76. Jacquelynn Sokol and Emily Larsen with the Springville Museum of Art and Fostering Beauty and Contemplation Through Life-Affirming Art and Experience

This week is unique for the podcast because I’m featuring a museum for the first time…the Springville Museum of Art. My guests Jacquelynn Sokol and Emily Larsen both work for the museum and they share some great thoughts about the power of art and the museum’s mission to make art accessible to everyone in their community. They share about the many programs the museum does, and also about some of the unique and long-running exhibits they do each year. I especially loved the message shared at the end of this episode. This museum was started as an act of generosity to the community by two artists, and over a hundred years later it has truly served thousands, and even millions, of people in multiple ways. You never really know where one simple act of kindness and generosity can lead.

Listen to the podcast to learn more and be inspired to visit an art museum in your own community.

Links mentioned in the episode:
Springville Museum of Art Website
Springville Museum of Art Instagram
Springville Museum of Art Facebook

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Transcript

Melissa: This week is unique for the podcast because I'm featuring a museum for the first time, the Springville Museum of Art. My guests, Jacqueline Sokol and Emily Larsen both work for the museum and they share some great thoughts about the power of art and the museum's mission to make art accessible to everyone in their community. They share about the many programs the museum does and also about some of the unique and long running exhibits they do each year. I especially love the message shared at the end of this episode. This museum was started as an act of generosity to the community by two artists and over 100 years later it has truly served thousands, even millions of people in multiple ways. You never really know where one simple act of kindness and generosity can lead. Listen to the podcast to learn more and be inspired to visit an art museum in your own community. Welcome to the Do Something More podcast.

Melissa: A service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here.

Melissa: Welcome to this episode of the podcast.

Melissa: And today is going to be a new and unique one for the podcast because I have never featured a museum before and they are of course a.

Melissa: Great do great service for their communities.

Melissa: And are very often nonprofit organizations. So I'm excited to be featuring a museum. Today we're going to be talking about the Springfield Art Museum, which carries the distinction of being Utah's first museum for the visual fine arts, which I did not know till I looked that up and did a little research. They have a collection, they do several exhibits per year. I've been a little familiar with them myself. I discovered them first as a college student, took my kids there as a young mom, and just this last May, my niece had her wedding reception there. So it's a beautiful and unique space and I'm excited to let my listeners.

Melissa: Learn more about it.

Melissa: But first I want to welcome to the show Emily Larson and Jacqueline Sokol. Welcome to the podcast.

Emily: Thanks Melissa. We're so excited to be here and share the magic of the museum with you and your listeners. It'll be fun to chat about what we do.

Melissa: Yes, it definitely is a magical place.

Melissa: Why don't we start off with both of you just giving a short introduction of yourselves and the work you do at the museum.

Jacquelynn: I'm Jacqueline Sogle and I am the head of development and communications and so I do a lot of grant writing, working with our donors and sponsors, sponsors of our shows, and just marketing and spreading the word.

Melissa: Great.

Emily: And I'm Emily Larson, the director of the museum. I've been the director for about a year and a half now and have worked here for 10 years and started volunteering here six years before that. So I've been involved with the museum for 16 years. I love it. I love what I do.

Melissa: I love that. So many times I hear someone, they volunteer, and then they just stay there and keep working. It's great to hear that passion for what you do. Well, Emily, why don't you start us off with just kind of giving us a little background of the art museum, maybe how it got started, and just.

Melissa: A little bit of its history.

Emily: Yeah. So the museum has this really cool history. It's unlike any other museum, I think, in the world, but for sure, in the US and definitely in Utah, our museum was started by students and teachers in our community. So in 1903, these two artists who had big reputations and ties to Springville, a sculptor, Cyrus Dowling, and a painter, John Hafen, they each gave a work of art to the local students of Springville because they and a bunch of community members believed that having students have access to original works of art would make them better, students would make the community better. And so they gave these works to the students. And the students and the teachers got so excited about art and the power of art that they kept collecting. And over the next several decades, they kept collecting and kept collecting until in the 1920s, they decided, you know, what we should do to grow our collection even more and to get even better art at our school. We're going to host an annual art exhibit called the Spring Salon, and we're going to invite artists all over the country to send their works to Springville High School for an art show. So kind of this audacious idea of these students and teachers that they could just send letters to artists all over the country and the artists would send works back for the show. But it worked. They started hosting this annual April art exhibit, and it became a huge phenomenon. Even in the 20s and 30s, before the museum was built, it was hung in the halls and the auditorium of the high school. And they would report 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people coming to Springville before the freeway, when it was super rural, to see these works of art at the high school, famous artists from all over the country were sending artworks, and so they become really well known for their collection. And then this exhibition that they would host every year, that in the 30s, this community built the museum as the high school's art building to house their collection and their exhibitions. And Then we've just continued the legacy from there of really creating accessible experiences and access to original works of art for our community and visitors.

