By Alison Anderson
Staff writer
The Friends of Historic Spring City will sponsor Heritage Day on Saturday with a new emphasis this year: Rather than the usual home tour, three barns will be open to visitors along with several outbuildings in town.
In an effort to provide a more open-air event and avoid crowding in indoor spaces, the Friends have redesigned the event and are calling it “Art in the Barns.”
Each year, local artists contribute unframed 1-square-foot paintings as part of the Art Squared fundraising program with proceeds going to Friends of Historic Spring City for historic preservation projects.
This year the Art Squared paintings be displayed in three barns. They will be sold in an online auction beginning the morning of Heritage Day and ending the following Saturday, June 5. The auction can be found through the Friends website (friendsofhistoricspringcity.org) or on the organization’s public Facebook page. Paintings purchased will be mailed or hand delivered to the auction winners’ addresses.
Many artists contribute to the Heritage Day art sale and art auction: A few of note are M’Lisa Paulsen, Cassandria Parsons, Lee Bennion, Kathleen Peterson, Susan Gallacher, Ken Baxter, and Kerry Soper.
Contributing artists will also show and sell their framed art to collectors who eagerly await the chance to buy a painting on Heritage Day itself. The framed art will be sold in the Old School (Spring City Community Center) on Center Street and 100 East.
The original structure was designed by Richard Watkins and built in 1899. The restoration of the Spring City Community Center was completed in 2017, a labor of 30-plus years by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the Friends of Historic Spring City.
Now owned by Spring City Corporation, it houses the city offices; the DUP Museum; a beautiful ballroom where parties, concerts and other large gatherings can be held; as well as rentable space for businesses or events.
Heritage Day tickets will be sold there, as well as at the old Main Street Firehouse. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Purchasers will receive a map showing the featured barns, along with other interesting outbuildings and homes in Spring City.
The barns that will be open and loaded with Art Squared paintings are:
• The Judge Jacob Johnson Carriage House at 390 S. 100 West, a large oolite limestone barn
• The Marinus Peterson historic barn at 285 E. 500 North, a rustic log hay-drying barn.
• The recently-built Springfarm barn at 50 E. Center St., home to gatherings of all sorts.
Hayrides, food trucks, live music, a bake sale and the chance to tour the two DUP museums will round out the Heritage Day activities.
Two locally owned restaurants, Das Café and Roots 89 Grill, will be serving their usual delicious fare. Besides the art sold online and in the community center, art will be available at the Spring City Arts gallery at 79 S. Main, as well as in individual artists’ galleries around town.
