The 337 Project may be long gone, but the effects of it are still being felt and giving life to whole new projects.  Tonight one of those projects is shown to the entire city, but this time on the west side of Salt Lake.  Much has been kept secret about the Urban Gallery, unlike its predecessor where a lot of the art could be seen from blocks away, much has been kept under raps about the new unveiling happening this evening.  In fact, beyond recent articles about the project in the Tribune and City Weekly, the most we've heard about the art is "garage doors."  Making it even more interesting with all the secrecy. I got a chance to chat with Adam Price about the project, as well as plans down the road this year. ---

Adam Price (with Peter Carroon)

http://www.337project.org/

Gavin: Hey Adam, how have things been for you lately? 

Adam: Very busy! 

Gavin: How did the events at the Art Center go for you? And how did things go for the DVD? 

Adam: The Salt Lake Art Center exhibition, Present Tense: A Post-337 Project, just finished after a very successful run and record-breaking attendance.  We celebrated the end of the exhibition with a terrific party at the Art Center that ran until almost 1:30AM and included a midnight showing of the documentary Afterimage: The Art of 337.  The documentary can still be purchased on DVD through its creators at The DaDa Factory.

Gavin: Tell us about the new 337 Project event. 

Adam: The 337 Project event is entitled Urban Gallery.  We wanted to situate the event within the broader blossoming of art on the westside, however, so we arranged for a number of nearby art venues to have special openings on the same evening as the unveiling of Urban Gallery.  These include: Captain Captain Studios, Bridges Over Barriers Project, Mestizo Coffeehouse, and Art Access. 

Gavin: Why did you choose the Neighborhood House this time around for the Urban Gallery? 

Adam: Neighborhood House is a wonderful community resource that has been providing daycare services to children from low-income families for 114 years, and to adults for 30 years.  And art education and art therapy have always been an important part of the program at Neighborhood House.  So when Neighborhood House approached us about creating a joint gift to the community in honor of the 30th anniversary of adult daycare, it seemed like a natural fit. 

Gavin: What artists are participating in the main event? 

Adam: In no particular order:  Ben Wiemeyer, Biroe, Trent Call, Christian Arial, Sri Whipple, Joe Thomas, Margaret Willis, Caleb Workman, Trent Alvey, Wren Ross, and Jann Haworth. 

Gavin: How did you get Peter Corroon involved with the unveiling?  

Adam: I didn't personally extend the invitation to Mayor Corroon, but he has always been a strong supporter of the arts and of nonprofits such as Neighborhood House. 

Gavin: How long will the Urban Gallery be around? And are you doing anything to document this one like you did 337? 

Adam: Like all of the other 337 Project events so far, Urban Gallery will not last forever.  At some point, we will buff out the existing works and replace them with something else.  Having said that, I don't know exactly when the end will be, so everyone should come check it out while they have the chance! 

Gavin: I understand you'll be launching an Art Truck at the end of the year. What exactly will it be? 

Adam: The Art Truck is a 24' truck that will be specifically retrofitted for site-specific installations, and then driven all over the community (residential neighborhoods, schools, etc.).  Because it is mobile, the truck offers the possibility for people to experience art as something that is discovered as part of their everyday life, rather than as something that is confined to specific institutions that must be specially visited.  Our inaugural exhibition will be created by Dan Steinhilber, a nationally-recognized installation artist, whose work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.  Dan Steinhilber's work will appear in the Art Truck in partnership with the BYU Museum of Art.

Gavin: How did the partnership with BYU come about? 

Adam: BYU Museum of Art is working its way to the leading edge of the contemporary art scene here in Utah and has recently hired its first Curator of Contemporary Art, Jeff Lambson.  When Jeff approached me about a possible collaboration, I jumped at the opportunity.

Gavin: Why a truck instead of another exhibit at a gallery? 

Adam: There were a lot of things that were exciting about the original 337 Project building, and the truck allows us to explore some of those dynamics in a way that we hope will be equally exciting to the community.  The truck will be ephemeral in the sense that you never know where it will appear, or for how long.  The truck also represents the kind of transformation of mundane space that I think people found very compelling--and welcoming--about the original building. 

Gavin: Is there anything else we can expect from 337 for the rest of the year and going into next? 

Adam: That's not enough?!? 

Gavin: Aside from the obvious, anything you'd like to plug or promote? 

Adam: Yes.  Because the 337 Project does not have a permanent physical location, we depend on our mailing list to get the word out about our events.  If any of your readers are interested in the 337 Project, I'd like to invite them to join our mailing list by going to our website.  Thanks!