fingers and hands lots to do: eating a delicious breakfast, shaking hands with new friends, entering contact information into your phone, taking notes on the presentation, tapping along with the music, or playing the music yourself. This video from our January 30th social says it all.
The next quarterly social will be Saturday, May 29th at 9 a.m. at the Scandinavian Heritage Festival in Ephraim. Join us!
Spring City Visit
The last six months of 2009 were a blur of activity. I'll try to go back bit by bit and reconstruct it in the following months, but here's one image from my frequent visits to Sanpete County that I wanted to share with you-a field just west of Spring City in fall of '09. Pure Americana, pure pioneer.
Change Leader Conference
I relish the opportunity of being instructed by leaders in the nonprofit world and rubbing shoulders with colleagues. I learn so much from them. At this conference, Emily Sanderson, who is helping create the Pioneer Arts Boutique for UPHA, received her Change Leader certification. Congratulations, Emily! And thanks for the hard work on the Boutique. Watch for the announcement of its launch. It will be a great help to all Utah artists and craftsmen who are looking for a way to market their pioneer-inspired works.
Institute of American Music Barn Dance
If you haven't been, you don't know how fun it is. We took our granddaughters and had a wonderful time. Jeanette Geslison is the caller at the far right, and she and her student callers kept us dancing the whole night. Great community fun! Visit www.instituteofamericanmusic.com and go to the bottom of the "Links" section to IAM Calendar for information on the next dance, which is January 15th at the Barn in Mapleton.
Stan & Polly Johnson
Stan is a sculptor who lives in Parowan, Utah. He it is who sculpted the statue of John Taylor which now sits at Bluff Fort, thanks to the Beverly Taylor Sorenson family. I traveled to Bluff on October 23rd for the October 24th dedication of the statue and was thrilled to see what has happened at the fort. Visit http://www.hirf.org/ to see all that is happening at Fort Bluff. Corinne Rohring, LaRue Barton, the Taylor Brothers and many others are creating a miracle there. Take a weekend and go. Better yet, take a week and volunteer. The website tells you how. You won't regret it!
But back to Stan Johnson. (see below)
Just a couple of days before I visited Stan in his studio in his home, he had received confirmation of his next commission: a statue honoring the brave pioneers who in the middle of winter walked from the new settlement of Panguitch over the mountains through snow so deep horses couldn't get through, to Parowan to get food to keep the other settlers from starving to death. They also were being impeded so completely by the deep snow that they knelt in prayer on one of the quilts they were using for warmth, and realized that they weren't sinking into the snow as long as they stayed on the quilt. So, they proceeded to fling a quilt out ahead of them, walk onto it, retrieve the last quilt in line, and place it in front, repeating that sequence until they walked across the mountains to Parowan. The "Quilt Walk" saved Panguitch's residents and is celebrated to this day.
Below is the clay miniature conceptual model that Stan created to show the committee that commissioned him.
Larry Nielson, Artist on Wood
"The wood tells me what to do with it, it is like it has its own spirit," says Larry Nielson, an Ephraim artist who has become known for his paintings on old and weathered wood. "Every piece of wood is a challenge, a different experience. Sometimes, I see a piece of wood and there is an immediate connection, I know just what it wants me to do with it. Other times, I have to put a piece away for a while, then bring it back out later and I will see something special in it, a face or something, that needs to come out. It is very personal."
More of Larry's artwork is found in our "Spotlight" section and still more at his website, http://www.windandwings.com/nielson_art.html.
Whirlwind Run of "Heart of a Pioneer" Assemblies
Infrequent reports are, in this case, the result of a whirlwind of activities leaving no time to report! We'll start with the thirteen "Heart of a Pioneer" assemblies that Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts has presented since February 23rd.
February 25th found us at Fox Hills Elementary School in Taylorsville, where we presented two assemblies to accomodate their large student body. Utah 4th graders study Utah history, and this group had also studied Utah pioneer games! So when Dave couldn't figure out how to play the "button whizzer" or "spinner" game, these bright students were very willing to show him how it's done. And they proved that pioneer children could make fun out of simple things they found around the house and barn: hoops and buttons, sticks and yarn!
One of the parents who came to witness the assembly caught a rare moment during the Fox Hills assembly - the midair flight of the hoop during the game the pioneers called "graces". If you look carefully you'll see a blur in the middle of the stage curtain...that's the hoop with ribbons trailing behind it!
The game is played in this manner: with two slender dowels crossed inside a ribbon-wrapped hoop about the size of an embroidery hoop, she spreads them toward the outside, launching the hoop into the air. Her counterpart then tries to intercept the hoop in its flight with her own pair of dowels, and then return the hoop in the same manner.
