2/24 CHANGES BEHIND THE SCENES AT UMFA

Nancy Rivera has announced she’ll be leaving Utah Arts & Museums as of Feb. 24 and will be joining the staff at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. With the Utah Division of Arts & Museum’s two major exhibition spaces — the Alice Gallery and The Rio — gone or dormant, it’s no wonder the talented artist and curator would look for new opportunities. “It has been an honor to serve the Utah art community [as Visual Arts Program Coordinator] over the last four years. I’m grateful for the opportunity it provided to collaborate with UA&M’s community of artists, arts administrators, cultural workers, and organizations,” Rivera said in her announcement.  At UMFA, Rivera will work as Director of Planning & Program. Tory Guilfoyle, who has worked as Rivera’s assistant at UA&M will be the contact for UA&M’s visual arts program (tguilfoyle@utah.gov).

Rivera is not the only recent change at UMFA. In February, the museum hired Emily Lawhead as their Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Lawhead recently earned her Ph.D. History of Art and Architecture with a certificate in New Media & Culture from the University of Oregon. She worked as Editorial Manager for Peer Review at DAJH,  a platform for digital art history and home of the International Journal for Digital Art History, prior to accepting the position at the UMFA.

We received both news items from Mindy Wilson, who for more than a decade has been the director of Marketing and Communications at the museum. Wilson has announced she too will be moving on. She’ll be taking over a similar role at Red Butte Gardens.

If you’re interested in keeping up with what goes on behind the scenes at the UMFA, you might check out their new blog, At the Heart of It All, where the museum will “share stories about art and artists in exciting and accessible ways … and demystify the Museum’s work and practices and generate critical dialogue.” The initial series of posts, “Object Origins,” shares research into the origins of artworks in the UMFA’s permanent collection.

2/23 SARINDA JONES INSTALLS WORK AT UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HOSPITAL 

Salt Lake City glass artist Sarinda Jones recently completed the installation of her multi-piece work at University of Utah Hospital. Executed in predominantly soothing tones of green, blue and yellow, the work stretches across the hallway that leads to the hospital’s chapel. “Having my art at the UofU has been a dream on mine for 16 years since my son spent some time there as a child,” she wrote on her Instagram page. “This project is close to my heart and to give thanks back in some way is beyond a dream.” You can read more about the art that’s inside the chapel here.

15 Bytes

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.