The {Haunted} Art Castle Fundraiser
Utah Arts Alliance presents The {Haunted} Art Castle, a series of Halloween season fundraising events to support renovations to the Art Castle. UAA is in the process of restoring and updating the historic 15th Ward Chapel so it can become a new arts and cultural venue featuring a community art center, performing arts venue, an immersive art attraction, and a sculpture garden. To complete this project, UAA is fundraising to help pay for much needed accessibility accommodations to the beloved building. The {Haunted} Art Castle will feature Ghost Tours of the building, a Live Seance Show, a sculpture garden featuring newly acquired sculptures that have been rescued from Ralphael Plescia’s Iconic “Christian School” building, and The Haunting Is You– an interactive theatrical experience.
Learn more about each show below. Tickets available online or at the door.
Presented by The Lords of Misrule Theatre Co., The Huanitng is You! is an interactive theater experience is free to attend and, unlike our local haunted houses, YOU get to be the ghost. During the play, audience members can donate to the Art Castle and cause wacky and wild ghostly happenings to befall the characters in the show! Strong language and fake blood are present during the show so this is recommended for those 16 and older.
Plot Summary:
A local acting company was putting on a production of Macbeth in a historic downtown theater when tragedy struck and the theater burned down with the audience inside. After the tragedy, a group of young entrepreneurs enter the burned down theater with intent to transform it into a cryptocurrency startup, $wagCoin. However, the ghosts of the audience and the former theater manager have other plans, locking them inside, and subjecting them to all manner of ghostly possession and mischief. Will the crypto-capitalists be able to put the souls of the audience to rest, or will the spirits claim them?
Professional Medium Elle Alder takes the audience through different methods of communicating with ghosts. She will safely guide audiences through table tipping, ouija readings, psychometry, and a gallery reading of the spirits connected to the audience and the Art Castle. This show is for entertainment and education purposes only, your great great grandmother probably won’t give up the combination to the safe during the show.
Join local poet RJ Walker on a historic tour of the Art Castle to learn about its history and hauntings. Audience members will get to explore the labyrinthine building, listening to local ghost stories and legends as they travel from room to room.
Due to the historic nature of the building, the Ghost Tour is not ADA accessible. Participants will need to walk up and down stairs during the tour.
What is The Art Castle Project?
- Historic Preservation
- Community Art Center
- Performing Arts Center
- Immersive Art Attraction
- Sculpture Garden
The Art Castle is a project by Utah Arts Alliance to acquire, preserve, renovate, and activate the historic 120-year-old 15th Ward Chapel located at 915 West 100 South to create a community gathering space, an immersive art attraction, and a regional draw for those that would like to experience and participate in new emerging art forms. The Arts Castle project will be an incredible driver for economic development and regional tourism draw for the State of Utah.
HISTORY OF UAA
Utah Arts Alliance (UAA) was founded in 2003 with a mission to foster the arts in all forms in order to create an aware, empowered, and connected community. The UAA serves an average of over 250,000 individuals in person and over 1M people via our online, televised, and radio programming annually. The UAA is one of the most significant administrators of independent Cultural Facilities in the State of Utah with seven venues that include Counterpoint Studios, Alliance Theater, Arts Hub, Dreamscapes, Urban Arts Gallery, The Cube Maker Space, Art Garden, and now the new Art Castle. The UAA also presents three major festivals and administers many programs and media outlets in a variety of artistic fields that serve the community.
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
The Historic 15th Ward Chapel is a beautiful old Castle-like chapel and exemplar of Victorian Gothic revival architecture. It was built in 1900 and was previously used for the 15th Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City – with the cultural hall addition to the west of the chapel being built in 1931. The church sold the chapel in the late 1960s.
For the last 40 years, the building has been used as LA East Studios, owned by Warner Brothers, a recording studio facility that has been used to record music for hundreds of films including Disney’s Lion King, Toy Story, Jurassic Park, and Wonder Woman. Many world-renowned and popular artists have also recorded in this facility during its time as LA East Studios including B.B. King, Elton John, and Dolly Parton. After LA East Studios ended its use of the building in January 2021, The Utah Arts Alliance entered into a contract with the building owner to purchase the building with plans to create what we are calling the Art Castle. As of July 2021, the Utah Arts Alliance has put down $.5 million to purchase the building.
PLAN FOR BUILDING OPERATIONS:
The UAA will use the building as a much-needed community gathering space, utilizing the Historic Chapel building for presenting performances, concerts, film screenings, presentations, immersive art, and more.
IMMERSIVE ART ATTRACTION: An immersive art experience will be a unique feature of the Art Castle. Inside this facility members of the public will have the opportunity to buy tickets to participate in a multi-sensory immersive art experience, similar to Utah
Arts Alliance’s Dreamscapes attraction. Immersive art spaces are a global trend of increased demand for multi-sensory, interactive, technological, highly imaginative artworks.
COMMUNITY ART CENTER: Salt Lake County is currently in need of facilities that support artists and creatives and the need for the public to experience arts and culture. The Art Castle will support both of these needs, with venue rental options, access to public art, and an immersive art experience featuring local artists.
SCULPTURE GARDEN: The Art Castle will have an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture. The sculpture garden will be a safe, accessible place for the community to enjoy public art and events.
BUDGET
EXPENSES FOR PHASE 1
- Building and Property Purchase $2.8M
- Accessibility Renovations $3.2M
TOTAL PHASE 1 EXPENSE $5M
Make an impact
Do you want to be a part of this historic project? Do you want to have an impact on brining economic prosperity to the west side? You can! Donate now to our GoFundMe to help make the dream a reality.
