Church History Museum opens ‘200 Years of Latter-day Saint Art’ exhibit

SALT LAKE CITY – It’s now just days away from the 194th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As Church members wait to gather, a new exhibit, “Work and Wonder: 200 Years of Latter-day Saint Art,” is now open to view at the Church Museum.

The exhibit features 118 original works of art and historical objects created from 1830 to the present day. Those showcasing the art said the works in the space are viewed as material records that have survived for generations.

“They are testimonies of Latter-day Saints expressing their faith and visually exploring what it means and looks like to be a Latter-day Saint,” said Executive Director of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts Mykal Urbina.

From ceramics to sculptures and drawings, each piece of art is an expression of the lives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“It tells the life, a little bit of the life, of one of these women who (came) together from different countries here to Salt Lake,” Ashlee Whitaker Evans said.

Evans is one of the curators who has been helping bring together pieces of art, including a quilt she spoke of known as the “Album Quilt.”

“The 14th Ward Relief Society Album Quilt, and it was created by a group of women in the Salt Lake City 14th Ward in 1857,” Evans said.

Each square within the quilt was created by an individual woman in the Salt Lake City 14th Ward. Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the quilt was cut right down the middle.

“It was acquired by a young man, Richard Horne, and down the road as he got older, he ended up gifting it to two of his daughters, where the quilt was cut in half,” Evans said.

Years later, for the first time in recorded history, the quilt is hanging together.