Author: Pat Sweeney

This traditional Christmas carol, sung widely throughout the English-speaking world, lyrically paints the scene of the baby Jesus nestled in hay, in a barn or a cave, while His parents look on as He is visited by shepherds, their animals and the Three Wise Men.

There is no finer a representation of this iconic scene representing the birth of Jesus than this year’s “Come Let Us Adore Him” Interfaith Crèche Exhibit in Midway.

Over 250 crèches (also known as nativity scenes) from all over the world will be displayed amongst beautiful Christmas settings at the Community Center. This spectacular collection will showcase representations of the Holy Family in a wide variety of media, including scenes made from hand-carved wood, porcelain, fabric and more.

Behind The Crèche Scenes

Every year, visitors stroll through aisles of displays where “all is calm.” Parents point out nativities to their children in a whisper. Faithful onlookers reverently study the face of Mary. Every child silently looks for a sleeping baby Jesus. Yet many are unaware of the work and attention to detail required for the event to take place.

Beginning in October, the 250 crèches must be gathered, unwrapped, catalogued and placed. In 2018, it took a group of eight talented designers to transform the Community Center into the perfect Christmas setting with handcrafted themed backdrops built to resemble Bethlehem. This year, more than 150 volunteers will help with set-up and tear down, and serve as hosts and greeters during the event.

We have the Midway Boosters to thank for making the Interfaith Crèche Exhibit free to the Heber Valley every year. An active community organization that provides funding for scholarships to high school students in the Heber Valley, the Midway Boosters is also active in providing grants to support and launch new community events to drive tourists and economic growth to Midway.

This annual event, however, tugs at the heart strings. “Crèche is a gift to the community; a labor of love,” says Jody Klotovich, chairperson of the 2019 crèche exhibit and outgoing president of the Midway Boosters.

Jody admits that she “didn’t even know what crèche was” when she joined the Boosters. Several years ago, when Jody was just starting to get involved with the event, now-Mayor Celeste Johnson was heading the crèche effort and needed help. An integral part of Midway’s holiday season, Mayor Johnson feels strongly about the event: “It fits beautifully for the town.” Jody now credits the mayor’s involvement years ago and her continued interest as one of the reasons why the crèche exhibit remains an annual event.

In its inception, the Midway Interfaith Crèche Exhibit started with help from local churches. The churches got the word out, provided volunteers and asked congregants to lend their personal crèches to the exhibit. The event has grown substantially over the years, and there are plans to reach out to the interfaith community to secure additional crèche exhibits and volunteers to ensure that the event continues to flourish in the years to come.

The Making Of A Christmas Tradition

The Midway Community Center is not the only place to find a wealth of crèche displays; nay — just look to the house upon the hill.

Holly Zenger’s home, where she resides with her husband Jack, houses one of the largest and most diverse private collections of crèches in the country and, perhaps, the world.

Holly smiles when asked about the exact size of her collection. Her eyes twinkle, “Not as many as I want, but more than what I need.”

A native Utahn, Holly and a few friends started a crèche display while living in Palo Alto, California. Their exhibit was nationally recognized, with Sunset Magazine citing it as one of the places to go during the holiday season.

When Holly moved to Midway decades ago, the Christmas exhibit moved with her. And it grew.

As a founding board member and a current board member of Friends of the Crèche, Holly has the opportunity to share both her passion and knowledge of crèche with the Heber Valley community. Created to promote the study of crèche as well as the creation and collection of nativity scenes worldwide, the organization has led to Holly attending conferences in both the United States and Europe. In her travels, she’s had the opportunity to view and acquire crèches from around the world, supplementing her collection with a wide variety of crèches that showcase different cultures. One such crèche on display: a rare Fontanini Bethlehem Village.

In 1997, Holly and Jack first opened their home to share her treasures. Despite parking challenges, an estimated 4,000 people toured the exhibit in their home. Twenty years later, Holly repeated her open house — and she plans to host viewing at her home again this year.

