Huge Installation inspired by Disparate Threads at Lift+Love’s Gather Conference!
Gather Conference Art Team
Nevertheless I Went Forth, Gather Conference, Lift + Love Foundation, Utah Valley Convention Center, 2025
This weekend was Lift + Love’s Gather Conference and boy howdy was it an event! We have spent around 6 months planning for these two days, and after hearing the heartfelt reactions from conference attendees, it was totally worth it.
Members of the Gather Conference Art Team carrying a real tree into the Utah Valley Convention Center
The logistics of preparing, transporting, and setting up a full-size tree pre-adorned with rainbow strips, in addition to a tent with lighting elements and a station for adding your own story, not to mention the rest of the whole dang art show, were insane. This was all for two days. We had about two hours to set up at the convention center. As a former theatre person, this is exactly my kind of life-giving madness.
J Kirk Richards paintings next to Nevertheless I Went Forth
Gather Conference, Lift + Love Foundation, Utah Valley Convention Center, 2025
The best part was seeing all the laughter and tears of the people who rarely feel seen, adding their stories to our glorious rainbow tree.
Conference attendee reading “Nevertheless” stories.
Nevertheless I Went Forth, Gather Conference, Lift + Love Foundation, Utah Valley Convention Center, 2025
