YOUR AD HERE »

Kimball Art Center’s Valentine’s Day party is the Art of Love

Nashville singer and songwriter Gene Miller will lead a group of fellow songwriters who will help Kimball Art Center’s Art of Love participants write songs for their Valentines on Thursday.
Courtesy of Gene Miller

6-9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 14 Kimball Art Center, 1401 Kearns Blvd. $150 kimballartcenter.org

Valentine’s Day is special day for love. That love can be between significant others, or it can be form parent to child, child to parent or pet owner to pets.

Regardless of what kind of love members of the Park City community share, the Kimball Art Center wants to help make some memories with the Art of Love.

The event, which will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14, is centered around a group songwriting session that will be guided by Nashville-based singer and songwriter Gene Miller and some of his closest friends.



A portion of the lyrics that will be generated that evening will be included in a multi-versed love song performed by Miller and his fellow musicians, Roberts said.

I think the Kimball is doing great things for people’s minds that go well beyond just art appreciation…” Dan Lemaitre, Kimball Art Centervice chairman

“These are professional musicians who have performed with some of the biggest names in music, including Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert, Ray Charles, Phil Collins and Dolly Parton,” Roberts said. “This is a real legit, professional coaching session.”



While Roberts came up with the idea, Dan Lemaitre, vice chairman of the Kimball Art Center who has ties in the Nashville music scene, ran with the idea.

“I fell in love with this idea, because I truly believe music is a way to create lifelong memories,” Lemaitre said. “The ability to have a fun night to write verses about something you love and to have a guy like Gene Miller perform it while you record it with your phone is something you’re going to remember for the rest of your life.”

Attendees will select the type of song they want to write, Lemaitre said.

“We will write songs in three different genres – country, rock and singer-songwriter,” he said. “We’ll start you off with a template to give you a sense of how many words in a verse you’ll need. And the different songwriters will be at the different tables to assist.”

If participants get stuck on rhymes, the songwriters will show them a downloadable rhyming app, according to Lemaitre.

Lemaitre liked the songwriting idea because he learned musicians and artists have more neural connectors between the left and right brain while reading “This Is your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” by neurologist Daniel J. Levitin.

“Daniel was a rock-star wannabe and realized at the age of 30 that he was never going to make it,” Lemaitre said. “So he went to Stanford and got a Ph.D. in neurology, and he was the one who did the initial MRI imaging that showed how the brain processes music differently than it does the spoken word.”

Lemaitre said music can trigger memories in a more detailed way than a lecture.

“I bet if I asked you to, you could write the lyrics to 200 songs without batting an eye,” he said. “But if I asked you to write the words to 200 poems, you probably would come up short.”

Lemaitre also said this Valentine’s Day songwriting session fits with the Kimball Art Center’s mission of connecting people through art.

“I think the Kimball is doing great things for people’s minds that go well beyond just art appreciation,” he said. “Plus, Valentine’s is a tough night to go out to eat. With our event, you won’t have to worry about getting a reservation or staying out too late on a school night when your sitter has to get home.”

The cost for Art of Love is $150 per person, and since the event is also a fundraiser for the Kimball Art Center, a portion of the cost is tax deductible.

“The price includes dinner, drinks and fun that is a different kind of special, when everyone is trying to do something special on Valentine’s Day,” Lemaitre said.

Lemaitre’s love for music came in the 1960s, when he wanted to be the next Beatle.

“I started playing guitar when I was in fifth grade and have literally been playing ever since,” he said.

Lemaitre even attended Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp 15 years ago. The camp is an opportunity for amateur musicians to work with professional and established rockers to write and record songs and perform them in a professional venue setting.

“So many of us are wannabe rock stars and musicians, and at the end of the day, music brings people together,” Lemaitre said. “And this will be an event that will bring us together with who we love.”

Entertainment


See more

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.