For the sixth year, City Weekly has had the pleasure of recognizing some of the great work done by the creative women and men in the state of Utah. And for the sixth year, the hardest part was realizing how much we were going to end up leaving out.
Lists and awards are destined to inspire arguments, but nowhere more so than in the arts. Some scoff at the idea that a majority of voters will ever recognize truly innovative work; others rail at the mere notion that you can place two paintings side by side, or two theatrical performances, and have any remotely defensible way of saying one is “better.” The eye of the beholder is a curious thing.
Our readers have spoken once again about what they loved in the visual arts, performing arts, literary arts and crafts; our staff and freelance arts contributors supplemented those recognitions with their own idiosyncratic favorites. In so doing, we make no claims to having finished the conversation about where artistic greatness lies in Utah; we hope only to start that conversation. If we also happen to start an argument along the way, we can live with that.