Daily posts on happenings in Utah’s visual arts community.
Last month, we received an email message from Vicki Bourns: Expect less. “We” being Artists of Utah, the publisher of 15 Bytes, but also every other arts organization that receives funding from Utah Arts & Museums (UA&M). Bourns being the director of UA&M, the state’s arts division. “Expect […]
4/30 CITY WEEKLY: SLC and the creator of “The Whale” take 630 victory laps around a beloved public artwork. On a chilly, overcast morning in February, a fit man in his mid-40s jogged steadily in small concentric circles, looping a roundabout in the middle of Salt Lake City’s […]
Border & Square, the beloved Provo-based framing shop known for its handcrafted custom work, is expanding into a new space that will include a gallery for local art and community events. Founded in 2018 by Kheng Lim, a passionate woodworker and art enthusiast, the business has grown from […]
The National Book Foundation has named Stacie Shannon Denetsosie one of its 2025 5 Under 35 honorees, recognizing her debut collection The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories (Torrey House Press) as a standout work of fiction by a writer under 35. Selected by 2023 National Book Award Longlister […]
4/19 SLTRIB: A UVU student’s artwork was rejected from a school exhibition. Here’s how she made sure her work was seen. In the art world, rejection can be the end all. It can hinder creativity, put an end to an artwork’s fledgeling life, or catalyze a creative […]
“Art is not a luxury … it is foundational to the health and well-being of society.” Utah artist Emily Christensen McPhie has been honored with the 2025 Governor’s Mansion Artist Award, joining a distinguished group of creatives recognized for their impact on Utah’s cultural landscape. McPhie’s work — […]
PLEASE, NO MORE ART The Utah Division of Arts & Museums has announced a temporary pause on accepting new artwork donations as of June 1, 2025. This pause is due to the agency’s transition to a new storage facility located at the forthcoming Museum of Utah. During this […]
Historically, ceramics have existed on the margins—labeled “craft” or “decorative”—but Katie Lee-Koven says they are increasingly recognized as essential to understanding 20th-century modernism and beyond. This is one reason she was drawn to The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), where she has been director and chief […]
Linda C. Smith, founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), has been selected to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Utah. The university’s Board of Trustees recently announced that Smith, alongside I. King Jordan, Julie A. Lassonde, and Cecil O. Samuelson Jr., will be […]
Spy Hop Productions has named Larissa Trout as its next executive director, the organization announced. A longtime member of the Spy Hop team, Trout will step into the role on March 21, 2025. With more than 15 years at the nonprofit youth media arts organization, Trout has served […]
For Springville Museum of Art director Emily Larsen creating exhibitions is about forging connections between people and the larger human experience. It’s a philosophy rooted in a life-changing moment at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. As an LDS-missionary facing a mental health crisis, Larsen made the difficult decision […]
2/24 How Craft Lake City’s Scholarship Helped One Artist Reclaim Her Craft What if the biggest obstacle to becoming an artist wasn’t talent, but money? For Steph Alpizar, a local painter and crochet artist, financial limitations dictated everything from the materials she used to the way she shared […]
You never know where an exhibition might take you. For Jessica Kinsey, Executive Director of the Southern Utah Museum of Art, an exhibition experienced in Oklahoma ultimately brought her to Utah. Originally from Oklahoma and raised in Indiana, Kinsey returned to her birth state to study art history […]
When Kasey Lou Lindley visits an exhibition she looks at it through the eyes of both an artist and a curator. A multidisciplinary artist based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Lindley approaches her work through the lens of intersectional ecofeminism, addressing place-based issues with a focus on nature, […]
The 38th Annual Sears Invitational Art Show & Sale, hosted at the Sears Art Museum in the Eccles Fine Arts Center at Utah Tech University, has named its top award recipients. This year’s showcase features over 200 artists from Utah and the Western United States, with a variety […]
For Janalee Emmer, the transformative power of exhibitions remains at the heart of her curatorial philosophy. Whether engaging with medieval altarpieces, contemporary landscape photography, or Renaissance sculpture, she sees exhibitions as portals into other worlds, capable of reshaping how we see and experience art. Emmer, director of the […]
When asked about artistic influence, Courtney Derrick doesn’t turn to the history books or international art stars, but to someone closer to home: Randall Lake. After earning her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah in 2002, Derrick left the state and worked for a […]
For Vanessa Romo, art is more than a discipline or a profession; it is a way to navigate and understand the complexities of life. Her inspirations—Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, and Maryann Webster—act as pillars that inform her artistic practice, influencing both her subject matter and her approach to […]
