Johnathan Kerr and Mariah Wheeler co-founded the Kane County Center for the Arts in January 2024 — a registered 501(c)(3) built to answer a straightforward question: why doesn't Kane County have a dedicated home for all forms of arts? Kanab has long been a working artist town, sustained by a combination of national park proximity, red-rock landscape, and the legacy of its "Little Hollywood" film history, but it had never had a dedicated arts organization with its own structure, calendar, and funding base.
Starting with a Concert Series
The Center's first major event was the Canyons Calling Summer Concert Series, held on the first Friday of each month through the summer at Jackson Flat Reservoir in partnership with the Kane County Water Conservancy District. The open-air setting — a reservoir surrounded by the same canyon landscape that drew film crews here for decades — made the free concerts an immediate community anchor. The Center subsequently launched a Levitt Foundation grant campaign to secure $120,000 for community concerts, which gained coverage in St. George News and drew broader regional attention.
What the Organization Is Building Toward
KCCA's stated mission is "to energize the cultural, educational and economic vitality of its region through accessible and affordable events and programs of artistic excellence." The emphasis on "accessible and affordable" is deliberate: Kanab is a small, rural Kane County seat where arts programming has historically arrived as tourism amenity rather than community service. The Center's model turns that around. The board of four (Wheeler, Kerr, Stacy Cox, and Christina Schultz) is local.
KCCA in the 435
For a register of Southern Utah organizations, the Kane County Center for the Arts is the newest entry in this batch and the only one in the Kanab footprint. It's also the most clearly gap-filling: Kane County had no comparable registered arts nonprofit before January 2024. The EIN is confirmed, the programming is documented, and the organization is active.
Sources
- https://www.kanecountyarts.org/about-1
- https://www.sunews.net/post/introducing-kane-county-center-for-the-arts
- https://musicgrants.levitt.org/locations/kane-county-center-for-the-arts/
- https://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/utah-museums-directory/locations/kane-county/
- https://www.facebook.com/kanecountyarts/
- https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/announcements/help-kanab-secure-120k-for-community-concerts-in-southern-utah/article_3b3925f7-26db-41d2-914c-0dd5d6797a7a.html