12 Minutes Max is a monthly experimental performance series featuring short works by local artists in many disciplines.
One Sunday a month, we present three original pieces in a varied mix, chosen from music, dance, film, theater, performance art, writing, and the like — each 12 minutes or less. The whole event is short and sweet, taking about an hour.
Following each event, we serve coffee and cookies in an informal gathering, a chance for conversation with the artists.
Lisa DeFrance will present the film Doble-Dual, a just-finished project about language, made by, and featuring the students in her classroom at Meadowlark Elementary School. It is an intimate view of the thoughts and aspirations of children who are multi-lingual. Many hands were involved in the project, including students, Lisa as editor, the Utah Film Center, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and others.
Cello and guitar duo Wing & Claw will perform new music. Genevieve Smith and James Miska come from backgrounds in anarchist punk communities, and have traveled extensively playing music, as part of the busking band, Bramble, and now as a duo. Their self-titled LP is available at the Library’s HUM site. They specialize in guerrilla performances at semi-public/semi-private locations around town like porches of abandoned homes and parking garages.
Artist and filmmaker Claudia Sisemore will present her award winning documentary film Anton Rasmussen: Abstractions from Nature. Rasmussen received his art degrees from the University of Utah in 1967 and 1974, and went on to have a distinguished career as a painter, teacher and arts administrator. Claudia Sisemore also earned her MFA from the U of U (1976), in painting and filmmaking. In the 1980s she worked as an educational filmmaker and also independently made a number of documentary films about Utah artists, including the Rasmussen film. She has also had an honored career as a painter and was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Legacy Award from the University of Utah College of Fine Arts in 2018.
This program is modeled after 12 Minutes Max, a performance laboratory originated by On the Boards in Seattle.
AGE GROUP: Teens All Ages Adults
EVENT TYPE: Performances & Presentations Music Arts & Creativity
NOTE: The Main Library's Rooftop Terrace is closed through 2020 for repairs and renovations.
Salt Lake City's Main Library, designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie in conjunction with VCBO Architecture, opened in February 2003 and remains one of the most architecturally unique structures in Utah. This striking 240,000 square-foot structure houses more than 500,000 books and other materials, yet serves as more than just a repository of books and computers. It reflects and engages the city's imagination and aspirations. The structure embraces a public plaza, with shops and services at ground level, reading galleries above, and a 300-seat auditorium.
A multi-level reading area along the Glass Lens at the southern facade of the building looks out onto the plaza with stunning views of the city and Wasatch Mountains beyond. Spiraling fireplaces on four floors resemble a column of flame from the vantage of 200 East and 400 South. The Urban Room between the Library and the Crescent Wall is a space for all seasons, generously endowed with daylight and open to magnificent views.
