By Kaitlin Kerr-Osman

Hi CFA students!

As an ArtsForce intern this year, I have been very interested in learning more about arts administration. This led me to approach Derek Dyer who is a self-taught artist and the Founder and Executive Director of Utah Arts Alliance. Utah Arts Alliance is an organization founded on the idea of fostering all art forms in order to create an empowered community. They often have free events, such as the Urban Arts Festival and have galleries that local artists can sell their work out of.

Derek told me that the idea for Utah Arts Alliance began while he was still attending school. He attended Salt Lake Community College for a degree in multimedia and design, but was also interested in exploring urban art forms. He recognized that many of the artists he knew had no spaces to show their work because there was less support for newer, contemporary art forms. Over time, he began renting out spaces or throwing house parties as a way to allow all of these artists to showcase their work through whatever medium they wanted. There would be dance exhibitions, live music, and artwork hanging on the walls so that there was a space for everybody to share their art. While it started as a way to support himself and his friends, this soon became Utah Arts Alliance.

Utah Arts Alliance really started when arts organizations, such as the Utah Arts Council and the Downtown Alliance, suggested that Derek start a nonprofit. But there was not much support for how to start a nonprofit at the time. He did most of the work of researching how to become a nonprofit on his own so that in the future artists would have more support than he saw.

Since Derek was young, he had recognized that there were opportunities for rapid growth in non-traditional art fields. This growth is even more obvious with the current state of the world. With COVID, new and different ways of showcasing art have given the arts an opportunity to thrive. Many people have taken to performing in front of their houses, similar to what Derek and his friends were doing at the beginning of his journey. Even Urban Arts Festival has seen some changes with COVID. Typically, the festival takes place in one location for a weekend, but, this year, they broke it up into a full month of elements to ensure that they could still hold an in-person event while allowing everyone to be safe.

Derek is also a self-taught businessman. He has attended some business seminars and taken advantage of things when they come his way, but he still sees himself first as an artist. He says “We’re not he businesspeople trying to run art, we’re artists trying to run a business.” He advocates for taking advantage of any opportunities that present themselves as a way of furthering your goals.

Over time, he began renting out spaces or throwing house parties as a way to allow all of these artists to showcase their work through whatever medium they wanted. There would be dance exhibitions, live music, and artwork hanging on the walls so that there was a space for everybody to share their art. While it started as a way to support himself and his friends, this soon became Utah Arts Alliance.

 As the Executive Director of Utah Arts Alliance, Derek also wants to make sure that their festivals are accessible to everyone. For the festivals, there is no charge because they want to ensure the elimination of any financial barriers people might have. He explained that this is very important to the organization because being able to experience art can change people’s lives and set them off on new. However, he also recognizes the necessity of making money in order to continue the business, so the organization also has "Dreamscapes," which is a paid immersive art experience and own galleries through which artists can sell their works.

Talking to Derek opened up a whole new side of the arts world that I hadn’t really explored yet. As a performing artist, I don’t have much experience with visual arts, so it was really interesting to hear Derek talk about all the cool things that Utah Arts Alliance is doing for the visual arts. This conversation also gave me hope in the midst of everything that is happening in the world. Lately, I have been very worried about my professional career and the world as a whole, but Derek’s insight helped me to reignite my passion for the arts world and get excited for all the innovative ways artists are going to create work now.

Artsforce Takeaways:

• Advocating for yourself can lead to great things

• Art is the one thing where nothing is impossible

• Creative solutions allow the arts to thrive

*Author Kaitlin Kerr-Osman is an Emerging Leaders Intern with ArtsForce and a modern dance major.