Tell Me the Stories of Jesus: 10th International Art Exhibit Opens

Contributed By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer

  • 5 November 2015

Parable of the Seed, by Lisa DeLong 

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To get a taste of the richness in cultural and artistic diversity combined with the unity of faith of the Latter-day Saints, one need only view the exhibition of entries in the 10th International Art Competition sponsored by the Church History Museum.

View the gallery online.

Entries came from 944 artists in more than 40 nations, responding to the theme Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, aligning with this year’s Sunday School Gospel Doctrine course of study.

A five-member jury made final selections, and winners were announced in a ceremony October 22 in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, with Purchase Awards conferred upon 18 entrants (meaning their works are being purchased by the museum) and another 10 artists receiving Merit Awards.

Working in a variety of visual media, the entrants explored various aspects of the Savior’s ministry: His birth, boyhood, teachings, parables, miracles, and atoning sacrifice.

“These depictions mirror His many names found in the scriptures—‘Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace’ (Isaiah 9:6),” reads the International Art Exhibit section on the Church History Museum website at history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org/museum. “Such titles attest to the many ways in which Jesus succors His people and offers an individual Atonement, universal in its application.”

Laura Hurtado, the global acquisitions art curator for the museum and the jury foreman, said the use of five outside expert jurors shaped the look of this year’s competition.

“Mormon art scholars from Australia, Taiwan, New York, and Utah have added a variety of truly international perspectives on aesthetics and religious art, and each juror approached individual artworks differently. As such, all of the selections included in this year’s exhibition are informed by their collective decisions and tastes.”

The International Art Competition began in 1987, when the museum was only three years old. At the time, it was called the Museum of Church History and Art, and it retains that same focus today, displaying both historical artifacts of the Church and the quality artistic output of its members.

The purpose of the competition is “to showcase the breadth and diversity of Latter-day Saint cultural production and to make manifest the various styles, techniques, media, and voices of Mormon art,” according to the museum website. “Such efforts expand the canon from the familiar images that adorn the halls of ward buildings to include new approaches to depicting beloved gospel subjects, thereby adding to our cultural legacy and visual heritage.”

This exhibition is one of the first events at the museum since its reopening on September 27 following a year of extensive renovation. A new, long-term Church history exhibit on the main level is the centerpiece of that renovation.

For more information on the Tell Me the Stories of Jesus art exhibit and to cast votes for personal favorites among the entries, please visit the museum website.

The winners, whose works can be seen now at the museum or by visiting the website, are as follows:

Purchase Awards:

Jason Metcalf, David Chapman Lindsay, Justin Wheatley, Caitlin Maxfield Connolly, Paige Elizabeth Anderson, Emily Dyer, Rose Datoc Dall, Steph Rasmussen Johnsen, Nathanael Miles Read, Crystal Suzanne Close, Normandie Shael Lusher, Michael Malm, Daniel Everett, Diane Stevenson Stone, Sheryl Adamson, Nick Stephens, Jorege Orlando Cocco Santangelo, and SopHeap Nhem.

Merit Awards:

Daniel Bartholomew, Lisa Aerin Collett, Lisa DeLong, Peter Everett, Benjamin Austin Pack, Erin Amber Pearson, Valerie Atkisson de Moura, Ryan McGowan Muldowney, David Marshall Habben II, and Dana Mario Wood.

Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, by Glenda Cheryl Gleave. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

Living Water, by Barbara Summers Edwards. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

And There Was One, by Brandon Cunningham. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

At the Well, by Crystal Suzanne Close. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

Yet His Hands Are Stretched Out Still, by Benjamin Ray Hammond. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

We Are Come to Worship Him, by Meagan Ruth Getz. Photo courtesy of the Church History Museum.

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