The Utah Women 2020 mural, conceived and led by Salt Lake City artist Jann Haworth during the pandemic, recently got a facelift. Originally created in 2020 as a digital mural, it was compiled from more than 250 stencil portraits submitted by artists of all ages and skill levels from across the state and beyond. The work highlights a wide range of figures—pioneers, activists, artists, scientists, and contemporary leaders—making it a collective portrait of women’s contributions, often overlooked in official histories.
The completed digital mural, digitally assembled by Alex Johnstone, was printed onto nine weatherproof vinyl mesh banners, each measuring approximately 10′ × 55′, and installed on the seven‑story east face of the Dinwoodey Building (Zions Bank building) in downtown Salt Lake City. After five years, the banners became dingy with dirt and the colors bleached by the sun, so Zions Bank decided to have the banners freshly printed and reinstalled. “I am so delighted that Zions Bank are doing that,” says Haworth. “The murals are all still working their silent protest.”
The mural was later transformed into a physical collage installation at Salt Lake Community College expanding its visibility and allowing community members to engage with it in person. Read more about it here.
8/21 SLTRIB: Shirley Ririe, who pioneered modern dance in Utah, dies at 96
Shirley Ririe, the dancer and choreographer who helped bring modern dance to Utah audiences as co-founder of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, has died.
Ririe died Sunday from natural causes, according to Thom Dancy, the dance company’s current executive director. She was 96.
Ririe and her artistic partner, Joan Woodbury, built the company “on a foundation of creativity, courage, and boundless generosity,“ a statement posted Monday on the company’s Facebook page said.
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8/15 SLTRIB: This LDS artist fulfills her life’s mission by painting a ‘historically accurate’ Jesus
From her tidy, meticulous Utah County studio, Latter-day Saint artist Rose Datoc Dall transports viewers to an unassuming stable in Bethlehem, a workaday wood shop in Nazareth, the surging gusts of Galilee and the dusty streets of Jerusalem.
“I kind of feel like that’s what I’m here to do,” Dall says, “to paint the life of Jesus.”
Dall does so by combining contemporary art techniques, fused from film, with scriptural stories, filled with faith.
“Rose is one of the most important artists working in religious art in Utah right now,” says Emily Larsen, Springville Museum of Art’s executive director. “Her work is really unique and has a really unique point of view. She’s technically masterful.”
8/1 Kimball Art Center to keep festival on Main Street even after move from Park City
Main Street is expected to remain the canvas for the Park City Kimball Arts Festival, regardless of whether the organizers are based inside the municipal limits.
The Kimball Art Center plans to keep its event on Main Street even as the cultural institution plans to move out of the city limits. The festival has been held on Main Street throughout the years and is one of the top special events on the Park City calendar.
7/30 DESERET NEWS: From Deion Sanders to President Russell M. Nelson: How a Utah sculptor ‘captures’ heroes in bronze
When Blair Buswell was a BYU running back in the early 1980s, a team surgeon devised makeshift protective hand pads for him.
The doc wasn’t worried about Buswell fumbling the ball — he simply wanted to protect the hands of a promising young sculptor from being stomped on by 300-pound linemen.
“He would check me out before the game, shake his head and say ‘You’re stupid to be out there,’” recalled Buswell, laughing.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Mixed Media
