Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show Night 1!
2024-12-11 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
Join us for the SECOND ANNUAL Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta! This holiday season, we are celebrating community and finding joy in local talent of all types.
Amazing talent from across Washington County will compete to win a $1,000 Grand Prize and a $500 Audience Choice. Be a part of it!
Wednesday 12/11 Talent:
Stone Colossus
Chase McPhie
Sadie Barrowes
Micaela Musser
Dan Davie
Trey Paterson
Lilly Pearson & Zoey Wilhelmsen
Jesse Barraclough
TICKETS

Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show Night 2!
2024-12-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
Join us for the SECOND ANNUAL Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta! This holiday season, we are celebrating community and finding joy in local talent of all types.
Amazing talent from across Washington County will compete to win a $1,000 Grand Prize and a $500 Audience Choice. Be a part of it!
Friday 12/13 Talent:
Christian Erickson
Zaiden Wilhelmsen
Leonora Lund
Braylyn Larson & Dresden Keate
Austin Roy
Bella Gillette
The Knells!
TICKETS

Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show Night 3!
2024-12-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
Join us for the SECOND ANNUAL Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta! This holiday season, we are celebrating community and finding joy in local talent of all types.
Amazing talent from across Washington County will compete to win a $1,000 Grand Prize and a $500 Audience Choice. Be a part of it!
Saturday 12/14 Talent:
Liv Harter
Roxie Sparling & Brielle McWillis
Bee Manesse
Zach Wilhelmsen
Ashlyn Holt
The McDonald Siblings
TICKETS

Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show GRAND FINALE!
2024-12-18 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
Join us for the SECOND ANNUAL Twinkling Tinsel Talent Show at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta! This holiday season, we are celebrating community and finding joy in local talent of all types.
Amazing talent from across Washington County will compete to win a $1,000 Grand Prize and a $500 Audience Choice. Be a part of it!

Tickets $25

CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY
2024-12-24 - 2024-12-25, 2025-01-01 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta

FIRST FRIDAY
2025-01-03 17:00 - 20:00, 2025-02-07 17:00 - 20:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
COMMUNITY
First Fridays at Kayenta
every First Friday / 5:00pm-8:00pm
FREE to attend!
Kayenta Art Village
We’re thrilled to introduce First Fridays at Kayenta, happening on the first Friday of every month, September through June! Enjoy live music, food trucks, and a pop-up boutique market in the Kayenta Art Village beginning at 5:00pm, with film screenings in the theater presented by DOCUTAH, and good vibes all around.
Photo courtesy of Donna Conversano / www.conversanophoto.com

DOCUTAH PRESENTS: Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart
2025-01-03 19:30 - 21:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
FILM
Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart
Friday, January 3, 7:30pm
part of DOCUTAH
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
The life and times of the great Lakota chief Sitting Bull, told mostly in his own words and that of
his contemporaries. An intimate, in-depth portrait of one of America’s great historical figures.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1493183/?ref_=tt_mv_close
Tickets: $10

The Magician's Sister
2025-01-16 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-17 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-18 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-19 15:00 - 17:00, 2025-01-22 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-23 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-24 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-25 15:00 - 17:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
THEATER
The Magician’s Sister
by Jami Brandli
directed by Reena Dutt
January 16-25, 2025
Evening Performances: January 16, 17, 18 / 22, 23, 24
Matinee Performances: January 19 & 25
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
The Magician’s Sister follows the story of two women: an aspiring Magician driven by being the best, and her sister, who somewhat reluctantly serves as her “Wise Assistant.” When the Magician purposely disappears herself and leaves behind mysterious clues to solve, her sister becomes obsessed with finding her. As the two sisters’ stories dramatically unfold over the span of thirty years—interweaving the present and the past—we witness their struggle to fulfill their collective goals and conflicting individual desires, while they strive to perfectly execute Houdini’s famous “Metamorphosis” illusion.
The Magician’s Sister explores the complexities of sisterhood, the ripple effects of family trauma, and the complicated pursuit and price of “being special,” while also incorporating the stories of real, historical female magicians and plenty of on-stage magic.

TICKETS

UNLOCKING THE ARTS: The Magician's Sister
2025-01-18 18:30 - 19:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
UNLOCKING THE ARTS: The Magician’s Sister
Arrive Early for the Conversation!
January 18, 2024 // 6:30pm

Guest Scholar: Jami Brandli, MFA Creative Writing
Discussion: Magic and Gender through new writing and performance.

The Magician’s Sister is an award-winning new play that follows the story of two sisters over the course of thirty years, exploring the difficulties that come with the struggle to fulfill one’s own desires and potential. As the sisters make peace with their mother’s mental illness and violent death, they struggle to fulfill her dream for them becoming something “extraordinary.”