These young ladies had the game mastered!
Later the same day we presented "HoaP" at Vista Elementary School, also in Taylorsville. To the right you see "Water To The Seeds", an a cappella exposition of the irrigation plans the Utah pioneers put into action to allow farming of the Salt Lake Valley.
The next two photos show Vista's 4th graders reciting their original pioneer poems and engaging in an old-fashioned pioneer stick pull. Great work, Vista!
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Vista's students also wrote an original lyric to an old pioneer-era tune and sang it with gusto for all the other students. Their teachers did a great job of preparing them, and the students learned that they, too, can do difficult things, because they have the heart of a pioneer!
By March 4th, three assemblies later, we were at East Meadows Elementary School in Spanish Fork, where Dave kept 'em laughin'. Poor Dave, he tries so hard to be serious, but the subtleties of crowd control seem to elude him.
The dancers at East Meadows really put their whole hearts into the dance, and enjoyed it as much as any pioneer ever did. But this photo is priceless. If you look closely you'll see that the girl of the head couple in the center has her sleeves pulled up over her hands so that she doesn't have to make skin contact with the boy! Sometimes boys are just soooo...oh, you know!
Nonprofit Day On The Hill
Monday, February 23rd the Utah Nonprofit Association, of which UPHA is a member, sponsored its first (annual) Nonprofit Day On The Hill. The purpose was to educate the legislators to the essential role nonprofit organizations play in keeping Utah a great place to live. Bonnie and I arrived at 8:30 AM to find no parking places within a reasonable distance, so I unloaded our literature and displays and Bonnie went in search of a parking place.
I quickly found our table space between the Girl Scouts and the Jewish Community Center (I trust we were not assigned alphabetically). I began to see familiar faces from the Utah Arts Council Change Leader Institute-Amanda Castillo and Wally Bloss of the CACHE VALLEY CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Michael Moonbird and Victoria Morris of BAD DOG REDISCOVERS AMERICA, Susan Klinker of THE CULTURAL CELEBRATION CENTER, Pam Gee of UTAH FESTIVAL OPERA, and Diane Major Spencer of Gunnison's CASINO STAR THEATRE.
This was fun, but much of the fun was meeting those who represented organizations with which we were unfamiliar-The Council for Citizen Diplomacy (directed by a great fiddle player I knew from my days at the University of Utah-Laura Dupuy) which hosts emerging business and professional leaders from all over the world, The Community Foundation of Utah, which helps charitable organizations and communities build permanent endowments, Larissa Trout of SpyHop Productions, which teaches youth media production skills, etc.
But though the networking among the nonprofit organizations was great, our purpose in being there was to meet our legislators and help them appreciate our value. For Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts, meeting "our legislator" is difficult because what we do affects all areas of the state! We eventually need to meet every legislator and let them know what we do for their constituents.
So as a start we met Tim Cosgrove, the legislator from Murray where the offices of Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts are now, and Gene Davis, who represents Senate District 3 which includes Murray. But Bonnie and I have known Ron Bigelow, Appropriations Committee Co-Chair, for many years, and were fortunate to spend a few minutes with him explaining the mission and resources of Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts.
The Heart of a Pioneer
Provost Elementary School Feb. 18, 2009
Preparation without parallel, enthusiasm without equal, children without limits!
We found all of these waiting for us at Provost Elementary School in Provo. We always have a great experience with these marvelous fourth-graders, but this one was exceptional!
Our thanks go to the docents from Daughters of Utah Pioneers and This Is The Place Heritage Park who taught the teachers and students so well, and to the teachers and students who prepared so thoroughly for their presentation of The Heart of a Pioneer...it was great! And thanks to A.R.T.S., Inc. for arranging for our performance at Provost!
Intense concentration lapses only momentarily as this modern pioneer girl masters the button-whizzer.
4th-graders sing their new lyric to the tune of "O Susannah". Thanks for letting "Willingly" (Utah's Pioneer Band) be your back-up band!
Rolling the hoop is more difficult than it looks, but these 4th graders are well on their way to mastering it.
The "Heart of a Pioneer" team at Provost Elementary: Top-Lindsay Griffin, Gayle Dudley (Daughters of Utah Pioneers), Marged Kirkpatrick (This Is The Place Heritage Park), Bonnie Romney. Bottom-Dave Compton, Clive Romney, Gary Voorhees.
Dressed in pioneer style, spinning the button whizzer, playing the role perfectly! Kudos to the wonderful 4th-graders of Provost Elementary School in Provo, Utah!
First Ever Story/Poetry Writing/Telling Contest!