When it comes to showing her collection, Holly explains that the “exhausting part is setting it up,” as nearly every room in her house is filled with multiple nativities. She credits her two sisters and a core group of supporters – including Katherine Hall, Randy Moore and Renae Bushman — for the set-up assistance. When asked why she chooses to have a month-long open house — a month is a long time to have strangers in your home — Holly remarks, “It takes a lot of people and time to set-up. That’s why I keep it so long.” Last year, in lieu of an open house, elements of Holly’s crèche collection were on display at the BYU Library for the holiday season.

In speaking with Holly about the opportunities she’s experienced thanks to crèches, of course she turns the conversation to the “opportunities” available to the Holy Family in Bethlehem all those years ago. One thing is certain: just like the true nativity, no matter the setting — cave, house, barn, stable — the Midway crèche exhibits are sure to recreate the magic and wonder of the season.

19th Annual Interfaith Crèche Exhibit

Friday, December 6 –
Monday, December 9

11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Midway Community Center

Last year an estimated 6,000 attendees viewed the family-friendly exhibit during the Christmas season. In the past, an outdoor live nativity scene — complete with the requisite animals — served as the perfect backdrop for family photos.

Admission is free for all and the entire event is wheelchair-accessible.

The Zenger Crèche Exhibit

View Holly’s collection of crèche from around the world!

Open to the public the first three weekends in December (including Mondays). Group visits are available on weekdays by appointment.

275 Luzen Road, Midway
For more information, call 435-654-6604.

 

 

You can tell a lot about a person from his or her front porch.

A floral welcome mat makes you think of a cheery household inside. Loud barking keeps you away from the porch altogether! But an eclectic covered porch with a casual arrangement that includes a child’s chair complete with a ragdoll, a grouping of apples in a tin pail and a little hide-away house that’s now home to a stray cat, you know this is the home of an artist.

Susette Gertsch, of the truck seen on Homestead Drive which has the sign proclaiming “Midway Artist,” is proud of her lifetime’s work. The sign on the truck invites visitors to stop by in the afternoon to tour her gallery — a gallery alive with splashes of bright colors, intimate paintings and the feeling that there is always a work in progress.

A Life Of Art

Snuggled into the end of her sofa, light streaming in slightly across her hairline, Susette projects an air of self-confidence as she talks about her life’s story. An insightful comment of “creativity connected me to me” tells all.

Susette recalls that art embraced her as a five-year-old sitting in a bunk bed drawing on herself. She had created her own personal playground, and she has not stopped creating since.

Her story takes a few twists and turns before landing in Midway. A Californian by birth, there was a stop at Diablo Valley College where she sold her first painting and realized, “I could do this.” With one child in tow, Susette then relocated to Australia with her husband. They next moved to Utah — “one country, one God, one brush” she asserts — and raised five children over the years. Along the way, she secured a BA and MFA from Brigham Young University.

It was as a teacher for 19 years at Skyline High where Susette made her most measurable impact. She is clearly proud when she says, “I’ve started so many people on their first involvement with painting.”

Before retiring in 2005, Susette was called on to teach art and painting, and eventually taught photography. Without traditional equipment available, she introduced her students to pinhole photography. That interest in photography led Susette to participate in the Sesquicentennial wagon ride for the church, of which she took 150,000 photographs!

Creating In Plein Air

Susette smiles broadly as she says, “The Midway Art Association is one of my greatest joys in life.” The MAA, as it is known, is the best-known visual arts group in the county. Started in the early 2000s in the Gertsch living room, the organization’s mission is to encourage amateur and professional artists alike. Susette served on the board until October 2018.

An idea person — a BIG idea person — Susette made her mark on Midway with Wasatch’s Plein Air Paradise. Working in the early 2000s with the Midway Boosters and Midway attorney Randon Wilson, Susette secured the Midway Town Hall as a venue for a plein air exhibit. And now, 14 years later, the Wasatch Plein Air Paradise is the largest painting event in Utah! 

