By EELENG CHER
The Springville City Council will meet tonight to discuss the issue of nude life drawing sessions offered by the Springville Art Shop at 443 S. 200 East. The discussion is called because of significant objections to the art sessions by a group of Springville residents.
“So far, the most pressure has been from the art community to not close the studio down. Opinions can be strong on both sides in this kind of issue, but the city council will have to decide what is best for Springville,” said Springville mayor Hal Wing. The mayor also expects that the motion on whether the drawing sessions should be allowed to continue in the Springville Art Shop to be passed in two weeks from tonight’s meeting.
The controversy arose because the nude life drawing sessions — which have been going on for eight years — are held in a publicly owned building and it is across the street from the junior high school. The Springville Art Shop is also next to the Family History Building.
In spite of the Springville Art Shop being at a prominent location, the drawing sessions are only open to registered and approved students or artists, according to Sharon Gray, curator of education at the Springville Museum of Art. Furthermore, the participants must be over 18 years old and there are very strict guidelines to the nude art sessions, Gray added. For instance, the artists cannot speak to the model except to give directions and discussion about the model is not allowed.
At BYU, nude life drawing sessions are one of the options that art professors encourage students to take. According to BYU art professor Peter Myer, there are BYU students and professors who attend the art sessions in the Springville Art Shop — although the backlash to the art sessions “has been going on for a while.”
“Routinely I expect students to do out of class work. There are three options of studios. Some students attend the nude art classes, and I do go. At BYU, we make our models wear leotards or swimsuits,” Myer said. Myer added that most universities have nude life drawing classes, like the University of Utah and Utah State University.
Dan Seegmiller, a professional figure drawing teacher who teaches part-time at BYU, estimated that there were about six to ten BYU students who attended the nude life drawing art session in the Springville Art Shop the last time he was there.
“I always encourage students to draw and being nude is a secondary consideration,” Seegmiller said.
“I never found a problem with the art sessions. The classes are great. It’s not sexual and we are more concerned with the model being comfortable than nude,” said Allen Tew, a BYU art major.
The nude life drawing sessions are conducted by Doyle Shaw on Saturdays in the Springville Art Shop.
