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If you live in or near Salt Lake City, or if you’ll be nearby on November 21st and 22nd, you will want to check out the SparkArts Digital Arts Festival. Its focus is fairly broad, but there’s a little bit of something for everyone, especially photographers. There will be photography competitions and a few seminars presented by Professional Photographer Eric Hamilton. Best of all, the entire event is free! Here’s the official press release:
The SparkArts digital arts festival is coming to Salt Lake City this November 21-22. SparkArts is a free event which teaches participants how to create art with a computer, and is particularly geared toward people who want to make digital art and video games but don’t know how.
The festival gives younger participants a chance to meet professional game developers, musicians, and artists in an informal, casual setting. Teenagers and college students who dream of making video games but don’t know where to begin are invited to come and bring their computers.
SparkArts will provide free, legal software for creating games on-site. It will also hold question-and-answer sessions, tutorials, and bring together hobbyists and professionals from the game, music, and digital imaging industries. There will be many “just-for-fun” activities, including games, scavenger hunts, and competitions inspired by the quirky digital-arts culture.The organizers of SparkArts have been setting up similar events for over five years, and have had hundreds of participants come and enjoy the experience. “Utah had a thriving digital arts scene among teenagers and college student in the mid-90s,” says Adam Helps, one of the festival’s founders. “Unfortunately, much of this has faded away in recent years. SparkArts is our attempt to revive and even expand on this culture, which helped capture the imagination and inspire the previous generation’s computing professionals.” Most of SparkArts’ organizers are software developers and IT professionals working in Utah.
Major focuses of the festival include video game programming, computer-aided music composition, digital painting and 3-d modeling. Festival organizers will provide necessary software and instructions. Attendees will create projects during the course of the festival, and the results will be displayed in a fun and colorful closing ceremony.
SparkArts is run by a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and is sponsored by the Salt Lake Library. The event will be held in the Salt Lake Library all day Friday and Saturday, November 21-22. There is no charge for attending or participating. The general public is invited to come, optionally bring a computer, and enjoy the festival!
For more information, check out the official website: SparkArts.org
Digital Photography School and Photrade have teamed up to offer a pretty cool contest. This is the first real contest I’ve ever entered, and I’m hopeful to do well. Check out the contest submissions (and vote for me) by clicking the link below.
