Susette Gertsch, former president and board member of the Midway Art Association, says that artists need three things to function well in their careers.
First, they need a place to work. Second, they need education for constant improvement of their skills. Last, they need a place to showcase their art.
That’s why Gertsch started Art Around the Square, a nonprofit designed to give artists the space they need to perform, create, and connect with their community.
“They need community. They need their tribe of people that they can connect with because art in a person’s private studio can be very lonely,” Gertsch said. “So they need connection with like-minded fellow artists.”
Gertsch is an artist herself with a master’s degree in drawing and painting. She has a history of teaching, and even spent two seasons teaching in Australia before moving to Midway in 2000. In 2019, after her time with the Midway Art Association came to an end, Gertsch turned her energy toward giving local Midway artists space to make and display their art.
“I started with things that I love to do, and that is the fine visual arts,” Gertsch said. “It’s very demanding because of what I’ve chosen to do in terms of an art festival is try out a number of creative arts in them.”
Gertsch’s Art Around the Square festivals are normally held over the course of a few days, and they include everything from an artist’s market to drawing classes and live performances. At one event, Gertsch set up the Midway Town Hall as an art school complete with volunteer models for drawing and painting references.
Art Around the Square is just one of 13 projects that received a 2024 Wasatch County Trails, Arts and Parks (TAP) Tax Grant. Now, applications for the 2025 TAP tax grant are open to the public.
Wasatch County voters approved the TAP tax in 2022, which allocated a tenth of a percent local sales and use tax — about a penny for each $10) to enhance trails, arts, and parks in Wasatch County. The TAP tax went into effect in 2023, and Gertsch’s nonprofit was among the first to receive the initial grant awards in 2024.
Alese Overly, Wasatch County Trails, Art and Parks board chair, said that the TAP tax is modeled after similar initiatives in places like Moab and Bellingham, Wash.
“It’s not new, but it’s new to us,” Overly said.
In Bellingham, 40 cents for every $1,000 assessed property value is taxed for parks and trails, so that the owner of a $500,000 house would pay $205 annually. City officials estimated in 2023 that the tax would raise $86 million over a 10-year period.
In Moab, it’s referred to as a Recreation, Arts and Parks (RAP) Tax. There, the RAP tax adds 0.1% to the sales tax, which is equivalent to 1 penny for every $10 spent. Based on sales tax revenues from 2019, the tax is projected to generate up to $400,000 in additional revenue for Moab, but is dependent on sales for any given year.
One year after the TAP tax went into effect in Wasatch County, a total of $285,151.95 was allotted to organizations across the county to fund projects relating to the arts and the outdoors. The remaining $52,348 rolls over for the next grant cycle, scheduled for this year.
Overly said that the board aims to allocate funding so that about 31% is dedicated to trails, 15% goes toward parks, and the remaining 54% funds the arts.
“We have a chance to really create a benefit for our community and make sure we’re doing it the best that we can,” Overly said.
In 2024, Wasatch Trails Foundation alone received $58,000 in grant funding for projects like Heber Valley and Wasatch County singletrack trails maintenance. Heber’s homegrown concert series, which takes place year-round and features local artists, was awarded $5,150. Theaters like the Timpanogos Valley Theater Co. and Charitable Acts Theatre were awarded $20,000 and $34,961, respectively.
For locals like Gertsch, who pays for Art Around the Square out-of-pocket, thousands of dollars in additional funding allowed her to make improvements that were previously unaffordable.
“Because I had already been doing these out of my own pocket since 2019, it really helped make the event nicer,” Gertsch said.
Along with being able to create more interactive experiences, Gertsch hired an audio specialist to improve the quality of the Art Around the Square variety show, where individuals could showcase whatever they pleased.
“It created a nice ambiance in the outdoors, and he set up and handled all the mics and the sound for the performers,” Gertsch said.
Overly said that the board hopes to award a similar number of grants this year.
For interested parties, a grant application workshop will be held Monday, Jan. 13 at the Wasatch County Administration Building. The advisory board will review applications in April, and grant recipients for the 2025 cycle will be announced in May.