Exhibits Open at Church Museum

Three new exhibits at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City employ a variety of modern techniques to present Church themes.

“The Living Christ” document, issued in 2000 by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, provided the title and inspiration for a new exhibit that features artistic portrayals of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

“Jesus Christ is the center of our religion and the focus of our faith,” says curator Richard G. Oman. “The exhibit communicates this through visual and symbolic means.” Brother Oman said that rather than exhibiting a chronological narrative of the life of Christ, the curators chose more than 30 works of art that “demonstrate how His life affected those who lived at that time and how His teachings and Atonement affect us today.”

A photographic exhibit titled “In the Footsteps of Joseph Smith: Photographs of Early Church Historic Sites, 1805–1846” features historic glass-plate photographs and modern photographs side-by-side. The glass-plate photographs were made in 1907–8 by George Edward Anderson as he traveled to buildings and sites of early Latter-day Saint history. These historic photographs are displayed alongside modern photographs of the same locations, taken by Scot Facer Proctor in 1990.

In the “Valiant Pioneer Children” interactive exhibit, visitors ages 2 to 12 and their adult companions can “learn about the values that motivated Latter-day Saint emigrants from the British Isles as they sailed the Atlantic and trekked across America in the 19th century,” says Glen M. Leonard, museum director. Children can blow a tiny ship across the “ocean,” pull a handcart, choose what to take and what to leave behind as they load miniature wagons, build a replica keystone arch of the Salt Lake Temple, and do many other activities. Curator Marj Conder says that as children interact with the exhibit, they are introduced to values such as courage, gratitude, helpfulness, work, responsibility, learning, loving, and remembering.

The new exhibits will remain on display through fall 2001. Admission is free. The museum is open from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. on weekdays and from 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on most weekends. For more information, call 801-240-3310.

Pulling a handcart is just one activity youngsters and adults can try at the “Valiant Pioneer Children” exhibit. (Photo by Barbara Jean Jones.)