Utah: Art in Your Home

Residents display artwork they selected with their family from the UAM unclaimed collection. Photo courtesy of Felicia Baca, Utah Division of Arts & Museums

Utah Arts & Museums (UAM), like many state arts agencies, supports visual artists by organizing and hosting juried art exhibitions. Art in Your Home is an adjunct program UAM created in 2014 when it faced the dilemma of deciding what to do with a collection of unclaimed artwork it had amassed over the years. UAM didn’t think it was appropriate to sell the paintings, drawings, photographs and prints individual artists had submitted for a competition but never picked up. And it could no longer store the work since it was not part of the Utah Fine Art Collection. So UAM partnered with The Road Home, a nonprofit social services organization, to donate the artwork to the residents of a permanent supportive housing complex for individuals and families that have experienced chronic homelessness. Residents of the facility selected pieces from the donated collection, and the artwork helped establish a sense of home for 112 households. In addition, UAM lived up to a maxim of its founder, Alice Merrill Horne: “In each home should hang a good picture, no matter how small.” For more information, contact Visual Arts & Exhibitions Program Manager Felicia Baca.