Melissa: Yeah.

Melissa: That is such an exciting history. And I love how you emphasize there the need they saw for those original works of art, because I know I am not a huge art enthusiast, but I have definitely had that experience here in the US and over in museums in Europe of seeing original works of art. And there's just something about that experience that how it feels to see and to observe and to experience that original piece of artwork work, not a copy.

Emily: Well. And I think in a lot of ways, that's even why Jacqueline got into working in arts nonprofits, Right?

Jacquelynn: Yes. No. It's a deeply touching experience, too. This metaphysical exchange is what people will often say that you have when you are engaging with a work of art. It's touching. There's this empathic experience that you're not alone when you see your life story in the art or just something you can relate to, or if it's something you can't relate to, it leads you to start questioning things or think more deeply or open your mind to new ideas. There's just a huge opportunity of exploration.

Melissa: Absolutely. And the benefit of having it in a community accessible for anyone to have that experience. So you mentioned Emily, the salon, and that is something that has continued to today.

Emily: Yeah. So every April, we still open a spring salon. We just, in this past April, opened the 100th annual Spring Salon. And then we're gearing up right now for the 101st, which will be next April. And through this whole year between the 100th and the 101st, we're celebrating that anniversary and that history. So we have a really awesome show upstairs at the museum right now that showcases 100 works of art collected for our permanent collection from the past hundred spring salons. So you can really see from the 1920s through the 2000s, all the different types of art that this museum has collected from that program.

Melissa: And how many. Where do those exhibits and paintings and pieces come from?

Emily: The one in that show, it's called Salon 100. Those are all pieces that the museum purchased from the spring salon, so from the artists or their galleries directly when they entered the show. And we have about 2,700 works in our collection, and over 300 of them have come from a salon. So almost 10, actually, over 10%. We've just bought directly from those shows. And then we. We acquire works from all over from people, donate works. We purchase directly from artists, from galleries, from Collectors occasionally, we're always kind of looking what the pieces that will better help us fulfill our mission because a huge part of that is growing and maintaining this permanent collection. So we curate shows from the permanent collection, but then we also have shows where we invite artists to loan work to us to display on a temporary basis or borrow from other museums or collections to really, just like the founders, Hafen and Dahlin wanted to provide these really powerful, transformative, accessible experiences with art to the students. That's what our goal is with every show we do for our community and our visitors.

Melissa: I love that and great to have all those different resources for the different exhibits you do. One of my favorite exhibits I've been to is the one that you do with high school students as well. So you're not just having professional artists you're encouraging to display there, but you're encouraging students as well. Jacqueline, do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Jacquelynn: Yeah. This January will open our 53rd.

Emily: I can't remember if it's 53rd or 52nd.

Jacquelynn: Over 50 years of doing this all state Utah high school art exhibition. And so it is. It is across the state. We work with over a hundred different schools enter artworks. We work with all the teachers, it's juniors and seniors. And we are displaying the best of the future. The future and what their talents are. And it's. It is one of the most rewarding things we do at the museum because the excitement of the youth and that they come and they experience and they see something that they worked hard on, something they created, they see it on the wall and that it's there for everyone. And it's just. There's so much pride in that show. And I love seeing the, the faces of the parents. The parents, like I did something right, one thing right, I didn't completely screw up. It's just such a great way to celebrate their hard work, their dedication. You know, they're ending their high school, they're ending, you know, their public school time. And so it's kind of a way to celebrate all their hard work. And we do gather and have a lot of sponsors and collaborators together on this show. And so we are able to offer a lot of scholarships and awards that is so exciting for these kids. And some are big and some are small, but. And some of them, they don't stay in our career, but they know that they can put their mind and talents and work into something and that they can be celebrated and awarded for their work. And so they can. It's a confidence booster. More than anything that they can create something that people value. So we love that. And one of the best things, too, is we take our award winners up to the Capitol, up to the Utah State Capitol, and they are given like a gold room reception. The lieutenant governor, the last several years has come and shaking hands with each kid and acknowledge each kid, and they're recognized on the Senate floor. It's good to hear the good news right, in Utah and the good things that kids are doing. And it's just. Yeah, it's inspiring and exciting, definitely that.

