Ogden Arts Festival returns to historic Union Station this weekend
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- An undated photo of the Ogden Arts Festival at historic Union Station.
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- An undated photo of the Ogden Arts Festival at historic Union Station.
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- An undated photo of the Ogden Arts Festival at historic Union Station.
OGDEN — Following a one-year hiatus and a change in leadership, the Ogden Arts Festival is finally set to return to historic Union Station this weekend.
The event — produced by the Ogden Downtown Alliance and running from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday — attracted nearly 8,000 attendees in 2023. For its return engagement, visitors can expect new programming and some returning festival favorites — interactive workshops, live muralists, a VIP experience, a community mural project and more.
This year’s community mural project will be led by Miriam Gutierrez, a local artist and Ogden Contemporary Arts, or OCA, instructor who was inspired by the Beehive State’s natural beauty after moving here from California at the age of 15. Gutierrez told the Standard-Examiner that she relishes the opportunity to bring her talents and those of the greater Ogden community to the festival.
“I think it’s a big impact with the community to create something together,” Gutierrez said. “And with the mural design, too, it is community-based. A lot of it has to do with the surrounding area in Ogden, like the Farmer’s Market. Then there’s the Dinosaur Park, the Ogden Nature Center — things like that. So, I think it will be really fun for the community to paint the mural and then also have some sort of ties to it with the community that they live in.”
Gutierrez designed and sketched the mural onto five 4-foot-by-8-foot panels, each bearing a letter that together spells “Ogden.” Over the course of the festival, she’ll help attendees of all ages to contribute to its completion.
“I organized it in a way to where it will be a paint-by-numbers set-up,” Gutierrez said. “So, we’ll have all of the paint organized by color numbers. Then I’m just going to kind of orchestrate the crowd to paint certain parts that need to be painted, and we’ll go from there.”
Drawing on the festival’s legacy of fostering local talent, the event will feature over 100 artist booths and performances spanning a veritable bonanza of artistic disciplines. Union Station’s museums and galleries will also be open to attendees. Food vendors and a beer garden will also be on-site.
For the first time, the festival will include an “artist factory” — a new collaborative initiative with OCA, housed within Union Station’s Gallery 51, where attendees can participate in free workshops with practicing artists, ranging from digital art to clay sculpture. Other new additions include the Western-themed plein air competition and a skate deck graffiti competition.
General admission tickets are available for $5 in advance or $10 at the gate; youth ages 18 and under will be admitted free of charge. VIP passes are available for $50. Attendees may also purchase an extra $5 ticket to be distributed to community members needing financial assistance to attend the event through the festival’s new “Paint It Forward” program.
For an event schedule, other information or to purchase tickets online, go to https://ogdendowntown.com/ogdenartsfestival/.
