For artists of all kinds, Cedar City is more than a Shakespeare festival

For a city of 33,000 people, Cedar City has an unusual number of artists, of both the visual and performing variety.

Credit the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which kicks off its 58th season next week, for fostering an atmosphere of artistic talent. Credit also the redrock landscapes and Southern Utah University for helping create a small-town, do-it-yourself vibe for a proliferation of arts groups encouraging each other year round.

I spent a little time in Cedar City recently, and talked to artists and supporters who help make “Festival City USA” into an artists’ haven. Here’s my story for sltrib.com.

(Alongside that, read this story in sltrib.com about Cedar City’s SimonFest, and the troubles it’s run into with the state of its former namesake, playwright Neil Simon.)