Melissa: Opportunity to celebrate the art and the things that they're doing. I am not a visual artist myself, but my daughter is. I have a daughter who does just about everything, and she has experienced that joy. I've seen it as a mother, that joy, like you explained, of being able to have her work on display for others to see and to share that. So that's a great, great experience. Well, we also love on this podcast to talk about kind of the personal interest stories that show your mission and the work that you do. And so I'm wondering, do you have any either of those that have had opportunities to exhibit in your museum or those that come and visit that show kind of the impact that you're having in your community?

Emily: Well, it's hard to just choose one because I feel like there's just so many great stories, but one I've been sharing a lot lately because it was just so powerful, was I'm not just sitting in my office that often. And even when I am, I don't always pick up the phone if it's a number that I don't know. But for some reason, me and Jacqueline were sitting in here, we were talking, and I picked up the Phone of Surrender number, and I was so glad I did because it was this man who was in his 80s, and he's like, I just wanted to thank you because I've never liked art museums. I've never been into art. But I came to your museum and it changed my life. And I needed to thank you because of how transformative this experience was for me. He said he walked around and was viewing the art, and he had had some grief and loss in his life recently, and he saw that reflected back to him in some of the artwork he was engaging with. And he just said, it finally clicked for me. The power of art at your museum and the way that you had curated the space and the artwork on display, it just, it changed my life. And I need to tell you how important the work you're Doing is. And so that was just such an incredible moment for me of just, wow, like, this work really is. I say that all the time. It's changing lives, it's transforming lives. But it's always good to hear someone really telling you, no, this really, really changed my life.

Melissa: Right.

Melissa: To have an experience like that.

Jacquelynn: There's just countless stories. Honestly, just walking into this building is an experience.

Melissa: Like it's a beautiful, unique space in every sense of the word. Yeah.

Jacquelynn: The building itself is a work of art. And it. When it was dedicated in the 1930s, it was dedicated as a sanctuary of beauty and a temple of contemplation. And it really is a sanctuary. It's a refuge. It's just a safe. A safe place. And it. And it always has been. But the past year, we've really been focusing on kind of wellness and mental health and with the arts. And so we. We have this program that's Mindful, Mindful Mondays. We're open on Monday nights now, 6 to 8. And we have different classes or workshops or different people come in each week and share just a mindfulness, wellness, different class or workshop. And it's free, it's open to everyone. And yeah, there's just a lot of chaos and craziness in the world that this just walking in the front door. There's peace and contemplation and beauty that is here.

Melissa: It's in the walls, definitely. And I love that you mentioned that because you do quite a few programs outside of the displays and exhibits that you have. Do you want to share some more of those while we're on that topic?

Emily: Yeah, we do a ton of programs. I think if you want something to do, there's something at the museum for you. So we do programs for artists. We do professional development series for artists called the Artist Roundtable. We'll do opening receptions and lectures where you can come meet the artists and see the art for the first time. Big kind of parties where everyone's welcome and there's a lot of energy those nights. We do a ton of programs for families. We do open studios during the summer and occasionally throughout the year where you could come learn about the art and do a free art project. We do Guppy Group for toddlers, and we do a ton of K12 school programs. So if you're a teacher, we have another half a dozen programs just for teachers that include free outreach programs, free professional development for teachers, free posters of postcards. Almost everything we do is free, too. Yeah.

Jacquelynn: I think our three big fun, huge family events are that children's Art festival the first week of June and then the Halloween party and in Santos Art Shop, it's art and holiday and community all together and for the family.

Melissa: Yeah, I love that you mentioned how it's free. That's pretty amazing that your admission to your museum is always free.

Emily: It's a huge part of our mission in wanting to create accessible experiences with art. So we want to keep it free so that anyone can. That economic part is not a barrier. And that even when you come into the museum, we try to curate it, we try to write our labels, we try to do everything so it's welcoming. And no one feels like they have to have a degree in modern art to understand what's happening at the museum. We really want everyone to come in and be able to connect with the art that's on display.

Melissa: Absolutely. And again, I love how you mentioned what a unique space it is this last May. I mentioned previously my niece had her wedding reception there and we were all just walking around saying, I have never been in a venue like this. It was so beautiful and perfect and very unique.

Emily: Especially we have this sculpture garden that's open in the summer. I don't know if that's where you got married or not.

