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History of the Davis Arts Council
In 1979, the mayor of Layton asked a group of community-minded citizens to begin a program of cultural activities, which would make the arts accessible to a wide range of citizenry. This marked the beginning of the free Sunday night concerts in the park and a few isolated cultural programs at the local high school.
From the humble beginnings, the Davis Arts Council evolved into a fully operational and professional organization offering a variety of cultural opportunities for residents from communities throughout northern Utah. Believing that culture and creativity are primary building blocks of civilization and are vital to human happiness and social progress, the Davis Arts Council, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, works on behalf of the Davis County community to foster excellence, diversity, and vitality in the arts and humanities. Our mission is to connect people with the power of the arts to strengthen the community.
Independent of Layton City, a volunteer board of trustees, a full-time executive director, and a staff of three (3) runs the Davis Arts Council. Two (2) volunteer coordinators organize their respective volunteer committee, which tallies approximately 16,000 volunteer hours every year.
In 1995, the arts council partnered with Layton City, corporate sponsors, and private sponsors to build the beautiful Ed Kenley Centennial Amphitheater. The partnership inaugurated the first of the successive Summer Nights with the Stars concert series offering a variety of extraordinary ticketed performances. A free Sunday concert series, free Thursday movie series, a visual arts festival, theatrical productions, adult and youth educational/cultural workshops, and a community choir round out the cultural offerings that the Davis Arts Council provides to the community.
In 2000, the Davis Arts Council acted as the lead agency in acquiring a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to hire Dr. Patrick Overton to conduct a County Cultural Assessment. Acknowledging that arts agencies were struggling to further their respective programs due to a lack of facilities in the county, Davis County and the major arts organizations in the county entered into a two-year study to determine the cultural facility needs in the county and the feasibility of building and maintaining facilities in the county. The results suggested that the county could sustain a facility in both the northern and southern areas of the county.
Since the assessment results were released, the county cultural organizations entered into a campaign in 2004 to pass a Recreation, Arts, and Parks (RAP) Tax initiative that would assist the funds required to build and maintain the needed facilities to further the programs of the county’s cultural organizations. Though the initiative failed to pass, the Davis Arts Council continues to promote the concept of an indoor cultural facility in Northern Davis County that would allow us to accomplish our mission goals on a year-round basis. The arts council is currently engaged in a Public Value of the Arts campaign in addition to the multiple cultural programs and workshops that they produce and administer on behalf of the community. In addition, they continue to explore viable and stable funding sources to stabilize and grow the organization and the arts programs in the community.
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