Ivins' Arts Season Moves From Kayenta to Tuacahn on November 20

On Friday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m., the Punto de Inflexión Project dance company opens From the Borderlands to the Roots at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta. The same evening, Tuacahn opens Holiday Inn in its indoor Hafen Theatre, with a run that continues through December 22.

That Friday is when Ivins' arts calendar changes hands. Before it, nearly every arts evening on the city's west side is at Kayenta. After it, the season belongs to Padre Canyon. The listings below are grouped around that date, because knowing which venue is carrying a given week makes it easier to plan around.

This weekend at Kayenta Art Village

Art in Kayenta runs Friday, October 9, through Sunday, October 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, and admission is free. More than 50 juried regional and national artists will show painting, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, wood and metal work. There is also a beer and wine garden and a silent auction, and the auction proceeds support the Center for the Arts at Kayenta.

The food vendors are Papa's Got Jerk, Hook'd on Bowls, 2 Rez Gurls and Delicias Jalisco. The music changes every few hours, so pick a day by the lineup:

• Friday, Oct. 9: Dan Davie at 10:15 a.m., Samantha Eagar at noon, Dylan Thomas Gavin at 1:45 p.m., Shangalu at 3:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 10: Lisa McFarlane at 10:15 a.m., D.B. Mangun at noon, Runaway Fire at 1:45 p.m., Tongues of Terra at 4 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 11: Sky Allen Ledesma at 10:15 a.m., Mark Boggs at noon, Holliday at 1:45 p.m.

A 1776 story runs through Kayenta's November

After the festival, most of Kayenta's fall programming comes back to one subject: the Domínguez-Escalante expedition. It shows up twice, in two different forms.

On Thursday, November 5, Dr. Charlotte Hansen Terry, an assistant professor of U.S. history at Utah State University's Uintah Basin campus, gives a Voyager Lecture Series talk on the expedition and on Spanish mapping of the North American West. Her starting point is what else was happening in 1776. That year the expedition left Santa Fe looking for an overland route to California, and the route brought it through Southern Utah. Social hour starts at 6:30 p.m., the talk is at 7:30, and tickets are $12 to $25.

Nine days later, on Saturday, November 14, the St. George-based ensemble Grand Circle New Music performs Almost All to the West. It is a new multimedia concert built from the friars' journals, with music by composer Steven Ricks, text by librettist Stephen Tuttle and projected video by Brent Barson. Nathan Haines is guest conductor and Sam Payne is guest narrator. Tickets are $12 to $40.

Taken together, the lecture and the concert work like a two-part series. The first lays out the history and the second turns it into a performance. Anyone planning only one night at Kayenta this fall might pick the concert. Anyone with two free evenings could go to both in order.

The rest of Kayenta's posted calendar runs from mid-October to early December:

The Mills and Rovenskaya program covers three centuries of cello and piano writing, with works by Vivaldi, Beethoven and Shostakovich, and a reception with the artists follows. For Wigs & Wine, Zion Desert to Table prepares a five-course dinner with wine pairings, Doug Caputo hosts, and the event has a single stated rule: every guest wears a wig. Proceeds benefit the Kayenta Arts Foundation. Bickmore will read from her collections Haste, flicker and Ephemerist and then take audience questions.

After December 4, Kayenta's December calendar has nothing else listed. That is the clearest sign of the handoff. From that point on, Ivins' December arts season is at Tuacahn.

The free nights before the handoff

Kayenta's free events fall in the same weeks as its ticketed ones. The two KAYENTA 100 sessions on October 23 and 25 are billed as "Honoring 50 years. Imagining the next 50." Last season the series looked back at Kayenta's first five decades, and this year's gathering asks residents and neighbors what they would want for the arts, shared spaces and the environment over the next fifty. RSVP is encouraged. First Fridays at Kayenta runs from 4 to 8 p.m. on November 6 and December 4, also free.

Ivins City adds its own free events in the same period, according to its September 2026 newsletter:

1. Bingo in the Park, Tuesdays and Thursdays from October 20 through November 12 at the Heritage Park West Pavilion. Regular prize bingo runs from 5 to 5:30 p.m., followed by a grand prize round until 5:45. No registration is required.
2. The city Halloween event, Friday, October 30, at Heritage Park, 100 N 100 W. The city calendar lists it from 6 to 9 p.m.
3. A holiday shopping day trip to Las Vegas on Monday, November 16. The city says details will follow.

Bingo wraps up on November 12, the Thursday before the Las Vegas trip. That leaves the week of November 16 mostly open on the city's calendar, which may suit anyone planning around the November 20 shift.

November 20: the calendar moves to Padre Canyon

Holiday Inn is the anchor of Tuacahn's indoor season. The musical is set at a New England inn that opens only on holidays, and its Irving Berlin score includes "White Christmas," "Easter Parade," "Cheek to Cheek," "Blue Skies," "Heat Wave" and "Steppin' Out with My Baby." It plays the Hafen Theatre from November 20 to December 22, and Tuacahn rates it appropriate for ages 5 and up. The show page lists the running time as still to be determined, with a 15-minute intermission.

The outdoor part of the season is Christmas in the Canyon. Here is what Tuacahn's page lists:

• Live Nativity in the Outdoor Amphitheatre, about 20 minutes long, with live camels, donkeys and sheep. Shows are at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
• Santa Claus, 6 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
• The Tuacahn Express, a seven-minute train ride through the canyon lights with holiday narration and music. It runs most nights from 6 to 9 p.m. and costs $3 per person. There are no reserved times, so riders board in the order they arrive.
• Plaza snow every 15 minutes through the evening.

Tuacahn's page suggests putting the two halves together on one night: the Nativity at 7 p.m. in the amphitheater, then Holiday Inn inside at 7:45. Parking on site is free for all guests.

The exact dates for Christmas in the Canyon aren't settled online yet. The show page gives a Monday-through-Saturday schedule, but Tuacahn's event calendar currently lists only three dates for the series, December 3, 4 and 5, with the December 5 listing running from 6 to 9 p.m. Before choosing a night for the Nativity or the train, check that calendar or call the box office at 435-652-3300. Ticket prices for Holiday Inn and the Nativity weren't posted for 2026 when this was written.

December 4: the one night both venues are busy

The two calendars meet on one Friday. On December 4, Kayenta's First Fridays runs from 4 to 8 p.m., and DOCUTAH's Better Up There screens at 7:30 p.m. for $12. That same night, Holiday Inn is in its third week in the Hafen Theatre, and December 4 is one of the Christmas in the Canyon dates on Tuacahn's posted calendar.

It is also Kayenta's last listed event of 2026. An evening could start at Kayenta's First Fridays, which runs from 4 to 8 p.m., and finish with the Tuacahn Express, which runs until 9.

If you're going to some of these this season and also thinking about what your Ivins home is worth, or what a move within Washington County would involve, Jeremy Back can walk you through the numbers in plain terms, on your schedule. Let's Connect.