Fine Art Competition Announced by Church Museum

A fine-art competition and exhibition to encourage the creation of quality art by Latter-day Saints will be sponsored by the Museum of Church History and Art.

“The invitation to participate is extended to artists worldwide,” said Elder Dean L. Larsen of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Church Historical Department.

“Prizes and purchase awards will recognize the best of recent work by Church members,” he said. “The emphasis in the juried competition will be on Latter-day Saint themes executed with excellence.”

Elder Larsen said the competition and subsequent exhibit of selected works has been set up to encourage Latter-day Saint artists to express spiritual and historical themes through art.

“The jurors will be looking particularly for works of aesthetic excellence that reflect Latter-day Saint history, beliefs, scriptural themes, culture, life-style, and sense of place,” he said.

Cash awards in the competition will come from a generous grant of forty-thousand dollars from a museum patron. Prizes totaling $8,500 will be given to first, second, and third place winners and five merit award winners, with the balance of the grant available for the purchase of works for the Museum’s permanent collection.

Artists may submit one or two pieces from the best of their recent work. The competition is open to all Latter-day Saint artists working in all styles of painting, printmaking, and sculpture. There is no entrance fee.

The selection committee will include museum director Glen M. Leonard; Mary Lois Wheatley, an artist; Warren F. Luch, former art director for Church graphic design; Richard G. Oman, curator of museum acquisitions; and Robert O. Davis, a museum art curator.

Judging will take place in two steps. The committee will review slides or prints of works first, then notify artists of the pieces accepted for the second-round jurying.

Photographs of art works to be submitted are due at the museum no later than 31 July 1987. Second-round jurying will begin 8 October 1987, and prize winners and purchase awards will be announced at a reception to be held 6 November 1987.

Cash awards include a three-thousand-dollar first prize, a two-thousand, dollar second prize, a one-thousand-dollar third prize, five merit awards of five hundred dollars each, and two or more purchase awards.

Winning pieces and other works accepted for display will be exhibited at the museum through 15 February 1988.

Further information and entry forms are available at the Museum of Church History and Art, 45 North West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150, or phone [phone].