Broadway star to speak at Kingsbury Hall on Mar. 13, 2023 at 7P

As part of the David P. Gardner Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts, the University of Utah College of Fine Arts is bringing acclaimed writer and performer Heidi Schreck to campus to give a lecture at Kingsbury Hall on Mar. 13, 2023 at 7 p.m. Admission is free, but tickets are required.

Schreck will perform a reading of her Tony Award-nominated and Pulitzer Prize finalist play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” (which can be seen in its entirety on Amazon Prime and at Pioneer Theatre Company 4/7—4/22).

She will also entertain audience questions about the impact and development of the show in a conversation with Department of Theatre Assistant Professor, Alexandra Harbold, who is also the dramaturg for Pioneer Theatre’s upcoming production of Scheck’s play.

“What the Constitution Means to Me” is an exploration of women’s rights, immigration, domestic abuse, and U.S. History, from the points of view of Schreck’s modern and 15-year-old selves, and is acclaimed as “an achingly human, hopeful new play.”

Read more about Heidi Schreck and her play: 

• The New Yorker: Heidi Schreck Takes the Constitution to Broadway
• Variety: ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ Review: Heidi Schreck Gives Audiences Even More Reasons to Vote
• Los Angeles Times: Heidi Schreck returns to her searing play on the Constitution. It’s never been timelier
• The Salt Lake Tribune: Marina Gomberg: How Broadway’s Heidi Schreck finds hope in exploring our flawed Constitution and her dark moments

Established in 1983, the David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture is a free, annual event open to the public that brings distinguished scholars and artists to campus to enhance the educational experience of our students, catalyze conversation on our campus and in our community, and to honor the invaluable contributions former president David P. Gardner made to the University of Utah. 

CFA Associate Dean recognized by the Utah Art Education Association

Kelby McIntyre-Martinez wears many professional hats (some, perhaps are literal, but mostly they’re metaphorical), all of them are in support of arts education. She is the Assistant Dean for Arts Education & Community Engagement for the University of Utah College of Fine Arts and she’s the Director of both the Master of Arts in Teaching – Fine Arts program and the Endowed Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program.

But she’s not just busy; she’s incredibly effective.

So, it’s no surprise that she was recently awarded the Utah Distinguished Service Outside the Profession Award by the Utah Art Education Association (UAEA). This award recognizes achievements and contributions in previous years by persons or organizations in or outside the field of art education. This award is open to any person or organization demonstrating significant support of visual arts education.

In her words, “Arts Educators foster life-long learning and curiosity and improve quality of life by transforming how we generate new knowledge that is more equitable and inclusive. Quality arts education provides profound learning experiences that allow young people to create, imagine, and discover their fullest potential.”

McIntyre-Martinez’s colleague and previous UAEA award recipient, Beth Krensky said in her nomination of McIntyre-Martinez:

In all of her work as an educator and administrator, she has exhibited a strong commitment to visual arts education. This is reflected in the many ways she has been involved as an arts program administrator and arts educator.

She has taught at the Hartland Partnership Center since 2008. The Harland Partnership Center is a comprehensive capacity-building project co-created by the University of Utah and residents that brings a set of resources together in collaboration with a rental complex for its 800 residents, 75% of whom are non-native English-speaking individuals that come from immigrant or refugee backgrounds. She teaches a year-round weekly theatre and dance education class with the youth in an effort to bring them together and foster their energy in creative projects that they write and perform as a community. She has also mentored many graduate and undergraduate University of Utah students as they have taught visual arts to youth at the center. 

In addition to directing the MAT-Fine Arts Program at the University of Utah, she also teaches multiple classes for the graduate students in the program. Through this work she has helped develop and support a strong cohort of visual arts educators who teach across the state of Utah, and throughout the United States. 

It is true that Kelby McIntyre Martinez has an impressively long list of ways he has supported the visual arts. It is not the sheer number of these activities that impress me, it is the way in which she lends integrity and professionalism to all that she does that I find truly noteworthy.  She uses her many talents for the greater good of the arts across the state and is one of the key visual arts mentors for many.  Thank you for considering this nomination.

McIntyre-Martinez was awarded on March 3, 2023. Join us in celebrating her incredible impact and the recognition it has garnered. 

On March 13, 2023, the University of Utah Department of Art & Art History will open the doors to its new 2,360 square-foot Alvin Gittins Gallery with an exhibition called “Return,” featuring alumni from the department who have gone on to thrive in their respective disciplines.

