- The Southern Utah Museum of Art celebrates National Hot Dog Day with art.
- Russell T. Gordon's "Hot Dog Bridge" highlights the museum's unique event.
- Free hot dogs and activities aim to attract diverse visitors to SUMA.
CEDAR CITY — It's National Hot Dog Day on Wednesday, which has prompted one Cedar City organization to celebrate with more than just a culinary experience.
The Southern Utah Museum of Art is hosting its fourth annual celebration of the famed cooked sausage by showcasing a unique piece of art it has had in its collection since 1979 — in conjunction with some real life, edible hot dogs, of course.
"The event came about in 2021," said Emily Ronquillo, director of marketing at the art museum. "I was working with some students trying to plan events for the summer, and we were looking for inspiration from our collection and then looking at a list of all the wacky national holidays."
The art piece she is talking about is "Hot Dog Bridge" by Russell T. Gordon, an African American painter and educator who began his fine arts teaching career at the University of Utah in the late 1960s. The piece features exactly what the title suggests, but with a hot dog as a bridge between two red rock cliffs in front of a cloudy, blue sky arced by a rainbow.
"We found this piece in our collection, and we thought this was a really fun artwork that we wanted to display — even just for a single day — and we just built a whole event around it," Ronquillo said. "We figured people love hot dogs and we can serve some hot dogs and make some art around it."
For the past several years, the art museum has invited the community for the event and has even partnered with local restaurants to provide hot dogs. One year, artists dressed up as hot dogs for a unique performance that sparked some great conversations.
"We had some people one year dress up as hot dogs and then nail a hot dog to the wall in the middle of the event, and all the kids lost their minds," Ronquillo recalled. "I remember having a conversation with a young girl who was probably 5 or 6 and just asking her, 'Do you think that's art? Do you think hot dogs can be art?'
"It's been (a) really fun and engaging event to bring people to the museum," she continued. "A lot of people come who have never visited a museum before."
For Jason Moody, who serves as the director of learning and visitor experiences, events like these brings in many who may not have thought about visiting a museum.
"We really want people to feel like we're a place where the community can come see and make great art," he said.
"We have found that there's a lot of people in the community who haven't experienced visiting a museum, and SUMA's done a really great job of being very welcoming to anyone," Ronquillo added. "You don't have to have any sort of educational background to appreciate art."
The Southern Utah Museum of Art Hot Dog Day runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 15, at the museum, where free hot dogs will be available to the first 150 people, and other hot dog-themed activities will run throughout the event.
"With events like this, we really want to make the doors open and welcome to people of all ages and backgrounds, and to just have fun and seeing that art can help change their lives," Ronquillosaid.
