Three local exhibits to look for at the Utah Arts Festival

The Utah Arts Festival starts Thursday and runs until Sunday. We've picked a few local artists to check out while you're there.

• The festival is at Library and Washington squares in downtown Salt Lake City.

Why it matters: The state's largest arts festival predominately showcases work from out-of-state.

• It brings in a lot of pieces and performances Utahns otherwise aren't able to enjoy.
• Customers and fans who specifically want to support local artists might have to look a little harder.

By the numbers: Around 70 of some 180 artists' booths will display work by Utahns.

• Thirteen of about 70 short films at the festival are Utah productions.
• But six of the seven dance acts are local, as are more than half of the literary acts.

Here are three homegrown highlights from this year's festival:

1. Utah's 13 short films

• The showings are divided into two, hour-long programs at Fear No Film, the festival's cinema exhibit.

What to watch: The Mill Creek Strangler, which confronts true-crime entertainment and El Moño, in which a child discovers her immigrant family's generational magic.

• Each Utah program will screen twice at Salt Lake's Main Library. Program 1 runs 8–9pm Thursday and 6–7pm Saturday. Program 2 runs 6–7pm Friday and Sunday.

2. Painter Durga Ekambaram

Ekambaram will demonstrate her work 2–4:30pm Saturday on the Salt Bistro patio at the Leonardo.

• She got her start with art on the ground — first with Indian kolam, where rice flour is sprinkled in geometric designs, and later with sidewalk chalk.
• She'll be completing an upside-down painting at the festival, painting the image in reverse and flipping the canvas when she's done.

3. Hip-hop artist C. Valenta

Valenta shares stories of anxiety and triumph as a Black man in America.

• In his new album, Kids at Play, each story is told through a song about a game: among them, "Tag," "Hide & Seek," and, painfully, "Cops & Robbers."

When: 4:15pm Friday at The Round (southeast of the library).