It was five or six years ago when Wasatch County Arts Council President Pat Sweeney ran into the late Robert Redford at the Wasatch County Library.  Redford looked like he was researching something with a friend, but Sweeney didn’t eavesdrop. She did, however, approach the Oscar-winning actor and director to tell him about the Heber Valley Arts Center planned for 4 acres east of the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus.  The center is planned to encompass an outdoor amphitheater, indoor theater and rehearsal, community and gallery spaces. The project, which Sweeney estimates will cost $100 million, began in December 2023 with a 50-year lease at a rate of $1 per year between the Arts Council and Heber City. The nonprofit hopes to build the center by the 2034 Winter Olympics. Redford loved the idea. “He said, ‘This is exactly what the area needs. This is how we’re going to grow and improve the quality of life in this back area,’” Sweeney recalled. “The man had a vision, and the man’s vision didn’t just encompass film.” Sweeney’s initial hope for the Heber Valley Arts Center’s indoor theater was to use it as an official screening venue for the Sundance Film Festival, much like The Ray and Yarrow Theatres in Park City. But when the 42-year-old institution announced in March that it would be packing its bags and moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, the dream of Wasatch County becoming more involved in the festival was crushed. “We’re still going to have (the theater) because it wasn’t dependent on Sundance, but it’s unfortunate because we knew that it would fill the house for several days,” Sweeney said.  The loss of a potential screening venue is perhaps the biggest impact the Wasatch County arts scene will feel as a result of the film festival’s departure.  Sweeney said most of Wasatch County’s arts organizations are in hibernation in January and February, when Sundance takes place, so there won’t be a loss of an audience of wandering festivalgoers.  While there aren’t any film organizations or nonprofits in Wasatch County, she added she’s hopeful Wasatch and Summit counties can come together to create a new film festival to fill the void left by Sundance.  She imagines a boutique event taking place over the summer instead of the winter, perhaps in conjunction with the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. If such a film festival were to arise, she would love to offer the Heber Valley Arts Center as a venue to bring the two counties together.  “It might not draw people from across the country right away, but we could have something of our own and make it our own,” she said. Sweeney’s desire to bring a local focus back to film festivals in the Wasatch Back was echoed by Alicia Stockman, a Heber City folk Americana singer-songwriter and Wasatch County Arts Council administrative assistant. Stockman has lived in Wasatch and Summit counties her entire life. Her fond memories of Sundance include volunteering at the Egyptian Theatre to get free tickets in her 20s, experiencing virtual reality for the first time at one of the festival’s art installations and watching KT Tunstall perform at the ASCAP Music Café.  But she thinks the festival’s local focus has diminished over time. “It just got really big and unwieldy and became all about brands and sponsorships, and that took away from that art experience, I think,” Stockman said. “Now, it kind of feels like it’s so exclusive, and it’s hard to get into. It’s not as compelling for locals to really be able to participate in it.” That point was hammered home when Stockman performed at the Chase Sapphire lounge during the 2024 festival. “For me to get my mom to come and see me play at Sundance, I had to pull strings,” she said. “I knew the caterer, and that’s how we got people in.” Thankfully, the security recognized Stockman’s mother the next year her daughter performed at the same venue and let her right in. While Stockman acknowledged the departure of Sundance will have its impacts on the Heber Valley arts scene with the Wasatch Back no longer attracting the same creative minds it used to, she’s also hopeful the valley can forge its own future in the arts.  “With our population growing as much as it has, I think we’re at this precipice, this opportunity, to really define who we are culturally and artistically,” she said. “We have a knack for making things accessible to families. … That’s something that sets us apart.” As for Sweeney, she looks forward to the ongoing development of the Heber Valley Arts Center — the panel of community members and elected officials behind the project should land on a concept design for the outdoor amphitheater in the spring — and the role it will play in capturing audiences in Summit, Utah and Salt Lake counties. But her outlook about the departure of Sundance was a bit more somber. “Next to the mountains, it is the most beautiful thing in the Wasatch Back,” she said. “I’m sorry to see it go.” The post As Sundance Film Festival leaves Utah, Wasatch County forges its own future in the arts appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less