The topic of the Helper City Arts Festival was discussed during the Helper City Council meeting that took place on Thursday evening. Kate Kilpatrick-Miller spoke to council members and brought to their attention the different and new things being added to the arts festival for the 2016 year.
A theme has been set for the festival; it is going to be Heritage and Culture. Along with that, Kilpatrick-Miller stated she would like to collect different historic Helper photos. She has already worked with Wells Fargo, the museum and other local businesses to use the photos they have displayed in their businesses and present them as an exhibit in the Helper Civic Auditorium.
Kilpatrick-Miller also stated that she is busy forming a fundraiser. The arts festival is unable to go after certain grants due to them being unavailable for specific activities. Kilpatrick-Miller had the idea that a 501C3 would be fit for the festival, art center and other activities underneath it. She stated that she would like to be able to put the Rio Theater in the category with it. The city currently owns the theater and Kilpatrick-Miller wanted to be sure that doing this would not be a conflict of interest. To bring certain films in there are certain fees and licensing that is required and can be rather expensive. In order to make this possible, the theater would have to be owned by a non-profit entity.
The council was made aware that they would have to transfer the ownership to a non-profit entity or the non-profit entity could also lease the theater from the city. There will be a council hopefully created for the 501C3 with the tentative title of the Community Arts Council. Mayor Ed Chavez along with the other council members requested that a lease is negotiated and terms worked out and brought back to the council members before a final decision is made.
There are also fundraising activities being planned for the festival. One of the fundraisers will be a Flamingo Float down the Price River. Attendees would buy a plastic flamingo and whichever one floats down to the finish line first wins. There will also be a paint night at the Balance Rock Eatery. Another new and exciting event being brought to the arts festival this year is a Film Festival. There will be two 90-minute sets of shorts. Kilpatrick-Miller requested the council to attend a small red carpet event for the filmmakers involved in the festival, to which they stated that they would be delighted to attend.