The 22nd Annual Robert N. and Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale, recognized as one of the biggest art events in the state of Utah, enters its final week of public viewing this upcoming week at the Dolores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center on the campus of Dixie State College of Utah.
The Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale, which has been a mainstay at Dixie State College, features 240 works from 140 renowned artists from Utah and the United States, making this year’s show one of the largest in the event’s history.
This year’s Best of Show Purchase Prize was awarded to Lance Turner from Provo, Utah, for his pastel painting “Mesa I.” At age 84, Turner’s Sears Dixie Invitational Purchase Prize win is the first for the artist and made him the oldest artist to ever win the Purchase Prize in the show’s storied history.
In addition, this year’s Invitational awarded a second-ever Best in Show Prize, which was given to Steven F. Songer from Huntsville, Utah, for his oil painting entitled “Sea Fog.” Over the first four weeks of the Invitational, patrons have also been given the opportunity to vote for the show’s Viewer’s Choice Award, which was recently presented to Jerry Anderson for his 3D-Acrylic entitled “Come Unto Me.”
All artwork will remain on display through Sunday, March 22, in the Robert N. and Peggy Sears Art Gallery located in the DSC Dolores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center. Exhibit hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. Call (435) 652-7905 for more information. The public is invited to view the exhibit free of charge.
Each work exhibited is for sale to the public, with a portion of the proceeds from each piece of artwork purchased going to help fund the Sears Art Museum Gallery in the Eccles Fine Arts Center. The Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show made its debut in that new art museum gallery in 2005, which will remain the show’s permanent home. Appropriately enough, the gallery bears the name of the show’s founders, Peggy and the late Bob Sears.
