Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music (OFOAM) announces the relocation of the 15th Ogden Music Festival, June 2-4, due to flooding at Fort Buenaventura after a winter of record-breaking snowfall. The temporary venue, affectionately dubbed “Fort BDO” by OFOAM, is located at 600 N Depot Drive in Ogden, just south of the Weber County Fairgrounds.
The decision to relocate was made after county officials confirmed that flooding at Fort Buenaventura is not expected to subside before June.
Attendees can still expect all the same things they love about the Ogden Music Festival: gorgeous views, award-winning artists, on-site camping, workshops, jam camp, kids zone, kids’ parade, vendors, food trucks, Rooster’s Brewing, and more!
We are thrilled to have found a new spot for this year’s festival, and look forward to seeing this wide open space transformed into a beautiful music venue! It has been a lot of hard work to make it happen, and the support from our community has been amazing. OFOAM wishes to express their sincerest gratitude to Ogden City, BDO, and Weber County for helping us to clear all of the obstacles and make this year’s festival a possibility. Thank you to our attendees, artists, vendors, and volunteers for their patience and willingness to be flexible as we navigate these extraordinary natural conditions.
Come join us and experience the magic of the Ogden Music Festival. We can’t wait to welcome you to “Fort BDO”!
Tickets are on sale now at ofoam.org/ogden-music-festival. Kids 16 & under are free. Follow OFOAM and Ogden Music Festival on Facebook and Instagram for more updates.
FORT HALL, IDAHO – It’s time to crank up the volume and hit the gas as we bring together the most impressive collection of cars and the hottest lineup of performers for an epic show.
We invite the surrounding community to join us in the return of our 5th Annual Car Show on Saturday, July 22, 2023, at the old casino parking lot. We paused our annual car show for a few years due to concerns for public health. Now in 2023, we want to bring it back bigger and better than in previous years.
Not only will there be the usual competition with cash prizes and trophies, but we will have activities for the whole family, such as “The Largest Inflatable Attraction in the Western United States,” local popular food trucks, and vendors. After the Car Show, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Twista, and Travis Porter will perform live on stage at our outdoor concert venue.
Car Show admission is FREE. Information about participating in the car show and purchasing concert tickets can be found in the event details at shobangaming.com.
OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University and Ogden City are making contemporary art exciting and accessible to the local community with new, video game-inspired sculptures and a video exhibition at the Dumke Arts Plaza.
The plaza will celebrate this new exhibition with a Season Kick-off on April 7 from 6-9 p.m. at 445 25th Street. The exhibition is curated by Weber State’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery and features art from Utah artists.
An arts-focused community space, the Dumke Arts Plaza represents a special collaboration between WSU and Ogden City. The Shaw Gallery and a committee of Weber State faculty work to develop the plaza’s programming, taking into consideration artistic practices, technologies and ideas of contemporary artists.
“On behalf of Weber State University, and with the support of the Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, it’s been a pleasure for the Shaw Gallery to lead curatorial programming efforts at the Dumke Arts Plaza,” said Lydia Gravis, director of Art Exhibitions & Public Programs at the Shaw Gallery. “We’re pleased to continue a strong tradition of programming world-class art right here in Ogden.”
Created by Michael Whiting over the course of 15 years, the plaza’s newest free-standing exhibition “Level Up” features sculptures inspired by the pixelated art of retro video games. The sculptures are constructed using steel and automotive paint, and are placed throughout multiple levels of the plaza.
The plaza will also host “Cauldron,” a video exhibition curated by Tyrone Davies that includes 10 short works by eight video makers.
Gravis said the Shaw Gallery is excited to showcase the work of talented artists so close to home.
“As we continue to bring visibility to public art in Ogden, we invite the community to join us in celebrating the creative energy of this dynamic outdoor space,” she said.
Matt Choberka, director of Weber State’s Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, said it’s rewarding to be involved in a project that brings the university and community together.
“The city has been very ambitious in the establishment of the Nine Rails Creative District, recognizing that the arts not only enrich and educate, but are also major drivers of economic development and community revitalization,” he said. “The plaza is in the heart of Nine Rails, and so provides a focal point for creativity and community.”
Choberka said the curation committee is working on bringing a “very exciting range of art experiences to the plaza.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the plaza and Mike Whiting’s new pieces interact,” he said. “I think much of the public has yet to really see how much the plaza can offer and how much of a true public space it has become.”
