{"id":90879,"date":"2025-03-05T21:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=90879"},"modified":"2025-03-16T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:16:12","slug":"one-year-in-sarina-ehrgott-envisions-an-ambitious-future-for-bdac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/one-year-in-sarina-ehrgott-envisions-an-ambitious-future-for-bdac\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year In, Sarina Ehrgott Envisions an Ambitious Future for BDAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sarina Villareal Ehrgott in stands in front of the Bountiful Davis Art Center’s first curated exhibit, Joy Full, on view through March 28, 2025. Image by Steve Coray.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cArt is a human right,\u201d says Sarina Villareal Ehrgott, Executive Director of the Bountiful Davis Art Center<\/a> (BDAC). Coming up on her one-year anniversary at BDAC, Ehrgott reminisces on her past work and how it impacts the broad vision she has for the center in this year and beyond.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I am unusual in that I\u2019ve been a part of the arts all my life,\u201d says Ehrgott. The Texas native studied painting at the University of Houston, and became a graphic designer to pay the bills while continuing to create work in the studio. Her painterly works shift between figurative elements and abstraction, and she has exhibited regularly in Utah venues since she and her musician husband moved to the state in 2009. All the while she has worked in the private and public sectors of the local art community, taking on roles in advertising, marketing and arts administration.<\/h4>\n

Before joining BDAC, Ehrgott worked as the marketing director for both Park City’s J-GO Gallery and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City. Most recently, she worked for Utah’s Department of Cultural and Community Engagement. Because of this background, she knows how to approach the arts with a business and marketing mindset. \u201cAs most artists know, visuals speak a thousand words,\u201d says Ehrgott. \u201cPeople will see and consume visual information before they read anything.” In her first year, Ehrgott has chosen to focus on BDAC\u2019s visual marketing, leveraging her background to shape the center\u2019s graphic identity in a way that resonates with both artists and the public.<\/h4>\n
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Despite her demanding job at the Bountiful Davis Art Center, Ehrgott continues to make art in her studio in South Jordan. As a professional artist, she goes by her maiden name, Sarina Villareal. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Local audiences might know Sarina Villareal for her paintings that play with a combination of abstraction and figurative elements, especially floral motifs. In a new series of landscapes the artist says, “I\u2019m looking at the encroachment of societal expansion and it encroaching on the natural land. I moved to South Jordan and I see the simple landscape being eaten away by suburban buildings.” Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p><\/div>\n

You may be familiar with Ehrgott\u2019s prior work in marketing and design in her role as design diplomat for the new Utah State Flag of 2024. Tasked with redesigning the state\u2019s iconic banner, Ehrgott and her team acted as conduits for the voices of the Utah public, ensuring the end result authentically represented the desires of the masses and not letting an individual’s self-creativity overtake the flag\u2019s new design. \u201cWe listened and then provided what we thought was the best answer,” she says about the process. “It was the most correct design for what Utahns asked for in their state flag design.\u201d This selfless, service-driven mindset is vital in the museum and gallery sector, where curators aren\u2019t meant to necessarily create but to reflect artists’ missions on their walls and communicate with patrons. Ehrgott’s experience in communicating with government officials and working on municipal projects also set her up as the optimal candidate to face the BDAC\u2019s biggest hurdle to date\u2014funding.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe work on a bit of a smaller budget,\u201d says Ehrgott. Insufficient capital is a grueling barrier for any organization set on community access and free resources, and one thing is clear, in order to support Ehrgott\u2019s vast goals for the center this year and beyond, increased financial support is vital. Created in 1974, the BDAC is not, despite its name, a city or county organization, but rather an independent nonprofit. Though it does receive Recreation Arts and Parks (RAP) funds, the organization must supplement these resources with grants and individual donations. In her first year, Ehrgott\u2019s main focus at the BDAC has been uncovering fresh and emerging sources of funding, such as new grant opportunities and municipal support from neighboring cities. There are also many ways for individual art lovers and community members to support the BDAC, from individual donations via the BDAC website all the way to becoming a major sponsor. On the horizon for 2025, Ehrgott and her team hope to launch their new BDAC membership, an annual plan that would provide member benefits and perks to those who opt in. After all, a space dedicated to making art accessible to its community relies on that very community to keep it afloat.<\/h4>\n

