The Arts Council of Park City and Summit County invited the Wasatch Back to engage with dance, music and painting on the McLeod Creek Trail Aug. 22.
The accessible trail made the mile-long tours available to everyone.
The first stop was Eligio and Coco Garcia, a father-son musical duo.
Then came a contemporary performance from the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.
Parkite Josh Cates says art helps him connect with loved ones in ways he otherwise couldn’t.
“My mother has advanced Alzheimer's, and I can sing with her, and she can sing back, but she can’t have a conversation with me,” Cates said. “I think it’s just a very important part of well-rounded education, and just really complements everything else that you do in life and keeps you sane.”
Participants chatted with plein air painters as they captured outdoor scenes in real time.
Later, the group lingered by dreamcatchers made by arts council interns. Intern Kaleigh Galatro said passersby added their dreams to the creations.
“They come and they write on a piece of paper, either a dream of theirs or something they hope to do one day and it’s connected to a feather,” Galatro said. “And the feathers actually symbolize the dream softly coming down into the dreamer’s head.”
The tour ended with performances from Cultural Fire Events, an Indigenous-led nonprofit.
Brianna Esaw, a member of the Western Te-Moak Shoshone tribe of Elko, Nevada, said her dances are healing.
“I always go back to watching my mom while I’m out there dancing,” Esaw said. “I will look at my mom, and sometimes she’ll be in tears just of how powerful this dance is, and that brings me that purpose and that reasoning for why I need to continue this.”
Esaw’s 4-year-old daughter draped a butterfly shawl over her tiny shoulders for the “fancy dance.”
Anika Cates, 11, reflected on the walk.
“Looking at art makes me feel happy that everyone can express their feelings by something that’s not only words,” she said.
Her 9-year-old brother Henry agreed.
The Cates family, and others along the way, said the artwork and performances strengthened familial ties while allowing them to spend time outdoors.
Park City Summit Arts Council is a financial supporter of KPCW.
