Heather Belnap + Emily Larsen / Women Artists and the Utah Art Scene, Past and Present
Location: Granary Arts, 86 N. Main St. Ephraim, UT, 84627
In celebration of Women’s History Month, join us for an evening with Heather Belnap and Emily Larsen Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 6pm.
Historically, women artists in Utah have been innovative, industrious, and dedicated to their craft. They navigated complex social systems and customs to forge their careers as artists and became influential leaders in Utah and beyond. They studied abroad, and in New York and Chicago, they were significant educators at universities, and completed major public art commissions. Though many traveled the world, their connection to Utah remained an important part of their identity and artwork. They painted, sketched, and sculpted places and ideas integral to Utah and its landscape.
Heather Belnap and Emily Larsen will share insights from their research about women artists in Utah circa 1880-1950, drawing connections to figures and trends in Utah’s contemporary art scene. Followed by a discussion and an open dialogue with the audience, participants will be invited to share their own observations and experiences of women in the Utah art scene.
About the Researchers
Heather Belnap is Associate Professor of Art History & Curatorial Studies and directs the European Studies program at Brigham Young University. She currently holds a College of Humanities Professorship and was recently awarded BYU’s 2022 Phi Kappa Phi Award. She has presented and published widely in feminist art history and has co-edited two books, Interior Portraiture and Masculine Identity in France, 1789-1914 (Ashgate, 2011) and Women, Femininity, and Public Space in European Visual Culture, 1789-1914 (Routledge, 2014). She co-authored, with Corry Cropper and Daryl Lee, Marianne Meets the Mormons: Representations of Mormonism in Nineteenth-century France (University of Illinois Press, 2022).
Her current projects include Modernity’s Muses: Women, Art, and Culture in Post-Revolutionary Paris; a volume on Mormon artist Minerva Teichert for the Introductions to Mormon Thought series; and Artistic Frontiers: Women and the Making of the Utah Art Scene, 1880-1940 (with Emily Larsen), as well as special journal issues on midcentury Utah women artists and Mormon art and race. She serves as the chair of CAA’s Services to Historians of the Visual Arts Committee and is the Utah representative for The Feminist Art Project.
Emily Larsen (Emily Larsen Boothe) is a Utah based curator, museum professional, researcher, and collage artist. She is the Director of the Springville Museum of Art, where she has experience working in various positions since 2014. She is passionate about Utah's art history and loves working with artists in the region.
Her research focus is on Utah artists and the Utah art scene circa 1880-1950. She has an M.A. in U.S History from the University of Utah and is currently working with Dr. Heather Belnap on a book project tentatively titled, Artistic Frontiers: Women and the Making of the Utah Art Scene, 1880-1940.