2023 Doctorow Prize Winner Chie Fueki's exhibition of paintings opens in the Street Gallery Friday, September 29.

History — 1930s

1930

Alta Rawlins Jensen and other arts enthusiasts organize support for an art center, eventually known as the Art Barn, in Salt Lake City.


Salt Lake Telegram announces that ”Salt Lake will soon have a miniature ‘Greenwich Village’ and Bohemian art center to be used as a rendezvous for artists, authors, poets, sculptors and musicians.”

1931

The cornerstone for the Art Barn facility is laid by Governor
George Dern.

1933

Governor Henry H. Blood and actress Maude Adams officiate
the formal opening of the Art Barn in Reservoir Park. Flyer
advertising the opening reads, ”This Art Center belongs to
You!”

1934

The Art Barn holds its first gala, the Annual Beaux Arts Ball.

1935

The Art Barn School of Fine Arts is established.

1936

Salt Lake chapter of American Artists Congress forms and
the first publication of the Art Barn Bulletin includes
independent art criticism.

1938

The Utah State Art Center (USAC), an organization with overlapping
mission to the Art Barn, opens. Dependent on federal
financing, the USAC closes its doors, after only five years,
with the onset of the war, in 1943.

1939

Gordon Cope is appointed volunteer director of Art Barn
School of Fine Arts.