BYU NewsNet - Spring is a ball at the Springville Art Museum

Glass slippers and pumpkin carriages are optional at the Springville Museum of Art’s 43rd Annual Art Ball themed, “The Enchanted Garden: Art is Growing.”

Attendees of the ball on May 16 will be among the first to celebrate in the museum’s new Stewart Sculpture Garden.

“The Art Ball is a celebration of art and community,” said Natalie Petersen, the associate director of the museum. “It brings people together to enjoy the Spring Salon, music and fine dining.”

The ball is the museum’s biggest annual event as well as its best fundraiser. Petersen said they expect more than 900 people to attend the ball this year.

Highlights of the evening will include the 85th Annual Spring Salon Exhibition, the traditional crowning of the Art Royalty and fine dining catered by A Vikings Feast. Utah Musix Quartet and vocalist Carole Turcotte will entertain guests late into the night.

As an aesthetic and educational extension of the museum, the garden will display 243 pieces from the museum’s collection of sculpture. Measuring 24,000 square feet, the Mediterranean-style garden consists of a covered Grand Entrance, the Smoot Pavilion, the Children’s Garden and Central Garden. The focal point of the garden, as seen upon walking through the colonnaded entrance, is museum founder Cyrus Dallin’s “Spirit of Life” sculpture.

The garden is named after Sam and Diane Stewart, whose vision and ongoing support have made the dream for garden space a reality.

“The garden has been a collaborative effort between architects, landscape architects, contractors, plasterers, masons, gardeners and many others,” Petersen said.

She said in the future the garden will be available for receptions and other events.

Tickets for the ball are $25 per person in advance and $35 at the door. Tickets are available at the Springville Museum of Art and online at www.smofa.org.

Debbie Rice, a former Springville resident, currently living in Colorado, returns every year for the ball and to enjoy the Spring Salon. “I try to come back every year because the quality of the art is so good and the ball gives me a chance to catch up with old friends,” she said.

The Spring Salon is the largest juried exhibition in Utah. The artists who enter this show include several nationally recognized painters, sculptors and photographers who have had their works displayed in galleries all over the world. The catch is that the artists must have lived in Utah at some point in their lives; it is an exhibition only for Utah artists.

Of more than 1,100 pieces of artwork entered, 253 pieces were accepted. With diversity of styles and approaches, there is something for everyone’s taste: painting, sculpture, photography and mixed media. Included are works by established and popular artists such as Brian Kershisnik, Randall Lake and William Royden Card as well as emerging local artists. Most pieces are available for purchase.

Petersen said this year’s show has one of the best ranges of media and subjects the Museum has ever had.

The 85th Annual Spring Salon is on display until July 6.