With its relocation from the ART Building to the Film & Media Arts Building (FMAB: 370 S 1530 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112), the new Gittins Gallery will become an even more prominent anchor in the U’s visual arts corridor on campus along with the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the Departments of Art & Art History and Film & Media Arts.

The opening will be celebrated with a public event on March 23, 2023 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. and will feature works from alumni from various disciplines within the department including: Art Teaching, Book Arts, Ceramics, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting and Drawing, Photography, Printmaking and Sculpture.

Retrofitted to be a state-of-art facility, the new gallery boasts two new video/installation spaces, an additional small gallery in the foyer, more square footage, energy efficient lighting, movable walls, restrooms located adjacent, kitchen for catering, ADA accessibility, adjustable climate control and sound control. This new space will allow for more contemporary and experimental works to be created with an eye to future possibilities for artists — both for students and professional — to grow and expand their research.

The thing that will remain the same — thanks to the generosity of the Wheatley family — is the name, which celebrates one of America’s most beloved portrait artists, Alvin Gittins, who was appointed to the faculty in 1947 and served as the chair of the department from 1956-1962.

Gittins was an advocate of academic realism who practiced a rigorous technical approach to teaching and who received the Distinguished Service Awards in Arts and Letters in 1976 and the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Distinguished Service Award in Arts and Letters 1980.

As the university’s artist in residence, he painted 89 portraits of individuals connected to the university including presidents, researchers, scientists, physicians, and artists. 

Beyond the university, he painted prominent individuals in the arts including Mary Lois Wheatley, a former student and patron of the arts, Utah symphony Maestro Maurice Abravanel, Utah Governors Scott Matheson, Calvin Rampton, and US Senator Frank Moss. He also painted Latter-day Saint Church president David O. McKay and what is perhaps the most well know portrait of the Church Founder Joseph Smith. 

Perhaps his greatest legacy being his influence as a committed teacher.  He provided students a strong foundation in the principles of art, a fundamental knowledge of anatomy, and most importantly, a commitment to authenticity.  He encouraged his students to find their own voices — a paramount mission of the University of Utah College of Fine Arts.

“Return” artists:

Art Teaching
Josh Graham (MFA ‘19)
Dianne Sanchez Shumway (BFA ‘10)

Book Arts
Cory Cooper (BS ‘19)
Sara Jensen (CRU ‘16)

Ceramics
Vanessa Romo (BFA ‘12, MFA ‘17)
Brad Taylor (BFA ‘88)

Graphic Design
J.P. Haynie (BFA ‘14)
Nick Mendoza (MFA ‘11)

Illustration
Dung Hoang (BFA ‘92)
Micah Player 

Painting and Drawing 
Connie Borup (BFA ‘72, MFA ‘92)
Ben Duke (BFA ‘02)
Denis Phillips (BFA ‘62)
Mary Lois Wheatley (BFA ‘48)

Photography
Abbey Hepner (BFA ‘08)
Nancy Rivera (MFA ‘16)

Printmaking
Stephanie Dykes (BFA ‘03, MFA ‘10)
Amber Heaton (BFA ‘09)

Sculpture

Ephraim (BFA ‘03), Kiersten and Raivo Puusemp
Justin Watson (BFA ‘14, MFA ‘16)

Learn more about the Department of Art & Art History here and the College of Fine Arts here

Art & Art History’s Beth Krensky is one of five live Performance Artists up for the 16th Arte Laguna Prize award, and one of only six Americans

(Salt Lake City- January 26, 2023)­ — University of Utah Art & Art History Professor Beth Krensky has been selected as a Finalist for the 16th Arte Laguna Prize. Of the 130 finalists from across the globe, she is one of only six Americans and one of five performance artists. Her performance piece, “Dispatch from Solitude #1: Walking the Unknown Path,” has been selected from among more than 10,000 artworks submitted during an international open call., and she will perform it during the Arte Laguna Prize Exhibition at the Arsenale Nord in Venice, Italy which opens Mar. 11, 2023. The piece was originally commissioned in 2020 by Ogden Contemporary Arts as part of their “Social Distancing and Art” series.

