The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is staffed by an incredible team of experts and working artists. This month we want to celebrate their recent achievements (and maybe brag a little on their behalf). From prestigious awards to personal achievements UMFA staff are making waves in the Utah art world and beyond!
Gretchen Dietrich, the Marcia and John Price Executive Director of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, has worked in art museums for over 35 years. Under her leadership the UMFA has flourished, and now her efforts have been recognized! In conjunction with the Utah Arts Festival on June 20, Gretchen Dietrich was awarded a Mayor’s Artist Award by Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
The Mayor’s Artists Awards, established in 1992, “honor individual artists and organizations who have significantly enriched Salt Lake City’s cultural landscape and contributed to the well-being of its residents through the arts. This year’s recipients reflect the vibrant, diverse, and community-centered spirit of the city’s creative ecosystem.”
Virginia Catherall, curator of education, family programs, visitor experience, and community outreach at the UMFA, has been selected as the 2026 Artist-in-Residence for Joshua Tree National Park. She will spend the month of March living in the park getting inspiration from the desert landscape to create her unique textile art.
The Joshua Tree National Park Artist in Residence Program “provide[s] opportunities for artists to creatively explore the resources of Joshua Tree National Park, promoting a deeper appreciation of the natural, cultural, and historical resources therein. Artists are an important part of the national park system. Writings, paintings, photographs, and public outreach provide opportunities for new audiences to experience national parks. In the era of virtual visits, the role of artists is more important than ever in sharing unique perspectives of national parks with online audiences.”
Ashley Farmer, co-director of learning and engagement at the UMFA, has been accepted as a fellow in nonfiction for the 2025 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College in Vermont. The annual Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, “with its rich literary and intellectual tradition bring[s] emerging writers together to work with a diverse and talented faculty.” Ashley will spend eleven days on campus where she will assist with workshops, give a public reading, and work in a small community of writers from across the country.
Nancy Rivera, director of planning and program at the UMFA, is the recipient of both the 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship from the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, and the 2025 Center for Photographic Art Emerging Artist Grant! She “is a visual artist whose practice intertwines photography, fiber art, and sculpture to explore themes of identity, memory, and citizenship. Her work is deeply informed by her family's immigration journey, including twelve years of living undocumented in the United States.”
In response to being awarded the Fellowship, Nancy said “I’m deeply honored to be a recipient of the Visual Arts Fellowship, which represents a significant milestone in my artistic journey. In light of the latest developments in a steady decline in funding for the arts, receiving this support is especially meaningful. I’m grateful for this opportunity and the encouragement it provides as I continue to grow in my practice."
Christopher Woodward, who has served as an assistant gallery preparator at the UMFA for the past three years, has been accepted into the MFA program at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. He was awarded a full-ride scholarship to pursue his graduate studies, where he plans to further develop his personal art practice. In addition to his academic pursuits, Christopher has accepted a position as a curator at TechArtista and will also be serving as a teaching assistant at the Sam Fox School. We are thrilled to celebrate his achievements and wish him all the best in this exciting next chapter.
Derrek Wall, manager of adult and university programs at the UMFA, has been accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program in multidisciplinary art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. This accomplishment reflects his dedication, talent, and passion for fine art. While it is bittersweet to see him go, we are so excited for him and can’t wait to see what his future holds!
As an artist, Derrek creates “paintings and sculptures of worlds [he wishes] to inhabit, and objects [he wishes] to possess. In his artist statement he describes his work as “a merging of gay imagery and subculture, fantastic creatures, the human form, art historical references, pop culture, and cartoons I create realms of queer fantasia. This mixture of varying forms, styles, and genres provides fertile space for me to explore themes of loss, isolation, love, death, and hope.”
Emma Ryder, the director of marketing and communications at the UMFA, was selected in 2022 to as an artist in the Public Art Program’s project Life on State. Emma, along with seven other Utah-based artists, created a design that was then transformed into 4-foot-wide neon artworks and installed along State Street.
Emma described her design, which stands at 638 South State Street, saying “My neon sign illustrates an anecdote my grandmother told to distract me while crossing the street’s intimidatingly wide lanes. She said State Street was designed to provide room for an ox cart to make a U-turn and continue their journey in the opposite direction. I never forgot this little glimpse into the past. Now I get to share it with everyone who passes by in glowing neon." Learn more about this project by watching The Neon Comeback by PBS.
Okay, that’s enough bragging (for now). We are so proud of our incredible team and all of the work they do both in and outside of the Museum!