It’s been almost 10 years since the Center for the Arts at Kayenta began bringing new programming, artists and performances to Southern Utah. Along the way, the nonprofit has given artisans of many genres new opportunities to share their talents.
This year, the center has been recognized as one of Utah’s Companies Championing Women, an award it received at a ceremony conducted in August by the Salt Lake Business Journal. Executive Director Miranda Wright, who grew up in St. George and attended Southern Utah University, came back to Utah from California when the opportunity to lead the center arose.
“I honestly never saw myself moving back, never thought there’d be job opportunities I’d be so interested in,” she said. Wright founded the Los Angeles Performance Practice in 2010 and the Live Arts Exchange Festival in L.A. in 2013, among her many professional arts achievements in Southern California. “This has been a great new page for me to turn, closer to home and family, more open skies, and I can bike to work!”
The center is a multidisciplinary performing arts space, with theater, dance, classical music, new music, new play development, lectures and humanities. “We’ve had partnerships with Book of the Month clubs. We’re a 150-seat black box theater bringing world-class performances into a very intimate space. Visitors come from Nevada, Arizona and Northern Utah to access amazing work that’s not available at other places in Southern Utah,” she said. There’s a lot of musical theater in this area, so we wanted to do something different and stand out.”
One example is an event called Crossing Open Ground staged last year. The center had 15 musicians perform in Snow Canyon State Park, where audience members hiked in and out a quarter mile to hear “this really fantastic soundscape that echoed through a natural amphitheater.”
This is the 25th year for Arts in Kayenta. The center holds a series of annual events, including one in February in conjunction with the Southern Utah Parade of Homes. For that event, Wright said the center “welcomed over 50 vendors from throughout the western region, with live entertainment, food trucks and a beer and wine garden. We have also hosted our annual Toast of Kayenta, with vendors and chefs who offer bites of food and sips of drinks. It’s a fundraiser for us, so local restaurants donate their time and lots of food and beverages. That helps us fund the work we do the rest of the year.”
Wright credits the amazing red cliff beauty of Southern Utah as part of the draw to Kayenta.
“We’ve made the connection between our landscape and the art we’re presenting,” she said, “People come for some high desert magic. It’s a great place to be and to live and to work.”
And an arts center that champions women as team members or artisans is a great combination.