Melissa: Yeah, we went out there at the beginning and then came inside for the rest of it. But yes, I saw the sculpture garden.

Emily: A lot of times people will come, and it kind of feels like you're transported to Europe in a lot of ways, like you're Spain and there's these plants and sculptures and Spanish colonial architecture. It really is a little escape that you can come to here in Utah.

Melissa: Well, I also have a lot of listeners. I think we've convinced, if you're in Utah or even Utah county, that you should definitely come to the Springville Art Museum if you haven't had the chance. But we have a lot of listeners that are outside of Utah. And so I just kind of wanted to segue just a little bit. Using your own expertise and all the time that you spent working in this area is how would you encourage anyone in their community that wants to work on either making art more accessible or supporting those organizations like yours that promote art and the cultural things in their community?

Emily: First of all, if there's an arts organization in your community that you want to support, there are so many ways to be a great supporter. I think sometimes people feel like you have to give thousands of dollars to be a supporter of a nonprofit, but so many other things count. You can volunteer and help with your hours, sharing posts on Social media, telling your friends about the organization helps a lot. And just showing up, coming to events, coming to programs, coming to do, see what they do, all of that makes a huge difference to the impact that the organization can have. And then I think if you're in a community and you want to have more experiences with art or you want to help make art more accessible to other other people in your community, I think finding where the local artists are displaying their art, finding who the local artists are in your community and getting to know them, following them on social media, seeing what things they're participating in, and then just showing up. I think art can sometimes have this reputation where it's like hoity toity and you got to be wear your black turtleneck and. Which is funny because I'm literally wearing a black turtleneck right now. No black turtlenecks required to show up at an art event. Most artists are the nicest people that you'll ever meet, and they work alone so much in their studios that they love that social interaction when there are events and programs and they want to share about their art. And just being curious. I think anytime you go to a museum or talk with an artist or encounter a work of art, whether you like it or not, if you approach it with curiosity, you'll start to make meaning and connection and kind of ask yourself, what is this reminding me of? What is it making me feel or think about? And there's no wrong answers, right? Like, you can look at this painting and say, oh, it reminds me of my grandma's barn when I was 6 years old and going in and having that experience. And then you can kind of just keep going off that, like, what in the painting or the sculpture or the work of art makes you think that what reminds you of it? What are you seeing that tying it to that? And as you start to just spend time looking closely at works of art and asking yourself those questions or asking the person you're with those questions, you'll start to have really, really incredible experiences with artwork.

Melissa: I love that you share that because it's, as you said, it can have that reputation for being stuffy or being precise, but what you just said is actually the opposite. And I think is what's true when you talk to most artists is they just want you to experience and feel what you feel from their painting or to ask them what inspired them. And it's a really, can be a fluid experience. It definitely is the opposite of being all tied up. So, Jacqueline, did you want to add anything?

Jacquelynn: Yeah, just showing up Getting involved even. There's, like, one artist in our community who I absolutely love and adore, and I not bought a piece from her, but I took her dinner when she had a baby. You can support artists in so many ways and support the arts community. Just participating our volunteers are the best. We can't do what we do. We can't do what we do without everyone.

Melissa: Definitely. I love that you mentioned showing up. I don't think many people even realize that many times for the grants and things that you're using for your organization, you got to put numbers in there and you gotta show. So really, actually just showing up is helping that organization raise money and continue to do what they need.

Jacquelynn: Yes. And inviting new people to come. Invite. Invite someone who hasn't been before to come with you.

Melissa: Well, I just want to close maybe by asking you, Emily, as the director of the museum, what is the biggest why for what you do, and what do you think ultimately makes the museum the asset that it is to your community?

Emily: Well, I really, personally, I've had a lot of personal experiences with art over my lifetime and really have this strong personal conviction that art has the power to transform and to heal, that there's a healing quality of art, both on an individual level, but also, I think, on a community level and on a societal level. And so for me, that's my biggest why is. I know that coming here and working on these programs and exhibitions and our collection and even the boring stuff like making sure we have enough money to do it all, it's healing people individually and healing our society. I really, truly believe that. And our mission here at the museum, why it's such an asset to Utah and to our local community, is that reason we work so hard to provide free, accessible, welcoming experiences with art that really are transformative and powerful and help unite our community, that transform and improve lives. And I just. I invite anyone who hasn't been here to come and experience it, because I do. I really, truly believe anytime you come to the museum, you will find a work of art that speaks to your soul and that you will feel connected to in a way that will improve your life.

