On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the Springville Museum of Art held the opening reception for the 38th annual "Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah" exhibition, boasting artwork selected from more than 1000 online entries.
The exhibition’s opening reception included pie for the guests, live music by the Desert Heartstrings and an awards ceremony.
“It’s a way to really highlight Utah artists and their perception of spirituality, peace, contemplation,” Shannon Acor, the museum’s head of operations, said.
Noelle Wiley, a BYU art education student from Winder, Georgia, entered the competition with a piece titled “Eulogy of the Lamb.”
Wiley said the painting was originally centered on the idea of the circle of life, especially based on a line from Adrienne Lenker’s song, “Ingydar,” which says, “Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed.”
Wiley’s painting shows a lamb dying and bleeding into — or feeding — the grass. About halfway through painting the piece, she read a verse where Jesus Christ is called “the Lamb.”
“That meaning just connected way more with me,” Wiley said. “I just was really struck by that imagery of Christ being like a little bloodied lamb.”
Wiley said the online submission process is what made it possible for her to apply for the exhibition.
This year was the first time the application process was completely online, Acor said. In the past, artists would bring their artwork in to the museum, it would be lined up all over the rooms and jurors would come in person to decide which ones to include in the show.
“I have class every day until the museum closes,” Wiley said. “So that actually made it better for me to just take a picture and put it online.”
Because of the online application process, Acor said more people have been able to enter than ever before, because they don’t have to travel from long distances to drop off their artwork.
Sierra Newbold, a BYU illustration student, was accepted by the exhibition for the second year in a row. This year, she had two pieces in the show. The first titled “Abish’s Tears,” and the other called “Heavenly Help.”
About the second painting, Newbold said the inspiration came from her mom praying for angels to be with her and her sisters on their way to school. When she started the painting, Newbold was originally going to draw a human angel walking with her younger sister in the rain.
When her sister’s cat passed away, Newbold knew it needed to be the cat acting as the angel in the painting. She said the illustration means a lot to her sister and is a reminder that heaven is real.
“I hope that anyone who looks at this painting, they’ll also see heaven is real,” Newbold said. “Heaven comes in many shapes and sizes and is closer than we realize.”
Kylie Kimball, collections manager and registrar, said she loves the show so much because it brings a new way of looking at things.
“It helps show that there are other points of view besides your own,” Kimball said. “It’s enlightening to know what other people believe.”
The museum will also soon be populated with winning entries from the 2024 Youth Art Competition, which is displayed shortly after the opening of the Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah exhibition.
According to the Springville Museum of Art’s website, the prompt for this year’s youth exhibition was wonder and curiosity. Youth from kindergarten through 11th grade can enter by bringing their completed artwork to the museum Nov. 7 and 8.
The "Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah" exhibition will be up through Jan. 8.