“Great Salt Lake Sunset” does several things we look for art to do. It immortalizes a dramatic moment in time and space: the setting of a brilliant sun over Antelope Island on a haze-free day, offering an inspiring, spectacular, and always rare event that offers a durable alternative […]
Making a shy curtsy — like a Degas ballerina — the bus stop/shelter at the southeast corner of 2505 East Parleys Way is an appropriate welcome and nod of approval for the performance of a new type of building: one that is more than sustainable. This building’s self-image […]
It lives! The year was 2005 and … after going silent for six months, 15 Bytes was resurrected! Here, to the best of our recollection, is what happened: In the summer of 2004, just shy of three years after its inception, 15 Bytes went dark. Or, not exactly […]
SALT Contemporary Dance’s Fall ‘21: A Return to the Stage featured works by renowned choreographers Garrett Smith, Ihsan Rustem and SALT’s Artistic Director Joni McDonald. This particular show was meant to premiere in April 2020, but when it was postponed due to the pandemic, SALT continued to develop […]
A linen print tacked to the gallery wall beckons our gaze with its earth-colored, vertically-configured shapes. At proximity, the planes of color converge with bold, textured patterns and strategically placed outlines that reveal the underlying canvas. Immersed in the scene is a standing figure — a maid — […]
“Can someone’s haircut tell you when their life fell apart?”
So begins Andrew Grace’s After College, this year’s Honorable Mention in Utah’s Original Writing Competition. Read on!
It quickly becomes apparent from her Instagram posts that Terri Froelich takes countless photos of her nautical environment, mostly shot close enough to isolate textures like wood grain, rusty industrial decay, sun-dappling on water and any bright colors that sport unexpectedly on the dull fabric of the everyday. […]
The quarterly Humanities Magazine, a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities, featured Utah Humanities’ Executive Director Jodi Graham in the most recent issue. The highlight gave Utah Humanities a national platform for sharing our deep, statewide work and Jodi’s vision for the influence the humanities can […]
Nicknamed the Beehive state, Utah proudly integrates imagery of beehives into many aspects of its being: the state flag, road markers, architecture, and more. The beehive has roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the arrival in the land Brigham Young named “Deseret,” or […]
Back in school we learned that a line has one dimension: length. A plane measures two ways: length and width. Space, of course, has three dimensions. Art schools tell us that if it has three dimensions it’s a sculpture, while if it only possesses two, it’s a painting. […]
We’re frequently posting news on murals, street art and public art projects in the Salt Lake City area — capitol city, location of our headquarters and all that. But other municipalities in Utah are not willing to sit idly by while SLC paints its walls. Certainly not Provo, […]
Since a majority of the state’s residents adhere to teachings from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, religion in Utah can often feel homogeneous. Because of this, we often make assumptions concerning the religious and spiritual beliefs of individuals around us. It is this climate that […]
“Lincoln Park Arboretum,” one of eight multi-part and five single-panel paintings at Phillips Gallery, sets up a paradigm and writes subtext for all 13 paintings. The celebrated arboretum was presumably the focus of a visit to Seattle by both Joseph and Melinda Ostraff, she in her role as […]
Ellen Meloy combines the contemplative life of meditation with being fully engaged in nature: I no longer want to know the names of things. I do not care if I am mute or it my tongue is useless for everything but the taste of salt. The verbal map […]
Over the past ten years Gary Swanson has completed a couple dozen interior and exterior murals in the Salt Lake City area, including Gallenson’s Gun Shop, Fat Cats Bowling, Purgatory Bar and Settebello Pizzeria. His latest mural is on the north side of Caputo’s Market & Deli […]
UMFA’S KATIE SEASTRAND NAMED UTAH’ TOP MUSEUM EDUCATOR
Katie Seastrand, manager of school and teacher programs at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) at the University of Utah, has been named Utah Museum Educator of the Year. Seastrand received the award Saturday, March 26, at the Utah Art Education Association (UAEA)’s Spring Conference held online.
“Katie does excellent work to connect K-12 students and teachers to the diverse world of art and creativity,” said Annie Burbidge Ream, co-director of learning and engagement at UMFA. “We truly are so grateful to get to work and learn alongside her, and we look forward to seeing all of the wonderful ways she will continue to enrich people’s lives through engaging art experiences.”
Hired in September 2019 to travel and teach in K-12 classrooms throughout Utah, Seastrand completely re-envisioned school outreach after COVID made in-person Museum tours and classroom visits impossible. Looking for new ways to safely support teachers and students, Seastrand focused first on immediate needs. She worked with classroom teachers and her colleagues in UMFA Learning and Engagement to develop and distribute 1,500 “Art Kits” of supplies to Salt Lake area schools and to Whitehorse High School in San Juan County. She then reimagined and expanded UMFA’s relatively new distance learning efforts into five new programs that have brought UMFA artworks and art-inspired experiences into classrooms virtually.
In two and a half years—most of that time under COVID restrictions—Seastrand has worked with more than 6,000 students and 550 teachers statewide to connect classroom core subjects to UMFA’s global art collection. These programs help students and teachers make connections between objects and their own lived experience, and they give underserved populations some of their only opportunities to experience the visual arts.
“Using art in classrooms not only provides opportunities for students to learn on their own terms but can also help with stress and social-emotional learning,” Seastrand said. “Students need room to be free and creative, to bring what they want to the paper, canvas, clay, or other medium. Art education is an empowering space and outlet for whatever emotions, anxieties, or experiences that may not easily be expressed through words.”
Seastrand grew up in Salt Lake City and graduated from Olympus High School. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history and curatorial studies from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in museum education from George Washington University. While in graduate school, she interned at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Abracadabra Preschool in Alexandria, Virginia, before returning to Salt Lake City and joining the UMFA.
Baldwin Radio Company and the Flynn Artipelago
And if you’re an artist and want a booth at the centennial celebration this August, visit our Opportunities section.
Samantha daSilva (born 1978 Santos, São Paulo, Brazil) is a professional artist and educator living and working in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
As a third generation artist, daSilva was inspired at an early age by her copiously artistic family, namely; her grandmother, a portrait artist, her aunt, an accomplished jewelry designer, and her mother, a watercolorist, who influenced da Silva to experiment with a variety of mediums.
“Water is an intrinsic part of my process. Straight from the tube, acrylic paint is tight, rigid. With the addition of water, the paint relaxes, takes a long, deep breath, begins to move and dance across the canvas. I tilt and manipulate the canvas so that shapes begin to form. I respond to these shapes intuitively. For this reason, my work is never preconceived. I prefer to have the work direct me instead. Fearless Abstract Painting is a process of adding and subtracting to create balance and harmony on the canvas.
My work is a celebration. Once, I identified myself as a victim. Broken, deficient, lacking. Today I am empowered, grateful, anew. Through my work, I attempt to illustrate the redemptive power of choice.”
To discover more artists, visit our Utah Artists Directory
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