Melissa: Without question. I have had that experience myself at your museum and at others. It really can be a transformative and just enriching experience. Well, thank you, both of you. This has been a great conversation. I so appreciate you being willing to come on the podcast and to share more about the Springville Art Museum and what you do. Do you want to just share where people can find you to learn more or how they can either social media or your website.

Jacquelynn: Our website is www.org, so smofa.org is where you can find us. But you can also find us on Instagram, Facebook. Yeah. If you go on our website, you can sign up for our newsletter and get announcements of all the. All the things happening.

Emily: We have TikTok and Pinterest and a couple other social media accounts, but we don't post there as often. So I'd say to stay up to date, join the email list, log onto our website. Facebook and Instagram are the best places to keep up to date.

Melissa: Sounds great. I will include links to all of those in the show notes. So thank you so much, both of you.

Jacquelynn: Thanks. And can I. Can I share one thing and I.

Melissa: Yes. Yeah.

Jacquelynn: Because your. Your podcast is doing good.

Melissa: Yeah. Do something more.

Jacquelynn: Something more. Do. Okay. Your podcast is do something more. Going back to that. The foundation story of how. How this museum started it is so inspiring to me. These two works of art over a hundred years ago and what that very small generous act has now created a giant art museum with 2,700 pieces of art. We reach over 100,000 visitors and teachers and students. We work with thousands of artists. And I just think back to Don Hafen and Cyrus Dallin and what they would have imagined that these two pieces of art would have turned into. And I'm. I'm just so inspired by that small, generous act and that it turned into something huge. And art aside, you don't know the good that something very small can turn into. And so there's no act of kindness that's too small because it can turn into something just so big and impact thousand. I don't imagine they. They thought the thousands and thousands of lives that they would impact and the people who had come through and see these two works of art when they made that decision to do that.

Emily: Well, and over the last. If you. If we go back over a hundred years, it's been millions of people.

Jacquelynn: Yeah. Millions of lives from two works of art. And there's just. That's my inspiration to do all the little good things that I can for anyone and who knows what it will turn into? So you can always do something more, right?

Melissa: Absolutely. And that is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. And yeah, you summed up the podcast right there. That's our goal is to inspire others to do those small things that they feel inspired to do. And as you said, you can't ever discount or know the impact that you have. So that's absolutely beautiful. Thank you. So much. Emily and Jacqueline, it's been a pleasure to talk with you today.

Emily: You too. Thank you, Melissa.

Melissa: That concludes my interview with Jacqueline Sokol and Emily Larson with the Springville Art Museum. And wasn't that such an enriching interview?

Melissa: I am all ready to go visit an art museum and I hope you are too, after listening to their interview.

Melissa: And I really loved how they shared how art can be healing. It can heal people and individuals and communities. I loved how Jacqueline shared that when the Springville Art Museum itself was dedicated, the phrase she shared there, the sanctuary of beauty and a temple of contemplation. I think you could say that about any art museum, really. And this episode is actually coming out on election day in 2024, and I can know that it can be a.

Melissa: Crazy time for some of us, maybe.

Melissa: It'S been a crazy time leading up to it. So I had the thought with that phrase she shared of being a sanctuary of beauty and a temple of contemplation. Maybe today or this week, visiting an art museum in your community, interacting with the art, letting it speak to you, letting it heal you, as Emily shared, might be just what you need.

Melissa: And here in Utah, of course you.

Melissa: Can go and visit the Springville Art Museum. It is a beautiful and unique space. But of course there are spaces like that all over the US and all over the world where you can go and experience many of the things that they shared and talked about on the podcast today. And then of course, I loved the reminder that was shared there at the end that this museum was started through a simple act of kindness, a simple donation of those two paintings. And it has grown into this huge asset to the community and it's touched and serviced thousands and as they shared even millions of lives at this point. And to remember that we just don't really know the power that our small acts of good can have or where they will lead.

Melissa: So we can take courage in the.

Melissa: History and story of the Springville Art Museum and know that it applies to each one of us as well and the good that we're trying to do.

Melissa: So, as I shared, I will leave.

Melissa: Links to the museum in the show notes. If you want to learn more or donate or get involved in any way. And I also want to remind you to show some support to the podcast. If you are listening to this episode and have thought of someone while you listened, share this episode with them. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts or leave a review. And as always, I hope this week you find a way to do something.

Melissa: More to help lift, inspire, or make a difference.