Sister Emily Larsen beneath the Ishtar Gates at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, 2012.

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 to return home early for professional treatment. In her final days in Berlin, her Mission President granted her permission to visit any museums she had yet to explore. She went to the Pergamon Museum to visit the Ishtar Gate, the iconic lapis lazuli gateway that once stood in Babylon reconstructed in the museum. “I remember walking under the Gate, looking up, and thinking about the thousands—or even millions—of people who had passed beneath it throughout human history,” she recalls. “It made me feel small in the best way possible.”

“Suddenly, I felt a hope I hadn’t experienced in months—a connection to a larger human experience,” she explains. “Even though I felt incredibly hopeless and unsure of what was coming next, I knew it was going to be OK.” The weight of history and the shared experience of those who had walked beneath the gate before her provided reassurance that life, even in its most difficult moments, moves forward.

That experience solidified Larsen’s belief in the power of art to heal and transform. “It has influenced my curatorial vision and choices in countless ways,” she says. “The goal of every exhibition at Springville Museum of Art [where Larsen has been the Executive Director since 2023]—and in every art exhibition I curate or participate in—is to make people feel connected to something bigger than themselves, to a larger shared humanity. … Art has a healing, transformative power. My hope is that every exhibition I work on carries forward that sense of connection and possibility.”

A powerful example of this philosophy in action is the 53rd Annual Utah All-State High School Art Show, on display at the museum through March 21. “The works of the high school artists are some of the most honest and vulnerable we show all year,” Larsen says. “They completely epitomize the idea that art can connect you to a larger shared human experience.”

The exhibition features pieces that explore joy, heartbreak, doubt, confidence, and a full spectrum of human emotions, distilled into powerful artistic statements by Utah’s best student artists. “A friend who visited recently said it was the first thing she had seen in months that gave her hope for the future,” Larsen says. This reaffirmed her belief that art can bridge divides, provide solace, and offer hope.

A patron examines a work at the 53rd Annual Utah All-State High School Art Show at the Springville Museum of Art. Courtesy of the Springville Museum of Art.

Who Do You Love

During the month of February we ask Utah artists about a specific piece of art or artist, living or not, local or global, that has sparked their curiosity or influenced their work. We run their responses throughout the month.