What’s Hip-Hop Got to Do with Education?

August 29, 2016 by umfablog

Guest blogger: Courtney-Rae Reinecke, UMFA ACME Intern Outside the Glendale Branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library, break dancing erupted when DJ Dynamic started busting out the beats. Onlookers ate pizza and enjoyed the dancing and music, while artist Zach Franzoni from Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts prepped canvases for a collaborative graffiti session. As the crowd swelled (ultimately to some 200 people), so did the excitement for what this May 11 ACME Session hosted by the Utah Museum of […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, benefits of museums, community, education, family, hip-hop, museum events, museums, umfa, uofu

UMFA Re-Envisioning Elevates Respected Arts Administrator

August 10, 2016 by umfablog

Sonja Lunde, respected state arts leader and administrator at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA), has been promoted to a top leadership position within the Museum. Lunde’s promotion is part of a strategic reorganization that comes as staff re-envision the UMFA for next year’s reopening. In her new position as deputy director of planning and program, Lunde will have greater responsibility for managing cross-departmental work and collaboration among the curatorial, collections, design, and education and engagement staff, who will […]

Categories: News • Tags: museums, umfa, Utah arts

Stephen Goldsmith on Living Creatively Across Disciplines

July 19, 2016 by umfablog

Guest Blogger: Kylee Ehmann When you think of people who are going to help solve the world’s “wicked problems”—issues like poverty, injustice, pollution—you might not consider artists. But Stephen Goldsmith, local artist, urban planner, and professor at the University of Utah, says that artists and creators—those actively engaging with their imaginations—are in fact the best people to tackle today’s most difficult problems. And in his July 28 UMFA lecture, “Studio Without Walls: Living Creatively Across Disciplines,” Goldsmith will discuss how […]

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A Not-So-Sunny Excursion to Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels

June 30, 2016 by umfablog

Guest blogger: Ali Mitchell, UMFA intern, U of U senior art history major In April, the UMFA led an adventure that demonstrated exactly what makes our new ARTLandish: Land Art, Landscape, and the Environment program so unique and engaging. What we envisioned as a fun-filled day of art activities and desert lounging at Nancy’s Holt’s Sun Tunnels (located far from any paved road in Utah’s West desert) became a more adventurous undertaking than anyone foresaw. It was a totally different […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art museum, Land Art, museum, Spiral Jetty, Sun Tunnels, umfa, Utah

UMFA: “Best Museum Without Walls”

June 28, 2016 by umfablog

Salt Lake Magazine has named the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) the city’s “Best Museum Without Walls” in the new Best of the Beehive 2016 issue for August: “Utah Museum of Fine Arts has closed for remodeling, but the art hasn’t stopped. Until the building re-opens next year, monthly lectures and community art projects pack the calendar, including family-friendly third-Saturday art projects and . . . backpacks full of gear for kids to explore the Spiral Jetty are available for […]

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UMFA-U Med School Partners Invited to MOMA Forum

June 13, 2016 by umfablog

Two Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) staffers and an assistant professor in the University of Utah School of Medicine participated in an invitation-only forum about museum-medical school partnerships this month at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. On June 8 and 9, UMFA executive director Gretchen Dietrich, education and engagement director Jorge Rojas, and assistant professor Gretchen Case joined 135 select museum and medical professionals at “The Art of Examination: Art Museums with Medical Schools Partnerships.” Attendees shared […]

Categories: News • Tags: art, benefits of museums, museum, museum of modern art, museum-medical school, umfa, University of Utah, uofu, Viewing art, visual thinking strategies

Local arts leader Jóhann Jacobs joins the UMFA!

May 18, 2016 by umfablog

We’re proud to welcome Jóhann Jacobs, the highly esteemed former executive director of Ballet West, as the new director of development at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts! Jacobs has more than thirty years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising, including seventeen years as chief executive officer of the region’s premier professional classical ballet company. UMFA executive director Gretchen Dietrich says Jacobs’ track record as a passionate and successful arts advocate makes him ideal to lead the Museum’s fundraising efforts. […]

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Meet Logan, our pARTners coordinator: Bringing the UMFA to a classroom near you!

May 12, 2016 by umfablog

Guest blogger: Logan Meyers, UMFA pARTners Coordinator Hi, I’m Logan! I grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, which is where my teaching experience began. When I was fifteen, I got my first job teaching swimming lessons to children at a small outdoor swimming pool. I loved teaching right from the start; it was fun and rewarding to watch children learn and develop skills they didn’t know they possessed. Over the course of seven summers, I taught more than 2,000 students how to swim, and I […]

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What are museums good for?

April 7, 2016 by umfablog

Guest blogger: Jazmin Gallegos, UMFA ACME Intern Museums are structures which house collections of artistic, historical, scientific and cultural artifacts. But what other purposes do museums serve? Here at the UMFA, we found this to be an especially relevant question right now as we are in the middle of a temporary closure period; our doors are closed, but how does our reach extend beyond the building itself? Some would see a museum closure as a daunting task. The UMFA saw […]

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