Just two doors down from the glossy, modern and elegant Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building, students may wander upon a dark remnant of brutalist architecture constituting the University of Utah Art Building. Hidden just inside two paint-chipped doors, around a corner of gray walls, a brightly lit room filled with trinkets and treasures welcomes freezing students to the annual Department of Art and Art History’s Holiday Sale.

You Name It, We Sculpt It

Artfully arranged ceramic vases on large white podiums stand beside white walls decorated with handmade prints in the Alvin Gittins Gallery. No one could blame you for mistaking the holiday sale for an upscale art exhibit. The pieces, made by art students from the U, certainly merit high class status.

Beyond the prints and ceramics, booths line each wall with information on and art pieces of a multitude of forms from a multitude of fine art-related clubs on campus.

I spoke with Kelly Goff, a senior studying sculpture intermedia and representing the university’s Sculpture Club. I was under the false impression that sculpture was restricted to works made of clay, but the sculpture club booth offered dozens of unique mediums from 3-D printed fidget toys to handmade Christmas tree ornaments to print T-shirts. There were even the most incredible hand-turned spoons that make anything prepared with them taste infinitely more exquisite. The sculpture intermedia major includes such diverse mediums as performance art, audio and visual works, as well as metal, wood and porcelain sculpture.

“It’s a great cause and it’s fun to see student work and support fellow students,” Goff said of the Holiday Sale. “It’s a great stress reliever for finals week.”

It is also a great cause. Proceeds for each piece go to various causes depending on the club, many going directly back to the student artists. The proceeds from the Sculpture Club’s pieces go towards defraying the cost of travel for club members on their trip to New York. Goff said the club has been awarded a Fine Arts Fees grant from the U this year which will help fund this opportunity.

‘Tis the Season to Support the Arts

The Holiday Sale is a wonderful chance for students of any fine art discipline to showcase and sell the amazing work they make year round. It’s not often I find myself attending events on campus, but I, like most people these days, am a sucker for sustainable shopping. This event is a great way to bring attention to the fine art majors. 

“I think my favorite part is just seeing how many people come from the community,” Goff added. “There are a lot of people that go to the UMFA, have lunch and then they hear about this, they come over, they get gifts and they don’t realize the breadth and just the talent that our students have … We’re really proud of it.”

A One of a Kind Holiday Gift

Hopefully you had time to run down to the Arts Building for the Holiday Sale this year. If you didn’t, be sure to attend the myriad of events the College of Fine Arts puts on, many of which are free or subsidized with your Ucard’s Arts Pass. Watch out for the Holiday Sale next fall. What better way to find a one of a kind gift for friends and family each Holiday season?

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