Most in the Heber Valley are now accustomed to seeing the roadside painters set up to depict our wonderful landscape. Keep an eye out this
June 22 — July 4 for the plein air painters as the valley hosts this highly-anticipated and well-attended event.

300 Paintings

Susette’s paintings hang in many of the homes in the Heber Valley. Midway residents Bill and Carolee Kohler, who consider Susette a very close friend, have quite a lot of her paintings. They say she’s “amazingly gifted, not only at painting but as an angel.” Carolee laughs and describes her as “driven and never stops.”

That drive took her far beyond her own very active imagination. In 2009, Susette started her “Limness Project.” It would change her life.

Susette’s “Limness Project” was a contract with herself. A contract to paint 300 paintings in one year. Outdoors. No matter the weather. Taking Sundays off.

She made it through with an incredible body of work but admits, “I got tough in a number of ways.”

Talking to Susette, there are countless stories about her trips through Europe: living in her car, staying at the home of a Russian painter and getting locked into the grounds of Giverny (Monet’s home). Stories about her “Limness Project” and her days teaching. With Susette, there are always stories — and usually a painting to match.   

The Hills And Valley Are Alive With Music

There is a certain excitement before a concert begins. It starts with the rustle of chairs being moved. Next comes the trill of an oboe; soon followed by some strings and a final flourish of the timpani. The lights dim, maestro Heather Thaxton arrives, and a baton is raised. For a brief moment there is quiet anticipation… nothing but anticipation. Suddenly, the magic begins.

Heber Valley Choir and Orchestra has been making magic with their music in the valley since 2014. Since then, this all volunteer 65-plus-member non-profit choir and orchestra has more than quadrupled in size from its initial founding members. The musicians range from age 12 to 86 and come from nearly every corner of Wasatch County.

“Watching the HVCO grow over the past five years has been one of the most rewarding payoffs for me,” former HVCO President Stacey Eaton declared. “Musicians show up because they love practicing and performing music together — doing so can evoke AMAZING feelings.” Eaton now serves as the orchestra’s librarian and concert master, as Jen Stockett took the reigns of orchestra president in 2019.

Music In The Valley

Throughout the years, the organization has played with a diverse lineup of headline acts including Alex Boye, Michael Martin Murphy and Riders in the Sky, as well as Suzy Bogguss at Heber Valley’s annual Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Gathering. In addition, HVOC has played at JR Smith in the March “Music in Our Schools” program and performed “A Christmas Day” with the Wasatch High School Choir.

One of the choir and orchestra’s most known performances in the valley is the annual “Messiah Sing-In.” During two performances every December, magic is made as the audience becomes part of the choir and voices of all types are raised in one of the community’s most beloved musical works.

Annually, HVOC also performs two benefit concerts which support the local “Shop with a Cop” Christmas program. To date, over $3,500 has been raised, which was given to the Heber Police Department and benefitted 11 children in 2018.

HVCO Goes Broadway

In the early years of Timpanogos Valley Theater, some of the musicals had orchestral accompaniment. In 2018, HVCO made the leap to Broadway Heber-style, playing in the pit and accompanying TVT’s live production of “Hello Dolly.” While only part of the orchestra made it to the show, Eaton said, “This is the first time the Heber Valley Orchestra stepped in to be part of it.”

Trudi Harter, president of the board of directors for TVT, was excited for the new partnership. “I reached out to Heather Thaxton and the HVCO see if we could bring live music back to the theatre,” Harter explained. “They were excited to play for us in ‘Hello Dolly’ and we enjoyed the experience so much, we have asked the orchestra to come back and play for ‘The Music Man’ this spring!”

Harter is enthusiastic about the amount of talent in Heber Valley’s backyard. She is quick to point out her feelings on the orchestra’s involvement, and said, “The involvement with TVT was an opportunity for our community theatre to combine talents and enrich our production with the excellent sounds of the orchestra.”

Calling All Musicians

Each year, two to five musicians are added to the group and Eaton encourages new members to join at any time. While anyone is welcome and there is no audition process, recruits are asked to commit to a minimum of six of nine rehearsals. She does caution, however, that, “No one gets paid.”

