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Central Utah Art Center Faces Eviction

Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim, Utah

The Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim is facing an August 20 deadline for eviction by the city. The center is known as “the quack” for C-U-A-C. The center's director Adam Bateman claims city officials are making the move because they believe one current art exhibit may be too risqué for the general public. He says the eviction comes as a total shock.

“We have a lot of Ephraim citizens who come and see our art shows and participate in our education things and we spend a lot of money that town. It’s really unfortunate that some art that they deem inappropriate for Ephraim undermines all of the positives that we bring," he says.

Bateman says the center has continued to serve hundreds of K through 12 kids as well as Snow College students and the community in general and had planned to do more.

That is contrary to claims by city leaders who say they’re questioning the center’s value to the community. Ephraim City Manager Regan Bolli says Bateman is painting the wrong picture.

“I know Adam is trying to turn this into a censorship issue but it’s just not. I don’t know any other way to put it. There’s been questionable art in there, or art that people might say is inappropriate, or whatever, that could have been censored years ago and never has been. This was based purely on a failure to perform,” Bolli says.

“Quack” board member Andrew Shaw says they are actively looking for other venues and could possibly do some pop-up exhibits.

Ephraim City Eviction Notice for Central Utah Art Center

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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