We are making it a full week about the Springville Art Museum by blogging about their beautiful building as well as their quilt show.
The museum was finished in 1937, and was designed by architect Claude Ashworth, in a Spanish Colonial Style. It is home to curving stair cases, terra cotta floors, archways and beautiful doors and windows. Whenever I visit I’m unsure if I’m there to see the quilts, or just the building, which is an old friend from my childhood.
It was dedicated by LDS Apostle David O McKay, who said it was a “sanctuary of beauty and a temple of meditation.” It was originally funded with a partnership between the Works Progress Administration, Nebo School District, City of Springville and the LDS Church. It is now owned by the City of Springville. The high school offered drama and art classes in the museum to lucky students at one time.
The museum is naturally noted for a collection of LDS and pioneer works. They also own a fair-sized Russian collection. Todd and I always check in with the Utah artist’s self portraits on the second floor. Many of the self-portraits reveal a distinct 1970s western fashion sense, along with ornery facial expressions that we make us feel we are acquainted, but don’t particularly like each other.
