News

Opening January 21, 2022, the exhibition Our Wake Up Call For Freedoms, a collaboration between the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) and the For Freedoms artist collective, examines creativity as a core societal value capable of creating political change. Timed to coincide with the 2022 Utah Legislative Session, this participative exhibition invites visitors to create their own yard signs, posters, and other visual materials associated with political campaigns and movements. Through this process, visitors are encouraged to consider the potential of creativity in the conception of radical, imaginative, and visionary solutions to social issues and identify how art can augment political problem-solving, which tends toward reactionary, zero-sum solution solutions.  

The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to announce the launch of its redesigned and expanded website. The website, utahmoca.org, provides enhanced access to the Museum’s expansive exhibition archives, events, and community programming to improve visitor experience at the Museum’s downtown Salt Lake City location. Utah-based design studio, Actual Source, in collaboration with New York-based design studio, A Lot of Moving Parts, and Utah-based web development firm, Cold Rice LLC, worked closely with the Museum’s Communications and Digital Content teams and the Board of Trustees’ Marketing Committee.

The donors to the institution we now know as UMOCA have made it possible for local art to be on display in Utah from the very beginning.  Despite the market crash in 1929, a mere two years later Utahns rallied together to collect donations to move forward with their vision of a gathering place for the arts in Utah.  Even after being told by the Governor at the time that it was “no time for a thing like that”, UMOCA’s founder, Alta Rawlins Jensen, moved forward with her vision. While the unemployment rate in Utah was astronomical, community fundraising took place everywhere, and through governmental support, financial aid, and much enthusiasm, the construction of the Art Barn was able to continue to completion.  

For the 2021-2022 school year, UMOCA is visiting schools throughout the state in our traveling photographic exhibition, Stronger Shines the Light Inside. Presented in collaboration with acclaimed photographer Angie Smith, the show illuminates the refugee experience in Utah through photography, video interviews, and quotes. 

The grand opening of UMOCA's 90th Annviersary Exhibition, Contemporary Since 1931, had speeches by UMOCA Trustee and Utah State Senator Derek Kitchen, Salt Lake County Deputy Mayor Erin Litvak, Utah Department of Arts and Museums Director Vicki Bourns, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, and UMOCA Executive Director Laura Allred Hurtado.

Business card with new UMOCA wordmark and internal lockup. Designed by Actual Source for the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 2021  For its 90th Anniversary, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) has teamed up with Utah-based design studio Actual Source to re-imagine the museum’s visual…

UMOCA partnered with Meadowlark Elementary, a Title I school that enrolls 100% economically disadvantaged students and 80% minority students. In our pilot year of this partnership, we worked with Meadowlark administration and educators to identify which needs UMOCA could meaningfully fill.

Gary Vlasic of V. Project shares the history of his involvement with the museum and plans for this year's upcoming Gala.

In celebration of our 90th anniversary, UMOCA has commissioned a history of the museum by author Will South. We will be sharing abbreviated sections of his history all year through our Newsletter, the first of which is published here.

"I feel like all my work in some way explores spirituality, but it has definitely deepened over the years. I’m interested in energy and how it can be accessed, channeled and transmitted through the creation of art. Some of the themes I explore include spiritual histories and interpretations of ancient rites and customs. These works have helped me to understand that I can connect my own spirituality and consciousness with all aspects of my artistic practice."