Bicentennial Art: A 1976 Historical Exhibit Redux

Art enriches community and northern Utah’s community is connected through historical events that continue to impact citizens in the present. By reviving historical art first shown almost 50 years ago, the Kaysville – Fruit Heights Museum opens new conversations about how the interpretation of history can change over time while the works of those skilled artists continues to inspire anew.

The public is invited to view selected paintings from a revival of an exhibit first commissioned for the National Bicentennial of 1976. On display are 28 pieces created by sixteen artists. The 2023 exhibit is shown in collaboration with Weber State Storytelling Festival and supported by a grant awarded by Utah Arts and Museums. The artwork is comprised of  reproductions of oil, acrylic and water color paintings showcasing some of the works created by well-known Utah artists active during the mid 20th to early 21st Centuries. Brief biographies of the selected artists are available online. See the associated artist list for this event as well as information for Fred Hunger, Farrell Collett, Mary R. Warnock, Franz Johansen and Lee Parkinson.

The redux exhibit is also intended to demonstrate how art can open the past to new interpretations for later generations. The artwork shown includes paintings of groups of people who were integral to the development of northern Utah such as trappers and mountain men, Native Americans, pioneers and other settlers as they participated in some well-known, but many poorly understood events from the past.