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Join our community!
Utah Humanities empowers Utahns to improve their communities
through active engagement in the humanities
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Talking About Calligraffiti: Communicating a Larger Message through Aesthetically Altered Written Text
In early July, Ogden 1st Inc. (O1ARTS) will present "Calligraffiti," a project that combines local poetry, local street artists, and the Ogden community in a free outdoor exhibit and discussion series on life in Ogden.
The discussion portion is supported through a Utah Humanities Quick Grant. The video below describes the form and function of the project:
Calligraffiti is defined as a form of visual art that attempts to communicate a larger message through writing that has been aesthetically altered in the effort of moving beyond the literal meaning. Simply put, it is the conscious effort of making a word or group of words into a visual composition. It is meant to be both an aesthetic experience and provocative art-mixing tradition and precision with modern unbridled self-expression.
Humanities Improving Communities
Scott Patria, Executive Director of O1ARTS explains the goal of the project to "establish a dialogue between three sectors which may not normally communicate directly: poets, area residents, and the visual (street) artists to discover new and common ground for dialogue, engagement, and understanding."
Roundtable discussions will provide an opportunity for community members to discuss life in Ogden, versus the poets' descriptions, and whether the two realities intersect. The exhibit space, called Platforms, provides the prefect space to bring together Ogden's diverse communities by transforming a blighted, vacant lot in downtown Ogden into a vibrant, open-air community-focused gallery space which is available 24/7.
Patria describes how this project improves their community by saying that "the neighborhood residents benefit from the project's accessible format; there are no socioeconomic barriers.
We look forward to resident engagement, feedback, and hopefully participation in roundtable discussions. A community is most successful when its citizens are brought together to engage with one another for the benefit of social good."
Lead poet Janica Johnstun says of the project that "The CalliGraffiti exhibit creatively expresses through art the blossoming of Ogden, a City that has faced many challenges and continues to thrive "untamed." This exhibit has taken the "pen to papered" words of local poets, those whom live, love and breathe in this city, and dynamically accentuated the meaning within them, with depth and color. Art connects individuals, strengthens communities, and allows the embrace of our diversity to shine."
Photos: Calligraffiti and street artists Josh Pohlman and Jeremy Little. Photos courtesy of Scott Patria, Curator for O1ARTS.
Video: Features street artists Josh Pohlman and Jeremy Little. Video courtesy of Scott Patria, Curator for O1ARTS.
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20 Years of the Utah Humanities Annual Book Festival!
Celebrate the 20th Anniversary With Us
Our annual book festival is fast-approaching and we are celebrating its 20th anniversary!
Stay tuned for more information on book festival events in your community, details on visiting authors, and stories about how the book festival has influenced individuals and improved communities for the past 20 years.
Share Your Book Festival Story
If you have a story to share about how the Utah Humanities Book Festival has influenced you or your community, please contact Deena Pyle, Utah Humanities Communications Director, at [email protected] or 801.359.9670 x111.
For more information on how to partner with Utah Humanities to build literature and humanities content into your events, or for more information on how to get involved with this year's book festival, contact Michael McLane, Director of the Center for the Book, at [email protected] or 801.359.9670 x104.
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Making 'In Honor of' and Memorial Gifts to Utah Humanities
 Do you have a mentor, colleague, friend, or family member who had a positive impact on your life? Would a memorial gift be of comfort to a grieving family? Or is there a special occasion being celebrated or remembered, like a birthday, anniversary, or graduation?
Commemorate the event or celebrate someone's life by making a gift to Utah Humanities.
Your generosity is a meaningful way to express gratitude or recognize important life events while helping people around Utah improve their communities through active engagement in the humanities.
We will send a personalized letter to the honoree or family member notifying them of your kind gesture. Additionally, you will receive a letter documenting your tax-deductible contribution.
For more information, contact Cristi Wetterberg at [email protected] or 801.359.9670.
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Utah Works Short Stories Continues on Utah Public Radio
Utah Works is a new, continuing series of short stories about the way we work in Utah, told in participants' own words. Stories are updated frequently, so visit and listen often!
 Utah Works is based on The Way We Worked, a traveling exhibition created by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives that explores how work became such a central element in American culture.
Utah Humanities is touring The Way We Worked to six Utah communities during 2017. As part of the exhibition tour, we are collaborating with Utah Public Radio and exhibition hosts in Ogden, Hyrum, and Fillmore to interview local residents about their work.
Photos: Joe McQueen, a legendary Ogden Jazz musician tells us about his other passion--cars, and for the last ten years, Shawn Bliss has operated the Cache and Rich County Bookmobile.
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Click the State Icon to See Our Humanities Events Near You
Our events calendar is organized by month, date, and region of the state.
Click the icon to visit our calendar, and remember
to check back often.
There are always new humanities events to attend!
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Many Thanks
"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver." - Maya Angelou
Utah Humanities would like to thank the Alternative Visions Fund for its recent gift to support our Clemente Course in the Humanities. Thanks to their generosity, we will continue to inspire students to pursue personal empowerment and community leadership through higher education and give them the opportunities to develop higher-level thinking skills and the confidence to succeed in college.
Utah Humanities is grateful for the generous support of many individuals, foundations, and corporations, and for public funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the State of Utah, and the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Fund.
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