This program is made possible through a grant from Utah Humanities. Utah Humanities strengthens Utah communities by cultivating connections, deepening understanding, and exploring our complex human experience.

Writing Workshop: Aristotle's Six Dramatic Elements
2025-01-19 10:00 - 12:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
Aristotle’s Six Dramatic Elements; a writing workshop with Jami Brandli
In this 2 hour seminar we will cover Aristotle’s Six Elements of drama: Character, Action, Ideas, Language, Music and Spectacle/Theatricality. We will also analyze one ten-minute play and end with a writing exercise, so please bring something to write with/on!

REGISTRATION

The Southern Paiute Story
2025-01-28 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
VOYAGER LECTURE SERIES
The Southern Paiute Story
With Autumn Gillard
Tuesday, January 28, 7:30pm
Social Hour begins at 6:30pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
The Southern Paiutes (Nung’wu) have traditionally lived here, in this region, since time immemorial. According to the tribe’s traditional creation stories, the Nung’wu were chosen to live in the most beautiful place at the center of the world to take care of Mother Earth (Too’veep).
The Southern Paiutes were the original stewards and possessors of what is now known as Southern Utah, Northern Nevada, Southwestern California, and Northern Arizona. The Nung’wu Ancestors were a peaceful community, culturally well adapted, and knowledgeable and resourceful. They worked with the earth, farmed on natural floodplains, and moved according to seasons, harvest times, and animal migrations.
This year’s Voyager Lecture Series follows “The History of This Land,” from the deep time studied in geology, through modern concerns related to our changing environment.

TICKETS

Join all five of our spring Voyager Lectures for $100!
VOYAGER LECTURES PACKAGE

VISUAL ART: In Living Color
2025-01-30 - 2025-03-17 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
VISUAL ART
In Living Color: Painting
Desert Spirit Art Committee Group Exhibition
January 30 – March 17, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, February 7 at 5:00pm
Judy & Tim Terrell Main Lobby
This is the perfect time of year to fill our gallery with color and imagination! The exhibit is open to all subject matter using any painting medium – oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache. Consider a new challenge and express yourself through abstracts, animals, still life, Plein-air, or portraits.
The Desert Spirit Art Committee organizes three juried visual art exhibitions each season at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta. The Committee encourages and invites both established and emerging regional artists to submit original artwork that responds to the exhibition’s themes.
Exhibition Opening Receptions are held in conjunction with First Fridays at Kayenta. The exhibits are always free and open to the public during the Center’s regular business hours: Monday-Saturday, 10:00a-6:00p, plus during evening performance events.
JURORS:
Judith Hutcheson & Matt Pectol

DOCUTAH PRESENTS: Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
2025-02-07 19:30 - 21:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
FILM
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
Friday, February 7, 7:30pm
part of DOCUTAH
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
A young Italian American’s cultural odyssey through the depths of Italy’s most remote and traditional regions, told through the story of Italian folk music.

Tickets $10

Soirée Musicale: Romantic String Quartets
2025-02-08 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
MUSIC
Soirée Musicale: Romantic String Quartets
Saturday, February 8th, 7:30pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
Experience the magic of “Romantic String Quartets” in one of Southern Utah’s most enchanting settings, Center for the Arts at Kayenta. Let Debussy and Brahms’ passionate melodies transport you and your loved one to a world of elegance. Under Jason Bonham’s masterful direction, our chamber ensemble promises an intimate evening of timeless classics and romantic surprises, perfect for a special date night.
Tickets $30
Soiree Musicale is generously sponsored by:

February Art Festival
2025-02-15 10:00 - 17:00, 2025-02-16 10:00 - 17:00 | Kayenta Art Village, 881 Coyote Gulch Court, Ivins, UT, 84738, United States
FEBRUARY ART FESTIVAL
A FREE Art Festival at Kayenta Art Village
February 15-16, 2025
10:00am-5:00pm daily
Stroll through a gathering of eclectic artists who specialize in media ranging from sculpture to painting, jewelry to ceramics, wood to metal and more. And then unwind to live music, and culinary delights from festival vendors and Kayenta’s own Xetava Gardens Café, all amidst stunning desert vistas.