For the members of the HVOC, their love of music, the camaraderie and the opportunity to create arrangements that bring an audience to its feet is payment enough.

Meeting artist Stacey Adcock, it is easy to be captivated by her fairy-like qualities: a slight frame, a whispery voice, a faintly crooked smile and piercing eyes. Think of Stevie Nicks in a Razor with a paintbrush or mosaic tiles in her hand and you get the picture.

Stacey was in that Razor with her youngest child when her art found local inspiration. In the shadow of the majestic mountains that surround our beautiful valley, she felt the wonder of her new locale.

With stops in Steamboat Springs, Durango and Breckenridge, Colo., and Salt Lake City, this self-proclaimed “mountain girl” has adjusted well to the Wasatch back. “I’ve found my home,” she replies when asked how she’s adjusted to Midway living.

Making Art in Midway

Stacey’s front porch doubles as her work space, shielded from the road by a large piece of orange fabric and a big, leafy tree. As planned, the porch serves as Stacey’s workshop until it turns chilly and the space is repurposed as the family’s woodpile. It’s on this porch where Stacey paints picture frames with beautiful nature themes — frames that have been for sale in Dolly’s Bookstore in Park City for the past two years.
It is a scrap glass snowboard and pair of skis, however, that draw the eye to a most unusual form of original artwork. It was a brainstorming session with another mountain girl that led to the birth of the idea for
glass mosaic ski equipment designs, where each piece of glass is hand cut.

“I’ve always been attracted to glass,” she explains.

A snowboard hangs in the hall of her home, imagined in a deep sea of blues that carry the viewer far from the slopes to the sea and sky. A pair of custom mosaic skis hangs in Midway Mercantile, one of the area’s newest restaurants.

While her snow-related artwork is not anything she promotes, customers are curious and delighted with Stacey’s talent. Word of mouth has resulted in commissioned work.
“Stacey’s mosaic skis are a beautiful and interesting nod to our alpine ski culture,” Midway Mercantile Co-owner Sandra Perala-Platt is quick to say. “I love the whimsy of them.”

Keeping It Low-Key

Stacey has maintained a low-key presence in the immediate area, joining the Midway Arts Association, anchoring her to the local arts community.

Since moving to the area, Stacey has been asked to display her work at both the Kimball Art Center (KAC) in Park City as a visiting artist and at the Sundance Mountain Resort. In addition, she has worked at the KAC as a guest instructor, teaching custom glass mosaics to a wide variety of ages. Participating in the Park City Art Stroll is also on her upcoming agenda.

“Good things happen to good people,” is a strong belief of Stacey’s. If that is so, then good skis and snowboards happen to Stacey as well. She regularly scours Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore and other recycling areas for well-loved skis and boards.

As Stacey repurposes old winter equipment, turning discarded objects into beautiful works of art, it’s easy to see how perfectly she — and her work — fit into the community. Sandra sums it up nicely saying, “I am delighted to have a Stacey Adcock mosaic at Midway Mercantile. It feels exactly right.”

The Next Chapter

What’s next for Stacey? Her children’s school, Soldier Hollow, takes center stage. In 2017, Stacey organized an art night fundraiser for the school, complete with a silent auction.

She is “super excited” about the possibility of another fundraiser this year and wants the children to participate by creating nature-themed mosaic glass take-home pieces. A former elementary teacher for more than 15 years, Stacey’s passion for art and education has made the fundraiser a personal project. As much as she loves creating art, she is proud to say her family is her number one priority. Living in Midway with her husband, Kirk, and their two children, Riley who is 12 and younger brother Jordi, 6, she has found that the outdoor activities offered by the area provide her with an “at home” feeling.

“It was meant to be,” Stacey Adcock admits. “I’m happy where I’m at. Midway has opened its arms to me.” As you head to the mountains this winter to recreate, keep your eyes open. If you’re lucky, you just might encounter an artistic sprite wandering the woods in search of inspiration.