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Meet the Artists
Meet the artists exhibiting at the festival. There are five art exhibitions at the Center for Latter-day Saints 2019 festival: Karalee Kuchar, A Long Mournful Cry; Daniel George, God to Go West; Megan Knobloch Geilman, Page Turner, and Samantha Zauscher, Belief in Zion; Emily Erekson, Out of the Rolling Ocean; and Hannah Pardoe, Ab Imo Pectore.
Download a free digital magazine that includes an interview with the artists and examples of their work.
The Other Side of Heaven 2 NYC Premiere Screening
The producers of the new film, The Other Side of Heaven 2, are having a premiere screening in NYC, Thursday, June 27, 2019, on the eve of the Center’s festival. They are generously giving all proceeds of the premiere go to the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. We invite you to attend.
Synopsis: Missionary John H. Groberg returns to Tonga in the 1960s with his wife and their five young daughters. When their sixth child is born with a serious illness, the Grobergs face their ultimate test of faith, only to find themselves surrounded by the love and prayers of thousands of Tongans. Barriers of interreligious strife are soon broken down as all unite in hopes of a miracle that will save the baby's life, as well as the life of a Tongan minister's son.
Alice Merrill Horne: A Pioneer for LDS Arts Advocacy
Alice Merrill Horne was a prolific advocate for the arts in early Utah. Learn more about her important work and how she helped discover artist Minerva Teichert.
Festival preview
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts Festival is in a few weeks (June 28-29) in NYC. We’ve been working on it for a year, and we’ve got surprises galore.
If you’re a parent with wee ones: On Saturday morning, before noon, there are fun activities for children—bookmaking, storytelling, and dance—with Kevin Hawkes, New York Times bestselling author (Library Lion, Weslandia), and others.
If you love tv and the movies: A first screening of “Heart of Africa,” a new film by Congolese filmmaker Tshoper Kabamabi about two missionaries—black and white, in the Congo; and the 10th anniversary screening of the complete, groundbreaking, award-winning thriller, “The Book of Jer3miah,” with the filmmakers, Jared Cardon and Jeff Parkin.
If you’d rather stay home and read a book: a keynote address by Harvard Divinity School professor David F. Holland on “Art and Religion in the American Novel”; a concert reading and performance of literary works (poetry, fiction, live music); and a discussion with poets Lance Larsen, Susan Howe, and Michael Lavers called “How Poetry Works.”
If you’re sort of smart: a panel discussion, “Women in Art” with three scholars with diverse backgrounds and approaches to the visual arts; a presentation on the great matron of Utah arts, Alice Merrill Horne; a panel on how to look at art; another on collecting art in today’s market; and a performance/presentation on the power of dance.
If you grove to music: a concert retrospective of the music of David Fletcher, with special guests Sarah Asplund, Jonathan Austin, and more; a reading of a new play with music about James W. McConkie, written by his grandsons, Davey and Jamie Erekson; a tango duo from Argentina; and the marquee event of the festival, a concert at the Kaye Playhouse featuring Latter-day Saint performers from Nashville, Broadway, Finland, and more.
If you want to log in some gallery time: five (count ‘em, five) exhibitions that include two photography shows based on Utah landscape; a sound installation accessed through your phone; conceptual art about women’s voices; and a video installation titled “Belief in Zion.”
Pretty amazing, pretty diverse, pretty fun, pretty cheap.
About that: children are free; a two-day pass is just $25 ($12.50 for students); and the concert (Center Stage at the Kaye Playhouse) are $15 and $20.
Podcast transcription: Laura Allred Hurtado: Her Years at the Church History Museum
The former global acquisitions curator for the Church History Museum reflects on her tenure and influence on art in the Church with the aid of tributes written by artists and colleagues: Neylan McBaine, Walter Rane, Rose Datoc Dall, Alan Johnson, Valerie Atkisson de Moura, Annie Poon, Diane P. Stewart, Caitlin Connolly, and Jason Metcalf. Hurtado is the newly-named executive director of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.
Winner! Mormon Cinema: Origins to 1952
We are happy to announce that our book, Mormon Cinema: Origins to 1952, by Randy Astle was the winner of the Association for Mormon Letters award in the category of Criticism.