Miwa Matreyek: Animation & Performance
2025-02-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-02-16 15:00 - 16:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
ANIMATION / THEATER
Miwa Matreyek
Three Works: Animation & Performance
Myth and Infrastructure (2010)
This World Made Itself (2013)
Infinitely Yours
Saturday, February 15 / 7:30pm
Sunday, February 16 / 3:00pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater

“A fantastical interpretation of the Earth’s formation” –TED

Spellbinding and vibrant animations are brought to life through live performance by award-winning artist Miwa Matreyek. Experience three remarkable pieces, created between 2010 and today, that will leave you breathless.
In Myth and Infrastructure, Miwa’s shadow explores fantastical animation worlds, as she traverses oceanscapes, cityscapes, and domestic spaces to conjure dreamlike scenes with light and shadow.
This World Made Itself is a visually and musically rich journey through the history of the earth, from the universe’s epic beginnings to the complex world of humanity. The piece is at once semi-scientific (like flipping through a children’s encyclopedia), and emotional, surreal, and dream-like.
And Infinitely Yours creates an emotional, dream-like meditation on climate catastrophe and the Anthropocene – the proposed current era where human influence has effected almost all realms of earth’s natural systems.

COYOTE TALES: Sweet
2025-02-21 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
STORYTELLING
COYOTE TALES True Stories Told Live
The Night’s Theme: Sweet
Friday, February 21st
Pre-show party 6:30 pm (event ticket required for admission)
Storytelling: 7:30 pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
Coyote Tales are live, open-mic style storytelling events with amateur and experienced storytellers. Each event has a theme on which stories are to be based. The theme for this event is: “Sweet.” Potential storytellers may address that theme in any way they choose. Prior to the event, storytellers craft their true, on-theme story, practice the telling (5-7 minutes or less), and work on eliminating excess detail to nail the perfect ending.
When the doors open, potential storytellers put their name in the hat in hopes of being chosen to share their tale. If chosen, the storyteller takes the stage to delight the audience.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO GET ON STAGE TO SHARE YOUR TALE, PLEASE CONTACT VICTORIA THROUGH THE COYOTE TALES WEBSITE:
https://coyotetalesstories.com/
TICKETS

VOYAGER LECTURE: Southern Utah History Through Picture and Word
2025-02-25 19:30 - 21:00 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
VOYAGER LECTURE SERIES
Southern Utah History Through Picture and Word
With Lyman Hafen and Roland Lee
Tuesday, February 25, 7:30pm
Social Hour begins at 6:30pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
This year’s Voyager Lecture Series follows “The History of This Land,” from the deep time studied in geology, through modern concerns related to our changing environment.
For February’s lecture, hear from writer Lyman Hafen and artist Roland Lee as they explore the history of Southern Utah through art and literature.
Lyman Hafen and his wife Debbie are natives of St. George, Utah. Lyman graduated from Dixie College where he discovered a love for learning and literature and came to terms with the idea that he would spend his life telling the compelling stories of this place to the world. After completing his education at Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in communications, he co-founded St. George Magazine in 1983, and was its editor for 16 years. He continues to write a bi-monthly column chronicling the history, culture and personality of his fast-changing hometown. He has written twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, and his writing has been honored on several occasions by the Utah Arts Council. Lyman is host of the NOT FORGOTTEN podcast sharing the legacy of stories of southern Utah. He recently retired after serving 25 years as executive director of Zion Natural History Association (now the Zion Forever Project) in Zion National Park.
Roland Lee and his wife Nellie have lived in St. George for over 50 years. Roland’s interest in pioneer history has led him to do a series of watercolor paintings of early southern Utah as well as following the pioneer trail of his own ancestors. His historical paintings have appeared on the covers of The Ensign magazine and Pioneer magazine, published by the Sons of Utah Pioneers. With paintings in over 2000 public and private collections, Roland has been honored with the Governor’s Mansion Medal and a 40-year retrospective of his work at the Sears Museum. Over the past 40 years he has teamed up with writer Lyman Hafen on many books and publications. At the Voyager lecture Lyman will share his writings and Roland will show slides of his historical paintings while together sharing their appreciation for those who came before us.

TICKETS

Delbert Anderson Quartet
2025-03-01 19:30 - 21:30 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
MUSIC / JAZZ
Delbert Anderson Quartet
Saturday, March 1 / 7:30pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater

“By mining traditional Navajo ‘spinning songs’ of love, healing, and courtship, and marrying them to jazz and funk lines, Anderson and his trio have taken a place at the forefront of a vibrant Native American jazz scene.” – The New York Times

Delbert Anderson creates Diné inspired musical pathways, preserving his cultural music by creating a foundation of new Diné melodies and fuses them through jazz, jam and funk. Each path serves Indigenous culture through stories, healing, history and collaboration.
Anderson had been featured on The New York Times, JazzTimes, Grammy.com, NASA, NPR Music Top 10, Smithsonian Magazine, Yahoo/Mic.com, TEDx, PBS, FNX Television and much more.
TICKETS

The Center for the Arts at Kayenta was supported by New Music USA’s Organization Fund in 2024-25. This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.
This performance is generously sponsored by Elizabeth Fortney Photography.
