The Kimball Art Center is looking to renew its contract with Park City Municipal for the next five years. That would guarantee the annual arts festival is held on Main Street the first weekend of August through 2027.
Other than a request that the maximum amount the city will pay be raised $40,000 to a total of $180,000, Milliken says the parameters of the contract aren’t changing.
“We're just trying to clarify what the city is responsible for what the Kimball Art Center is responsible for. And so, this is a typical process that we go through. You know, the council oversees the expenditures that, that that happen for this activity, and there's a lot of talk in town about how much are we investing in events, what kind of events we want to prioritize on and, and of course, this comes up when we when we talk about the arts festival.”
Councilor Jeremy Rubell suggested last month that the city instead look at sponsoring just the Friday locals’ night at a cost of about $45,000. But Milliken says that doesn’t work for the Art Center and if the council looks at the numbers more closely, they’ll see they’re getting a deal. The taxes collected over arts festival weekend, including sales tax, lodging and restaurant taxes, he says far outweigh the city’s financial contribution.
“To not invest in culture is actually not good business,” Milliken said. “So, the $145,000 investment that the city makes, comes back to $267,000 for Park City. That's a 50% increase. That's good business. So, to actually diminish the sort of support for our festivals, like the arts fest, is not being fiscally responsible, in my opinion.”
The contract will come back to the city council for a vote. Milliken is optimistic it will be approved at the requested amount.
The 2022 Kimball Arts Festival will be held August 5-7. Locals wanting to get in for free on the first night of the festival, must register in advance. A link to register can be found in the web version of this report.
Along with the Summit County Arts Council, the Kimball Art Center is hosting the annual Monster Drawing Rally on Saturday afternoon at the art center from 3 to 6 pm. It’s an opportunity to see 30 artists in action create artwork in just 50 minutes that is then sold to a winning bidder. Tickets to the rally are $20 in advance or $25 day of.
