Gov. Cox and First Lady Cox recognize Utah artists

SALT LAKE CITY (June 13, 2022) – Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox and First Lady Abby Cox will honor Utah artists who positively impact the arts and their communities with the 2022 Governor’s Mansion Artist Awards. 

This year’s honorees include performing artists Richard Elliott, Tabernacle Choir Organist; Paisley Rekdal, Utah Poet Laureate; and Clytie Adams, Director of Clytie Adams School of Ballet. Visual artists include Paige Crosland Anderson, painter; Carrie Trenholm, glass artist; and Leroy Transfield, sculptor. And philanthropist Marcia Price will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of support for the arts in Utah.

The Coxes will present the awards at a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

“The arts can inspire us, uplift us, and help us reflect on the complexities of the human condition as well as our common humanity,” said Gov. Cox. “Utah is so lucky to have such a rich tradition of artistic talent among us and we are grateful to these artists for the joy and hope they contribute to our quality of life.”

“Art speaks to us in a language everyone understands,” said First Lady Cox. “It’s a connecting point. The Governor’s Mansion Artist Awards are a way for us to honor and celebrate exceptional artists in our community.”

Biographical information for the artists:

Clytie Adams, founder of the Clytie Adams School of Ballet, served four years on the Utah Arts Council Dance Panel and three separate terms as president of the Utah Ballet Teachers Association. She was presented with the Outstanding Alumni Award for the year 2000 by the University of Utah College of Fine Arts Alumni Council. Adams choreographed the musicals at Davis High School from 1960 to 1981, also the All Church Dance Festivals for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for many years. She began her own Nutcracker production and has been the Artistic Director of that Nutcracker with the New American Philharmonic since 1995.

Continuing in a tradition of the finest in ballet instruction, the Clytie Adams Ballet completed its 59^th year in 2021-22. Adams has trained tens of thousands of dancers, many of whom have gone on to dance in Ballet West Nutcracker performances, and to train in college and repertory dance companies.

Paige Crosland Anderson’s abstract art practice explores the philosophical, spiritual and practical significance of patterns. Using geometric shapes as a framework, her paintings explore themes of genealogy, spiritual yearning and personal struggle and discovery. Drawing from the visual language of LDS pioneer quilt-making, a rich part of her own cultural heritage, Anderson’s paintings are often organized with familiar stars, log cabins, or bullseyes found in her grandmother’s quilts.

Born and raised in Provo, Anderson was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Brigham Young University. She continued painting as she started a family with her husband and moved around the world, finally settling back home in the Salt Lake Valley. To learn more about her artwork, visit her website, www.paigeandersonart.com.

Dr. Richard Elliott is the principal organist at the Tabernacle on Temple Square, where he participates in the daily recital series on the famous Æolian-Skinner organ and accompanies the Tabernacle Choir on the choir’s weekly radio and TV broadcast, “Music & the Spoken Word.” 

A native of Baltimore, Elliott received his early musical training at the Peabody Institute and the Catholic University of America. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, as well as master’s in Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. As accompanist for the Tabernacle Choir, he has performed in many of the world’s great halls and appeared on numerous television and radio programs and recordings. He has collaborated with many guest artists, including Andrea Bocelli, the Canadian Brass, Kristin Chenoweth, Renée Fleming, Evelyn Glennie, the King’s Singers, the Sesame Street Muppets, Robert Show, James Taylor and Bryn Terfel. He has concertized extensively as a soloist, with performances on five continents. To learn more about Richard Elliott and to watch his organ solos, please visit the www.thetabernaclechoir.org.

Marcia Price is a champion of the arts community. Her lifelong passion has led her to a lifetime of service promoting and sustaining Utah’s art institutions. She has served as board member and chair of the Utah Arts Council, a member of the Salt Lake County Fine Arts Committee, and a member of the Utah College of Fine Arts Advisory Board. Additionally, she served on the Utah Executive Residence Commission, the Cathedral of the Madeleine Arts and Humanities Awards Commission, the International Women’s Forum, the National Committee for the Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Utah Symphony and Opera Board.

John and Marcia Price are major donors to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the University of Utah campus, and the building now bears their names. In 2006, Marcia Price received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the university.

Paisley Rekdal recently completed her five-year term as the Utah Poet Laureate of Utah. Her work has received numerous prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is a distinguished professor at the University of Utah and creator of West: A Translation, a book to commemorate the 150^th transcontinental railroad. 

Rekdal has published five books of poems as well as two books that defy categorization, but border on memoir. Currently, she is a professor at the University of Utah, Goddard College, and is credited with the community web project Mapping Salt Lake City. She has a master’s degree from the University of Toronto and an MFA from the University of Michigan. She was raised in Seattle, Washington by her Chinese-American mother and Norwegian father.

Leroy Transfield has won numerous awards, but his greatest reward is creating sculptures that convey beauty, emotion and are pleasing to the eye. He strives for a high standard of excellence rather than catering excessively to a commercial market.  He has created many monuments and memorials for Utah cities and towns as well as private collections and corporations. 

Transfield was born in New Zealand and is of Maori and European extraction. He received his bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts from BYU-Hawaii in 1993. Upon graduation he taught sculpture, and soon after, he opened his own studio in Orem. He enjoys studying all art and is inspired by the masters in various fields including Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Van Gogh.

Carrie Trenholm is a fused glass visual artist from Cedar City. She finds exploring new techniques and methods exciting and rewarding as she tries to capture light and color in glass. Much of her current work stems from observations while floating rivers and hiking in the beauty of the West. Sketchbooks and a traveling watercolor set allows her to play with colors, patterns, and line while she is outdoors, spurring ideas back in the studio. In the summer of 2014, she expanded her studio to include a new kiln room and to provide an instruction area. 

Influenced by her father’s stained glass craft and art education received in Oregon and Italy, Trenholm explores the possibilities of glass art. She has exhibited at the Springville Museum of Art, the Harris Fine Arts Center at Brigham Young University, the St. George Art Museum, the Sears Art Museum Gallery at Dixie State University, LaFave Gallery in Springdale, as well as the Braithwaite Gallery at Southern Utah University.

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