While in Venice, Krensky will incorporate the original performance footage into a new piece specifically created for the Arte Laguna Prize opening. This new piece will consist of live performance, as well as projected video footage combining “Dispatch from Solitude #1” with a solo performance on Lazzaretto Nuovo, a small island in the Venice lagoon, that houses a plague hospital built in 1468. Dylan Totaro, the Utah-based videographer who documented the original performance, will accompany Krensky to Venice to record new footage for the Arte Laguna Prize opening. 

The panel of jurors who selected the finalists is comprised of the following internationally-recognized critics, curators and museum directors: Kobi Ben-Meir (Israel – Chief Curator of Haifa Museum of Art); Louise Fedotov-Clements (United Kingdom – Artistic Director, QUAD & Director, FORMAT International Photography Festival); Pasquale Lettieri (Italy – Curator, critic, historian, academic and journalist); Alka Pande (India – Consultant Arts Advisor and Curator, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre in New Delhi); Danilo Premoli (Italy – Architect, Designer); Alisa Prudnikova (Russia – founder, commissioner and artistic director of the Ural Industrial Biennial).

Krensky is a professor of Art Teaching at the University of Utah and is known for her conceptual art practice that is rooted in a socio-historical memory of place. She creates objects and performative gestures as a contemplative act. Much of the work is intended to be portable and cross boundaries as a metaphor for movement within and across the multiple layers of shared or contested existence over time.

Her art has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally, including the Jerusalem Biennial. She has been recognized as an important artist working in the border zone between social issues and the sacred. The Yale Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University recently exhibited a twenty-year retrospective of her work, “Between Spirit and Matter.”

Support for this project has been generously provided by the University of Utah through the University Research Committee, the College of Fine Arts, and the Department of Art & Art History. This project was supported by the University Research Committee (URC) at the University of Utah. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the official views of the URC, the Vice President for Research Office, or the University of Utah.

Arte Laguna Prize Datasheet

Title Arte Laguna Prize Promoted by Associazione Culturale MoCA (Modern and Contemporary Art)
Under the patronage of Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Venice, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts; it obtained a medal from the President of the Italian Republic
Location Venezia, Nappe dell’Arsenale Nord, water-bus stop Bacini/Arsenale Nord
Dates 11 March – 16 April 2023 Press Preview Saturday 11 March, at 12 pm at Nappe dell’Arsenale Nord, Venezia Opening Saturday 11 March, at 5 pm
Opening hours daily 10 am – 6 pm
Catalogue digital, with critical text by Luca Beatrice.

If you’ve been accepted to the U*, here are some of your next steps:

• Pay your enrollment deposit
• Apply for on-campus housing** through your University CIS account: one option for first-year students to consider is the Arts Floor, which is a community of artists living together
• Register for Orientation - You will first meet your academic advisor at Orientation, where we will assist you in registering for your first-term classes. Orientations take place during the spring/summer before classes begin in the Fall.
• Apply for Aid: Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• Apply for University of Utah departmental scholarships.  
• Monitor your UMail account for notifications and visit your financial aid status page in Campus Information Services (CIS)
• If you have questions, connect with a Financial Aid Counselor by calling 801-581-6211.
• Check with the Department or School that interests you for more information about how to prepare for your first year. 
  • Department of Art & Art History
  • School of Dance
  • Department of Film & Media Arts
  • School of Music
  • Department of Theatre

*Admissions to the University does not mean that you have been accepted to the School of Dance, School of Music or Department of Theatre in which you auditioned or interview. You will be contacted directly by the School or Department with the results of your audition/interview. 
** if you are interested in off-campus housing, you can check out Off Campus Housing.

Academic Advising helps you to know your stuff, know what to do early and what to do often. 
To book an academic advising appointment for any of the undergraduate programs in the College of Fine Arts, visit createsuccess.utah.edu.

If you’re planning to shop for the person that has everything, the ones who want their gifts to support good causes, or that person with great taste (or the one without it), then we’ve got news for you.

Both the U’s Department of Art & Art History and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) are hosting their highly-anticipated sales, and we’re giving you the scoop now so you can get in on this creative, thoughtful, unique, affordable, local goodness. You can thank us later.

UMFA’s Holiday Market

Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3 and 4 | 9A—5P
FREE market admission and parking, live music

The annual UMFA Holiday Market offers the ideal shopping experience: one-of-a-kind purchases that support both local artists and the UMFA’s important creative and cultural work — all in a festive atmosphere.

Find local and other handmade creations in ceramics, paintings, jewelry, candles, prints, artisan chocolates, woodworking, soaps, and so much more. Plus, you can find art-inspired gifts in The Museum Store, too, or consider giving a loved one a UMFA membership. So. Many. Options.