Ehrgott is also focused on BDAC’s primary function as an art venue. \u201cI think since COVID, there are a lot of places that just don\u2019t have gallery spaces any longer,\u201d says Ehrgott.\u00a0 Indeed, Art Access\u2019s gallery space, The Rio, Alice Gallery and others have all closed in the past several years. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me that the BDAC fills that role, where we can support our living artists,” she says. Yet, the BDAC cannot patch the holes that lost galleries have left in Utah\u2019s landscape without proper and steady support. Despite these formidable challenges, Ehrgott\u2019s unwavering spirit and mindset have remained steadfast. \u201cI have not really had an experience that has brought me down,\u201d laughs Ehrgott. Fittingly, the BDAC\u2019s theme for 2025 is \u201cJoyful.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe are nestled in a really interesting place,” Ehrgott says. “We are outside of Salt Lake City, where there is the highest concentration of artists in Utah\u2026we are in an interesting in-between, kind of a neighborhood, kind of suburban, but also with a historical main street.\u201d While the BDAC positions itself in an ideal location between some of Utah\u2019s major art hubs, what is even more pertinent is its neighborhood location, ideal for making community access convenient in the heart of Bountiful. To Ehrgott, this access is pivotal. \u201cThe accessibility I\u2019m thinking about is how I foster contemporary living artists who are making really interesting and thoughtful work right now, but in a way that the people in our immediate surroundings can enjoy, understand it, and not be intimidated by it.\u201d The answer lies in Ehrgott\u2019s vision for the center\u2019s expansion.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI hope in three years or so we can turn into a museum, with a museum accreditation,\u201d Ehrgott says. She plans for the center to host artist panels, workshop opportunities, and more curated exhibitions. The BDAC recently welcomed its first-ever curated exhibition<\/a> in the main gallery, which previously housed work by a single artists or artist groups. It continues to host individual artist exhibitions in two adjacent galleries (see a review of Hunter Bailey’s Shield Your Eyes<\/em> here<\/a>) and its downstair gallery is dedicated to partnerships with local community organizations. \u201cIf you come in once every couple of months you are going to see brand new work,\u201d she says of the center’s rotating exhibition schedule. The center also provides a stage for performers, which accommodates two Steinway pianos.<\/h4>\n
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Paradigms (A Unified Art Show), in the BDAC’s Underground Gallery, features work from TURN Community Services. Image by Shawn Rossiter.<\/p><\/div>\n

To meet her visions for the future, Ehrgott is expanding the museum\u2019s staffing. \u201cWe are growing exponentially,\u201d she says. The center recently completed its search for a Development and Membership manager as well as a new educator to create free community programming. It is Ehrgott\u2019s objective at the end of this expansion to grow the center\u2019s staff from four to seven members. \u201cThe BDAC has a great way of attracting very passionate and very knowledgable creative people.\u201d<\/h4>\n

If one thing is clear for Ehrgott, it’s that aiming high isn\u2019t just a habit, it’s a standard. \u201cI want to remind artists that we are here. We are interested in contemporary art and we want to support artists in their early career, or emerging artists,\u201d. The BDAC\u2019s doors are open, welcoming artists of all backgrounds and mediums to thrive under Erhott\u2019s visionary directorship. \u201cI think that my ambitions are achievable, I just have to rally the people around me to help me achieve them.\u201d<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cArt is a human right,\u201d says Sarina Villareal Ehrgott, Executive Director of the Bountiful Davis Art Center (BDAC). Coming up on her one-year anniversary at BDAC, Ehrgott reminisces on her past work and how it impacts the broad vision she has for the center in this year and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1725,"featured_media":90888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,14],"tags":[1153,4691],"class_list":["post-90879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art_professional_spotlight","category-visual_arts","tag-bdac","tag-sarina-villareal-ehrgott"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1841506971462943869.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-04 10:39:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90879"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91281,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90879\/revisions\/91281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}