The plaza also represents the continuing philanthropy of the Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, the main funder of the project. Since its founding, The Dumke Foundation has gifted over $40 million toward the betterment of communities in the Intermountain West.
“Weber State and Ogden City have benefited enormously from the vision and generosity of the Dumke family,” Choberka said.
The Foundation, Ogden City, RAMP, Weber State and Ogden Contemporary Arts, along with community stakeholders, collaborated closely to develop the vision for the Dumke Arts Plaza.
Friday’s kickoff event will feature performances by Tribal Love and Infusion Rock, and is part of Ogden’s monthly First Friday Art Stroll.
More information on the upcoming exhibit is available on the Shaw Gallery website and more on the Dumke Arts Plaza can be found on Ogden City’s website.
Jessica Kokesh
Social Media Editor
OGDEN, Utah – The community is invited to celebrate the Dumke Arts Plaza Season Kick-Off on Friday, April 7, from 6-9 p.m. The venue is located at 445 25th Street, on the corner of 25th Street and Ogden Avenue.
The event which is curated by Weber State University will serve as the plaza’s second exhibition launch, featuring selected work by renowned Utah artists Michael Whiting and Tyrone Davies. Performances by Tribalovedancer and music by Infusion Rock will showcase the versatility of programming in this space. Speakers will provide remarks at 6 p.m. Performances will immediately follow for the duration of the evening in conjunction with Ogden City’s First Friday Art Stroll.
The Dumke Arts Plaza serves as a venue to share world-class art exhibitions with the community in an outdoor civic space. Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery and the Department of Visual Art & Design proudly curate exhibitions at the Dumke Arts Plaza. A selection of work by renowned Utahn sculptor Michael Whiting and Utahn filmmaker Tyrone Davies will be displayed during the exhibition. The exhibition includes LEVEL UP by Whiting, and Davies’ curated video installation, CAULDRON.
LEVEL UP is a 15-year retrospective of Whiting’s distinctive style characterized by steel minimalist pixelated abstract sculptures inspired by early video games.
The highest level I’ve ever gotten on Ms. Pac-Man is level 12. It is the fourth maze and just a couple of mazes after the cutscene of a stork bringing a baby Pac-Man to Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man. Early video games were all about High Scores, and with each level, you went up and things got harder. You, the player, had to “level up” your playing ability to keep going. My work explores the visual connection between minimalism and early video games. The sculptures in the Plaza represent animals, figures, and objects as pixelated abstractions. I limit my image-making to the same constraints that governed early pixel-based technologies. I use a minimal number of squares to create an image. The works I create are constructed using steel and automotive paint- materials traditionally used to build the minimalist sculpture. The pixelated sculptures have been placed in the Plaza on multiple levels. They are the digital made physical. And the viewer can move up and down the levels to interact with them – more like Donkey Kong, but without a giant gorilla throwing barrels at you… I like seeing them together. It feels like leveling up. – Michael Whiting.
Davies’ film curation CAULDRON is an amalgamation of various video styles by an array of U.S. and international artists. Davies states:
This collection is an international mix… that includes ten short works by eight video makers: Tony Gault (Denver, CO), Elizabeth Henry (Denver, CO), Van McElwee (St. Louis, MO), Tim Sullivan (San Francisco, CA), Rosa Menkman (The Netherlands), Carlos Castro (Bogota, Columbia), Ryan Wylie (San Francisco, CA), and Timothy David Orme (Marina, CA). From art jokes to deep transcendental projects, each maker offers something very different. The best way to appreciate this program is to stand (or sit) still, watch, and listen.
For more information about the Whiting and Davies exhibitions presented by Weber State University, please visit https://weber.edu/shawgallery.html. These exhibitions will be on view to the public from April 7, 2023, through August 4, 2023. The exhibitions are presented in partnership with Ogden city and is made possible by the generous support of the Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, the Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, and the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities.
The Dumke Arts Plaza is an arts-focused community space, a dynamic outdoor gallery, and an intimate performance venue. It was designed to inspire creativity, elevate diverse perspectives, and anchor Ogden as a hub for contemporary art featuring major art installations, as well as community-led arts programming ranging from small concerts, to dance performances, to video art. The evening’s presentation of dance company Tribalovedancer and Latin Rock band Infusion Rock will showcase this versatility and serve as creative fodder for future community-led programming.
For more information about the Dumke Arts Plaza, please visit ogdencity.com/DumkeArtsPlaza. Ogden City encourages community members and organizations interested in hosting arts programming and events at the Dumke Arts Plaza to attend this event and/or visit the website for more information.