Make a day of it and enjoy live music, get lunch or a beverage at The Museum Café, or tour the Museum’s latest exhibitions! Museum galleries will require an entrance fee. 

Featuring student performers from the University of Utah School of Music:

Saturday, December 3
9-11 am: Marissa Badham, harp
11 am-1 pm: Richard Chang, piano
1-3 pm: Jonathan Lee, cello
3-5 pm: Suzannah Rose, piano

Sunday, December 4
9-11 am: Yanqi Wang, piano
11 am-1 pm: Richard Chang, piano
1-3 pm: Jonathan Lee, cello
3-5pm: Alex Call, cello

Department of Art & Art History Holiday Sale

Tuesday—Friday, Dec. 6—9

Tuesday 12/6 1P–7P
Wednesday 12/7 10A – 6P
Thursday 12/8 10A – 6P
Friday 12/9 10A – 6P

Swing on by the Gittins Gallery of the ART Building for incredible student-made works including handmade ceramics, fine art prints, paintings, drawings, and more!

“Members across the clay community come together in the Holiday Art Sale to create a diverse portfolio of ceramic art,” said Art & Art History student Lindsey Rose. “The pieces range from sleek modern ware to textured abstractions of common forms. We have been working on a variety of utilitarian ware, including bowls, platters, plates, and cups. We also will have wall hangings and sculptural pieces for sale. We have a range of artistic styles, glaze combinations, and kiln firing techniques that create an engaging array of art.

All proceeds from the sale will have a direct impact on the student experience by helping support student clubs, travel to conferences, visiting artist workshops, and other student activities.

“For many students, the Holiday Art Sale is the first place that they have the opportunity to sell their work,” Rose said. “It is important to be in a supportive environment when taking this step as an emerging artist. As students, we are guided by our advisors who help us take charge in the many stages of planning a successful event. By having this community, it is less overwhelming to learn the tips and tricks bit by bit. We are able to support each other and learn from our different starting points. The Holiday Art Sale is an opportunity to celebrate our successes and hard work throughout the semester.” 

It’s practically a gift to the artists, the students AND the person on your shopping list. Triple win!

The Dean's Office is excited to announce that applications for College of Fine Arts Scholarships for the 2023-2024 academic year are live! Apply now! 

Please find the online application, deadline, and scholarship criteria for each specific scholarship here. Recipients of each scholarship will be notified before May 2023.  Funding your college with outside resources is one of the best ways to create the time and resources needed to be successful in College. Start working on your scholarship applications early!  Former Create Success Interns Abby Davis, Mason Henrie, Matthew Rudolph, and Lia Wong created this quick video to give you effective tips for navigating the scholarship application process.  Check it out!

Guest post by arts education MFA student Reilly Jensen

"Intuitive Survey” exhibition in the Gittins Gallery (Photo: Amelia Walchli)I came to the MFA in Community-based Art Education (CBAE) program as an archaeologist-turned-spy. My mission was to identify and obtain the collaborative skills of artists, to address systemic cultural heritage and contested narratives of the past. Utah's legacy includes unique historical, geographic, and social borderlands. It has always been home to travelers, migrants, and people who persisted at the edges and have woven their legacies together over time to create something new. In untangling these pasts in my work as an archaeologist, I was looking for ways to challenge, unite, and address them as an artist.

My favorite radical approach was to "learn by doing." In the CBAE program, I learned by doing. I learned that arts have the power not only to integrate disciplines but tell a story. Through the stories we convey as artists, we can include communities as creative collaborators, capable of changing our circumstances and realities. Together, we can tell and create our own stories while honoring the pathways and intentions of those who came before us.

Knowing everything is less important than getting out there and adapting with your boots on the ground. So I went out there, boots on, and I learned some great "secrets" of artists, like radical pedagogy, co-intentional educational approaches, and the power and weight of community relationships.

"Intuitive Survey” exhibition in the Gittins Gallery (Photo: Amelia Walchli)I put it all together into a community-based ceramics project for my MFA thesis with the Bat Archaeological Project, funded by the National Endowment for Humanities, at the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Bat, Khutum, and Al Ayn, in the Sultanate of Oman. There, I worked with scientists, artists, and local schools to harvest local clay and create ceramics, as a means to research Bronze-Age ceramics processes and generate questions about the cultural past and our relationships to it through the creation of heritage.

While the MFA thesis culminated in a local exhibition on campus, the work continues. You can find me gearing up for this coming field season, follow my process here or on Instagram: @quaffingreilly.

On Sept. 21, 2022 at 7 p.m., the College of Fine Arts community and its beloved patrons of the arts will gather at Kingsbury Hall for CFA GALA: IGNITE, a powerful evening show highlighting the creative works and research of our students and faculty, celebrating our three 2022 Distinguished Alumni, congratulating our scholarship recipients and thanking our generous scholarship donors.

Hosted by the fabulous Department of Theatre professor, Sarah Shippobotham, this event is free and everyone is welcome and no tickets are required. Just don something that makes you feel fabulous or fancy and find a seat. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the show begins at 7 p.m. and there will be a delectable dessert reception to follow.

The 2022/23 Distinguished Alumni are (bios here):

Ted Nagata (Art & Art History): Legacy Award which honors an alum whose seasoned and successful career has brought deserved acclaim not just to them but to the program(s) from which they attended here at the University of Utah as well.

Ashley Bryant Miller (Theatre): Horizon Award, which honors an accomplished mid-career alum on the rise.

Larry R. Smith (Music/Arts Ed): Arts Educator Award, which honors an alum who has made significant contributions in the area of arts education.

In addition to the celebration of our alumni, each academic unit in the College of Fine Arts will take the stage to perform or present recent works.

We will also get to hear from Department of Theatre student and scholarship recipient Kirsten Henriquez, an undergraduate student in the Department of Theatre, with an emphasis in the Actors Training Program and is double-majoring in Psychology. Henriquez is heavily involved in the Film Production Club on campus and when she is off campus, she enjoys swim and dance as hobbies. Graduating in 2024, she looks forward to moving out of state to share her talents and love for the arts.

So, find a good outfit, grab a friend, and we’ll see you at Kingsbury Hall!

Wednesday, 9/21
Kingsbury Hall
Doors open at 6:30P
Show starts at 7P
Dessert reception to follow

The University of Utah College of Fine Arts is pleased to announce Chloe Jones will be joining the team as the next Executive Director of UtahPresents and Assistant Dean for Art & Creative Engagement. Jones comes to the U from The Yard, a creation and performance platform in Martha’s Vineyard that supports diverse, contemporary dance-makers and related artists in their creative processes. She will join the University on October 31, 2022, with the goal of furthering UtahPresents’ mission as a multi-disciplinary presenter at the University of Utah that brings diverse artistic and cultural experiences to campus and the region, to explore and enrich the human experience through the lens of creativity and the arts.

“The momentum generated in the last couple of years by UtahPresents is going to be well fueled by the talents and experience Chloe will bring to this role,” said John Scheib, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Associate Vice President for the Arts at the U. “We’re thrilled to have her at the helm.”

She feels similarly.

“Leading UtahPresents into its next chapter will be an honor,” Jones said. “I am inspired by the legacy of the organization and energized by what we can do next. We have a strong foundation to build on and exciting opportunities ahead. Applying rigor to curiosity is the work of both artists and scholars, and it will be my guiding principle as Executive Director.

“On a personal note, joining the team is the homecoming of my dreams,” continued Jones. “I grew up in Salt Lake City and have maintained a close connection to Utah since moving away. SLC's landscape and creative community offer one of the most compelling combinations anywhere, and I look forward to both drawing from and contributing to that wellspring of inspiration.”

Starting with her first class at Tanner Dance at age 2, Jones developed a lifelong love of the arts. After studying dance in high school at Rowland Hall and at the Ballet West Academy, she attended Wesleyan University where she majored in dance and Hispanic literatures & cultures.

She began her career in arts administration at the Wesleyan Center for the Arts, and prior to her role as Executive Director, she was The Yard’s Director of Development, where she increased the overall contributed revenue of the organization by more than 40%. Jones took the helm at The Yard just as COVID-19 closures were beginning, and despite the impact of the pandemic, Jones was able to reset the organization’s finances and create an operating surplus and cash reserve.

“We are thrilled to welcome Chloe to UtahPresents,” said David Kirby, Chair of UtahPresents’ Advisory Board and Senior Vice President at Zions Bank. “Her dedication and love for the arts is evident, and the passion and vision she presented will move the organization forward. The board members are excited to support her as we work together to grow and expand the mission and impact of UtahPresents.”